Bailey Smith takes it one life at a time
Actor takes events in stride, says she enjoys playing ambitious Nora as a `tough cookie'
By Nancy M. Reichardt
United Feature Syndicate
February 7, 1993
NEW YORK - If it hadn't been for bad timing, Hilary Bailey Smith would have returned to her popular role of Margo Hughes on AS THE WORLD TURNS. But the higher-ups at ATWT had no intention of replacing actress Ellen Dolan as Margo when Bailey Smith inquired about reprising the part, so Bailey Smith signed a two-year contract to play hard-bitten lawyer Nora Gannon on ONE LIFE TO LIVE. (Soon after Bailey Smith signed a contract with OLTL, Dolan gave notice that she was quitting as Margo this month!)
Bailey Smith takes the turn of events in stride. "They say everything in this business is a matter of luck and timing, and I guess that's true," says the actress. "It's too bad that things didn't work out with AS THE WORLD TURNS, but I'm thrilled to be on ONE LIFE TO LIVE. Nora is a great part for me. It's the kind of part that doesn't come along very often. She's a real departure from Margo. Nora is everything I've always wanted to play."
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What Bailey Smith most enjoys about playing Nora is the character's hard-driving ambition. "Nora is a woman who has gotten ahead but has had to make tremendous sacrifices to get where she is," says the actress. "She has emotional scars because she has had to pay so dearly for her success. Nora's marriage broke up because she had to be an overachiever to get anywhere. There's a lot of me in Nora - her ambition, her astuteness, perceptiveness, and her playfulness and vulnerability. But Nora is a little harder than I am. She's a tough cookie."
It looks as though a romance might be developing between Nora and Bo Buchanan (played by Robert Woods). Bailey Smith is satisfied with that plot development.
"I really don't want to see Nora back with her ex-husband Hank (played by Nathan Purdee)," says Bailey Smith. "I love the idea of playing the fact that Hank and I have a history and an on-going relationship that no one can encroach upon. Hank is Nora's confidant, and they have a bond that no one can break. I think it would be fun to explore how and why Hank and Nora got together and what broke them up."
Although Bailey Smith left daytime once before to try for a career in nighttime television and films in Hollywood, she says that she is planning to stay in soaps for at least a few years. "One of the reasons I came back to daytime is that I want to be closer to my kids, and being on a soap gives me that opportunity," says Bailey Smith, who is the mother of a 6-year-old daughter and a 4-year-old son. "I'm really enjoying being available for my family right now. If I can get out of my soap role to do a play or a TV movie from time to time, I'll probably stay in daytime for a while because it's a wonderful arena for actors to work in. I feel rewarded creatively and appreciated at ONE LIFE TO LIVE. I'm very happy to be back in daytime. Soap work is some of the hardest work in our business but it's also some of the most rewarding."
Bailey Smith admits that the long separations she and her husband of almost 10 years, Phillip Smith, had to endure while she was trying her luck in Hollywood were difficult for her spouse.
"It wasn't a strain on our marriage for me to be away as much as it was a strain on my husband having to be Mom, Dad, and chief cook and bottlewasher," she admits. "It was also difficult for me to be away from my kids. My husband and I worked it out so that we were never separated for more than two weeks, though. We've known each other since we were 14, so questions about fidelity never came up. That's not part of our insecurities. He's the one for me and I'm the one for him. We have to work hard at staying in sync with each other, and what helps is that we're both big communicators. My husband is also as close to sainthood as any man possibly could be!"
EDITOR'S NOTE: The actress has spelled her name Hillary and Hilary over the years. In this article from 1993 it was Hilary.
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