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What do One Life To Lives Viki, The Bold and the Beautiful Sheila and As the World Turns' Margo have in common? They have all suffered from mental illness. In Viki's case it was Dissociative identity disorder (also known as multiple personality disorder).
For OLTL's Erika Slezak, "The challenge was creating all these other characters who are similar yet different from Viki. There were so many layers, so many personalities, and on top of that, I also had the challenge playing Viki when she was coming out from being hypnotized, feeling incredible horror, panic and confusion as she tried to piece together what was going on and realizing what happened to her as a child...
While it is usually the responsibility of soap writers to do their homework to ensure that a subject like mental illness is treated realistically, some actors do their own research as well. Slezak says that when the decision was made to have Viki suffer from Dissociative identity disorder as a result of the sexual abuse she suffered as a child, she immediately went to work. "I read books on multiple personality disorder, and we were very privileged in that the writers had a psychotherapist experienced in treating the disorder come speak with us. She showed us as video tape of one of her patients and it was unbelievable--and scary. Here was this normal, attractive young women and in the space of a 40-minute therapy session, four different personalities came out. She would literally put her head down, and when she lifted it she was another person. It was incredibly edifying to watch.
Some actors fear that too much knowledge could be a dangerous thing. "I find that if you do too much research, it becomes to real, and you can't get on with what you're trying to do in daytime which is entertain," Slezak says. "Yes, we want to make Viki's illness believable, but being on TV, an awful lot of disbelief has to be suspended. Know too much and it gets in the way. Slezak also believes there's a point at which stretching the truth harms more then it helps. Case in point: A turn in storyline where her character was hypnotized by her psychiatrist to kill her own son. "All I'll say about that is it was way over the top and not handled properly," she comments.
Ultimately, the exploration of mental illness on daytime is contingent on one thing and one thing only: whether it generates interesting, sustainable drama. Slezak believes it does. "Every soap opera is a microcosm of the world, and everything that happens to everyone in the world has to happen to the 35 people in the cast, because they are the stories people want to see. There are happy, sad and crazy people out there. They all deserve to have their stories told."