Liz Smith: Soap Queen Erika Slezak Ends One “Life” To Live Another

And more from our Liz: Britney shops … Chivalry is sexist? … and who’s that girl with the Bette Davis eyes?

“ERIKA, this is a terrible business. Unstable, full of rejection, over and over — you are too tall, too short, not pretty enough, too pretty. Too old, too young. I’m warning you.”

That’s what Erika Slezak’s father, the esteemed character actor Walter Slezak, told her when she announced she wanted to be an actress. Miss Slezak began in rep, but in 1968 took a role on a new TV soap opera, titled “One Life to Live.” (The show would break ground by its subject matter. It launched careers such as those of Tommy Lee Jones and Judith Light.)

Erika says today, “Well, I appreciated my father’s warning, but look how it ended up for me. In my entire life I’ve been unemployed six weeks. And for the last 40something years I’ve had one job, made a nice bundle of money. It’s over now, but I’d be a fool to complain.”

Miss Slezak’s show will come to an end soon, along with another classic soap, “All My Children.” Erika has played the role of Victoria Lord, the upper class matriarch of the Lord family of Lanville. She has been through a lot! Multiple marriages, multiple personalities, problem kids and the constant battle with her nemesis on “OLTL” Dorian Cramer, played by Robin Strasser. The Lord/Kramer chemistry has always been volatile. (Oy, the history between the characters!) But personally they adore each other. “We just did our goodbye scenes and I sobbed like a baby. I can’t believe I won’t have the joy of that magnificent talent to play against every day,” Erika told me.

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I ASKED Erika what it is like to invest almost her entire professional life in playing one character. She said, “You know, nobody has ever asked me that before!” The actress says: “I know Viki very well. She is so familiar to me. The minute I get to the soundstage, I go into Viki mode. She’s not like me at all, but I love her. She’s a wonderful, flawed woman, who always makes a huge effort to do and be better, sometimes to the pain of friends and family. To do this sort of work — soap work — requires extreme focus and concentration.

“My father played a role on the show for three days. After the first day was over he said, ‘This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life!’ I said ‘Really? Why?’ He said ‘There are no rehearsals! They just throw you out there!’”

Erika says she doesn’t yet know how all the storylines will be wrapped up. “I hope it ends cleanly, I hope it’s all neatly wrapped.”

Will she continue acting? The very lively Erika laughed and said, “The first thing I did when I knew the show was ending was call my agent. I said, ‘Okay, get going!’ I’d love to go back to the theater. TV movies. Feature films. My kids are grown, and my husband is very supportive. He said, ‘We can go to Hollywood for a while if you think you need that.’ Anyway, I’d go mad staying home.”

Is she taking any souvenirs? Erika let out a big laugh. “Actually, when I walked into the Lord library set the other day, I thought ‘Oh, this is where I did my very first scene. And I saw the big overstuffed chairs and thought, ‘I like those!’

“But I don’t know if ABC would let me have them. Of course, I could go into my alter personality, Niki Smith, and just take what I want, as she would!”

Erika Slezak. She ain’t Victoria Lord anymore. But she’s not giving up the biz. Far from it. After all, she only has one life to live.

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