The Untold Truth Of Debra Jo Rupp

Talk about a baptism of fire. The first time Debra Jo Rupp appeared on our screens was way back in 1980, and she played a topless dancer! Luckily, it was for daytime soap opera "All My Children," so she didn't have to bare much flesh.

In an interview with Soap Opera Digest several decades later, the actor recalled how terrifying she found the experience, but not because she was revealing skin. She explained she was nervous to be surrounded by such iconic actors. "I had never done television. I had done commercials, but that doesn't count; you are holding up cereal and talking about it. I had to work with Susan Lucci, Fra Heflin and Hugh Franklin. He had a really bad hearing problem. He just looked at you, and if you paused, he came in with his lines! Fra Heflin pulled me aside and said, 'Don't ever pause.' Oh, my God, the pressure!"

But that was nothing compared to what she felt when she returned to the show in 2005 to play a crazy drunk. In fact, she said that experience made her first stint look positively "luxurious." "We didn't even run through it! I was horrified. I'm backstage waiting to enter with Aiden [Turner], and I went, 'Oh, my God! How do you do this?' He looks at me and goes, 'You're like a veteran. You're a pro.' I said, 'Oh, I haven't done this. This is insane!'"

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