Jean LeClerc - The We Love Soaps Interview, Part Three

In Parts One and Two of our interview with Jean LeClerc, the bold and multi-talented actor of stage and television discussed his current role as a nefarious in The Madonna Painter, his memories of working with James Mitchell and David Canary, as well as his incarnations of Jeremy Hunter on ALL MY CHILDREN and LOVING.  In this final part below, he shares more insights into the power of daytime television to connect and uplift, as well as aspects of being featured on a certain magazine cover in 1989.  Do you remember what it is? Read below to find out!

We Love Soaps: As a viewer it has been hard to watch ALL MY CHILDREN in recent years, and witness much of the passion and integrity that made it so special get erased.
Jean LeClerc: Well, look at Julia Barr, Debbi Morgan, Kate Collins.  They are beautiful actors.  [The show] was so blessed to have people like that.  So pamper them, write beautifully for people like them, because they will deliver it with gusto. 

We Love Soaps: Unfortunately they have done the opposite.  Julia Barr has not been treated well by this show.
Jean LeClerc: I have heard that.  I had always wanted Jeremy and Brooke to pair up.  I always wanted to work more with Julia Barr.  She is always a plus.  Like the work I did with Kate Collins in our story, I was the one that did her screen test as they were looking for Natalie.  I remember seeing this girl with hardly any make-up, long hair, jeans and a sweater, and all the other girls came very made-up.  She was a very simple actor, and very focused.  When the audition was done I said, “That is Natalie, that is her.”  We became very close friends, and still are. 

We Love Soaps: At the height of your own popularity, in November 1989, you did a magazine cover for a very popular magazine.  Do you know what I’m talking about?

Jean LeClerc - The We Love Soaps Interview, Part Two

In Part One of our interview with Jean LeClerc, the multifaceted actor discussed his current role in the fascinating play "The Madonna Painter" playing in Montreal, his history of performing on Broadway, his early history on soaps, and how the beloved role of Jeremy Hunter on ALL MY CHILDREN came to him.  In Part Two below, he shares the highs and lows of Jeremy's travels to Corinth on LOVING, the current state of ALL MY CHILDREN, and remembers working with the late James Mitchell.

We Love Soaps: About five years into your run as Jeremy, Genie Francis was brought on as Ceara.  How was that for you?
Jean LeClerc: She was a darling.  By then I understood she was famous for Laura on GENERAL HOSPITAL.  I adored her.  Her dressing room door was always open.  She was a hard worker.  She was new in New York, and she had a huge following.  I became fast friends with her and her husband Jonathan [Frakes].  And they paired us, and I married her. 

Jean LeClerc - The We Love Soaps Interview, Part One

Picture, if you will, an era in which daytime television made an abundance of money, actors were hired more for talent than looks, and time and energy were channeled into fostering complex character developments and intelligent writing.  Jean LeClerc was one of the profiteers and then one of the casualties of this special era of the 1980's in which daytime thrived on quality and integrity.  Please join me for this special interview as he discusses his current role in Montreal in "The Madonna Painter," and then recalls his highs and lows on ABC daytime between 1985-1995.  

We Love Soaps: Tell me about your current role in "The Madonna Painter" in Montreal.
Jean LeClerc: It is a new play from the prolific writer Michel Marc Bouchard whose plays have been done in so many languages around the world.  We are giving the English language debut here in Montreal.  It was written in French, and translated into Italian for Florence and Rome.  Then in sixteen different languages.  Now it’s finally being done in English.  The story is about the religious Catholics in 1918 in rural Quebec.  In it I am playing a very peculiar doctor, who is more like a butcher.  He is taking care of everyone on one side, but on the other side has a personal quest, like a Holy Grail, which is to see a soul.  How far he will go to get there is what this play is about. 

We Love Soaps: He wants to see a soul?
Jean LeClerc: He is slightly misguided, I would call it.  He uses his skill as a doctor.  He agrees to give the money to a painter to paint the madonna, but he has to decide which face he wants in the madonna painting.  That is the plot and the intrigue of the entire play.  People at the end are mesmerized by his choice and to what lengths he goes to get that.  People come out of the play and say, “Oh My God!”

We Love Soaps: What are some of the themes that make the play embraced cross-culturally?