IMTA's favorite day time soap star Farah Fath is starring in a new reality series called Dirty Soap airing Sundays on E! She and her co-star John-Paul Lavoisier are not only 'One Life to Live' co-stars but also a real-life couple. In the show, "John-Paul Lavoisier and Farah Fath to dish on their new careers and new life together all while being filmed," according to an interview with TooFab.
TooFab: How did you two meet?
John-Paul: We met in the hallway at One Life to Live and my shirt was off. I was apologizing to her that I was walking around the hallway with my shirt off. I have been walking around with my shirt off since.
TooFab: Is it hard dating someone in the same industry or do you think it makes it easier?
Farah: In my opinion it makes it easier. They understand everything you go through on a day to day basis. You would think that we don’t have very much to talk about with each other because we're with each other all day but it is quite the contrary.
TooFab: What's the weirdest soap storyline you've been in?
John-Paul: Right now, Farah plays a character Gigi that died a few months ago. I've been seeing her ghost everywhere, chasing her outside and in cemeteries. If that happened to me in real life I would probably be committed or something!
Farah: My weirdest storyline was when we time traveled, and went back into time to 1968 and got stuck there. They took it a little too far [laughs]...
TooFab: What are the differences between being on a reality TV show and a soap opera?
Farah: We have been acting with scripts for the last 12 years. Suddenly we have no security blanket which a script is. It's been very odd to not be stepping into someone else’s shoes and talking as ourselves. I think being in the business you tend to put up a guard as far as your personal life goes, and it’s been a struggle to put that guard down and show your emotions as a human being. I think we are getting used to it, but at first we definitely needed to have a cocktail beforehand. Its not as intrusive as you may think, they are not with us every single day, but it is a lot of time spent with cameras. As long as we're making an interesting entertaining television product I think it will be worth it.
TooFab: What do you think about soaps like All My Children and One Life to Live ending?
John-Paul: Apparently, they are not ending. They are just going to the internet. Look, most shows go off the air. Except the news, no show last forever. Someday, Two and Half Men will go off the air, everyone knows that it just does. For a show [One Life to Live] that's been on for 40 years and 11,000 episode, it’s a shame. But at the end of the day it’s a money thing ... it's budgets.
Farah: I’ve been reluctant to agree with the consensus that times are just changing. I really think its this new generation of television, which reality television is so much a part. I think its sad that these shows are ending, but at the same time you have to roll with the new generation. I think Dirty Soap will only help soap operas. At first we may sound a little hypocritical signing up for a reality show because [reality shows] are putting our costars and camera crew out of work. But this is more like a documentary getting to show behind the scenes, and it’s for our fans as well. I think you have to have the attitude that it is what it is and it’s out of our control, we did what we could to try and keep the soaps on the air, but as Jean Paul said it’s a money thing.
Farah competed at IMTA twice, once when she was a little girl and again as a teenager. She met managers and agents at IMTA who encouraged her to move from Kentucky to L.A. and was cast on Days Of Our Lives after her very first audition. Farah is not only talented and beautiful but she is a gracious and kind person too, often contributing and making appearances for charities.
TooFab: How did you two meet?John-Paul: We met in the hallway at One Life to Live and my shirt was off. I was apologizing to her that I was walking around the hallway with my shirt off. I have been walking around with my shirt off since.
TooFab: Is it hard dating someone in the same industry or do you think it makes it easier?
Farah: In my opinion it makes it easier. They understand everything you go through on a day to day basis. You would think that we don’t have very much to talk about with each other because we're with each other all day but it is quite the contrary.
TooFab: What's the weirdest soap storyline you've been in?
John-Paul: Right now, Farah plays a character Gigi that died a few months ago. I've been seeing her ghost everywhere, chasing her outside and in cemeteries. If that happened to me in real life I would probably be committed or something!
Farah: My weirdest storyline was when we time traveled, and went back into time to 1968 and got stuck there. They took it a little too far [laughs]...
TooFab: What are the differences between being on a reality TV show and a soap opera?
Farah: We have been acting with scripts for the last 12 years. Suddenly we have no security blanket which a script is. It's been very odd to not be stepping into someone else’s shoes and talking as ourselves. I think being in the business you tend to put up a guard as far as your personal life goes, and it’s been a struggle to put that guard down and show your emotions as a human being. I think we are getting used to it, but at first we definitely needed to have a cocktail beforehand. Its not as intrusive as you may think, they are not with us every single day, but it is a lot of time spent with cameras. As long as we're making an interesting entertaining television product I think it will be worth it.
TooFab: What do you think about soaps like All My Children and One Life to Live ending?
John-Paul: Apparently, they are not ending. They are just going to the internet. Look, most shows go off the air. Except the news, no show last forever. Someday, Two and Half Men will go off the air, everyone knows that it just does. For a show [One Life to Live] that's been on for 40 years and 11,000 episode, it’s a shame. But at the end of the day it’s a money thing ... it's budgets.
Farah: I’ve been reluctant to agree with the consensus that times are just changing. I really think its this new generation of television, which reality television is so much a part. I think its sad that these shows are ending, but at the same time you have to roll with the new generation. I think Dirty Soap will only help soap operas. At first we may sound a little hypocritical signing up for a reality show because [reality shows] are putting our costars and camera crew out of work. But this is more like a documentary getting to show behind the scenes, and it’s for our fans as well. I think you have to have the attitude that it is what it is and it’s out of our control, we did what we could to try and keep the soaps on the air, but as Jean Paul said it’s a money thing.
Farah competed at IMTA twice, once when she was a little girl and again as a teenager. She met managers and agents at IMTA who encouraged her to move from Kentucky to L.A. and was cast on Days Of Our Lives after her very first audition. Farah is not only talented and beautiful but she is a gracious and kind person too, often contributing and making appearances for charities.
"IMTA is the Experience of a Lifetime...and a gift from God!" - Farah Fath
