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Guiding Light Goodbye: Kim Zimmer

by Michael Logan September 11, 2009 09:44 AM EST

She's been cloned. She's been Amish. She's been an astral-projecting ghost. She's even shoved her keister through a magical painting and time-traveled to the American Civil War. But there's one thing four-time Emmy winner Kim Zimmer hasn't done in her many years as Guiding Light's Reva. She hasn't shut up. And God love her for that! During good plots and bad, this incomparable, irrepressible actress could always be counted on to say what was on her mind, no matter how blistering, no matter how impolitic. And during GL's controversial and ill-conceived attempt at a new production model, which has been applauded by most of the cast, Zimmer was one of the few who didn't drink the Kool Aid. I spoke with her on the set of GL during the show's final days. She did not disappoint.

It's the end of an era, baby!
Are you going to ask me about the key to Guiding Light's success?

Well, I wasn't planning on it, but…
I'll tell you anyway. It's the actors. Casting director after casting director after casting director on this show has consistently brought in the best acting talent that exists. In the number of years I've been here, I can count the clunkers on one hand. One hand! That's saying a lot. And those clunkers didn't last long.

That's because you'd eat 'em for lunch. I pity the clunker who went up against you.
But I was never mean! [laughs] OK, I have gotten mean and nasty in the last couple of years. I've gotten a little bitter.

Why's that? You've had a great career here.
It has been a great career but it kills me that GL came to this. It's no secret that I do not like [she rolls her eyes and makes air quotes] the new production model. I'm just glad I was around for the show's heyday. People got caught up in the stories because they were pretend. There are no more of those 'Calgon Take Me Away' moments. Now it's all so real, it's depressing as hell. And it doesn't help that the cameras put us right in your face.

You've gone to some pretty nutty places on this show, but the clone story was the nuttiest ever, yes?
Yeah, but don't forget I went from being cloned into that time-travel story, so you tell me what's crazier. I guess playing the fast-aging Reva clone who looked 50 but was really only six months old was the craziest. They named her Dolly, after the world's first cloned sheep, and every time I came on the set to do that role, guys on the crew would go "Baaa-aaa-aaa!" It was horrible.

Did being heckled bring back all your old high-school insecurities?
Oh hell no! Back then, I was applauded when I walked into the classroom, thank you very much. Of course, I was usually flashing…

Why do you think so many writers over so many years took Reva to such bizarre places?
I guess because as an actress I'll go anywhere. And because I'll go anywhere I've taken a lot of s--t from the fans and the press. But you know what? We're hired to do what the writers give us. And if you do it any less than 99.9 percent it's really gonna suck. Like you just said, even though these stories-well, you didn't say it, but I'm going to pretend you said it-even though a lot of the Reva stories were way out there I always committed to them. I committed to the point where they were believable. If you don't commit to a story, it'll look like you really hate it, and who wants to watch that? Now I could certainly tell the press that I hated a storyline-and I often did-but I don't think it ever showed in my performances. Ever. And, eventually, the audience actually believed in the clone. They accepted her as real and got upset when they killed her off. They were like, "What a cop out! We were just starting to like the +*++*. And now you're killing her. C'mon!"

About the cancellation…
The new way we shoot the show led to us being cancelled so easily. We dug ourselves into a deep hole that was impossible to get out of. At one point before we got the ax, someone associated with GL-and I won't mention them by name-gave a speech to the cast and likened our situation to us all being on a airplane that was about to crash-land. That's a pep talk? That's encouraging? I mean how are you supposed to absorb that? I was, like, "How the hell do I get off this plane?"

So you were OK with the cancellation?
The good thing about the cancellation, which happened April 1, was that my contract was up on June 27. If we were staying on the air, I was going to have to make the decision whether I was going to be a +*++* for another two years and do the job just because it was a job and keep continuing to suck it up and do the work, or leave and be happy. They made the decision for me.

It appears that Josh and Reva do not reunite in the final days of GL [though a flash-forward coda at the end of the final episode may suggest otherwise]. You OK with that?
Well, sure because Jeffrey is alive and out there in the universe. Listen, if CBS had given us another year, things could have swung around so Josh and Reva could get back together. But the timing was off. Jeffrey was a nice diversion for Reva and vice versa, and there is a very strong fanbase that wants them together, but the Josh and Reva fanbase is bigger. If Jeffrey's out of the picture in the future, Josh and Reva could co-exist. I don't see them making the mistake of marrying again but Reva knows what an incredible father Josh has always been, so she would want Josh to raise Colin [Reva's son with Jeffrey]. But we'll leave that to the fans. When GL goes off the air, they'll go on the internet and create fan fiction like crazy.

They'll finally control the show! Any regrets? I can't help but think you're jealous of "Otalia." After all the groundbreaking stories you did on GL, didn't it annoy you that they didn't pick Reva to be a latent lesbian? We could have had "Revalia"!
No, I am not jealous! People keep saying I should go on The Bold and the Beautiful and do it with Susan Flannery [Stephanie]. I'm like, "Why? Why would you even put that idea out there?" I mean, I love Susan, but let's draw the line!

You don't want to play lesbian?
Oh, I'd do it! But can't I have someone younger? Susan and I would have a great time playing together but I want someone younger.

Ah, you want to join the Susan Lucci Cougar Club! So you're open to more soap work?
I would love to be able to book three months here and six months there and do all the soaps. I don't want to sign another contract unless it's something fabulous. I mean, how do you top Reva? [laughs] It's a good thing GL's going off the air because what's left for me to do? I've played Reva as a fiftysomething pregnant woman with cancer. I've played her as a psychic and a royal princess. She's been just about everything but Jesus Christ.

Though, come to think of it, she did come back from the dead.
Close enough!