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But
Emma admits that, though she has
no particular future plans of
her own, one thing is certainly
not on the agenda for her
beloved kids. "No!"
she exclaims."I would not
like my children to go into
acting! It’s a mad career. To
have done as well as I have –
just in terms of the amount of
work that I’ve been offered
– is nothing more than a
fluke. It’s all about chance
and luck."
However,
despite her qualms, Emma has
certainly been rich in work
since joining ABC’s popular US
daytime drama, General Hospital,
in 1982 as the conniving Holly
Sutton. Leaving behind her
waitressing job in a Hollywood
diner, she went on to become a
Carrington-Colby – stepping
lightly into the shoes of
first-time Fallon, Pamela Sue
Martin. "I did my time
working as a waitress," she
says. "I would snack on
deli food at work because that
was the only way I could afford
to eat.Then General Hospital and
Dynasty came along and
everything changed."
With
a family pedigree that includes
a silent film-producer
grandfather and a ballerina
mother, it’s not surprising
that Emma finally decided to
tread the boards on being forced
to leave London’s Royal Ballet
School with a hip condition at
the age of 16. But, originally
enrolling in a medical course at
a North London college, the
actress reveals that she almost
decided to study medicine
instead. "I was dancing
from a young age and I didn’t
think about acting," she
says. "I did a pre-med
course for a while but was lured
away by the opportunity of
modelling – which
is about the silliest thing you
can do compared to medical
school. I always say that the
thought of medical school made
me squeamish. It was nothing to
do with the blood and guts. It
was more the thought of being
dependent on my parents for the
next five years!"
However,
as a qualified emergency medical
technician, Emma is not inclined
to feel squeamish about the
blood and guts of Holby’s
operating rooms. In fact,
proudly brandishing a Polaroid
of her operation scene – which
apparently caused quite a stir
at her local chemist when she
had the film developed – Emma
explains why going under the
surgeon’s knife at Holby had
her in stitches.
"The
day I was on the operating
table," she says, "the
cast and crew made me laugh for
three and a half hours! It was
actually difficult to keep still
while I was meant to be
unconscious because I was
shaking with laughter. In fact,
the whole experience of working
on Holby has been fantastic. It’s
one of the nicest jobs I’ve
ever had."
But
will the joys of Holby tempt
Emma away from her rural family
idyll – where she usually
divides her limited spare time
between scriptwriting,
photography and working for her
own charity for terminally ill
children, the Starlight
Foundation? "Working with
Starlight is the best part of my
career, for sure," she
says. "Being able to do
something helpful is the most
satisfying thing. My brother was
eight when he died of aplastic
anaemia, so working with
children’s charities will
always be a very important thing
to me. It puts everything else
in perspective."
For
now, Emma is nervously waiting
on her Holby reviews before she
reveals whether she might make a
permanent return to the nation’s
television screens. "This
has been one of the heaviest
roles I’ve ever taken
on," she says. "Maybe
the reviews will suggest that I
wear more make-up in future and
stick to ‘fluffier’ scripts.We’ll
have to wait and see. But now
that I have no glamour left in
my life at all, maybe I should
do some really gorgeous pictures
to recover. Obviously, severely
retouched …"
But,
still looking great at 42,
whatever the future holds for
the gorgeous Emma Samms – one
thing’s for certain – she
won’t be requiring the
solicitous touch of an airbrush
for some time to come. |
