This is taken from a Q&A session at the 1993 Dark Shadows Festival in New York with Lara Parker and Jonathan Frid.
This segment leads into Parker discussing Alexandra Moltke wanting out of the series and the lengths she went to be released from her contract. Apparently, she wanted out before the pregnancy became an issue.
<snip>
Fan: Hi Jonathan and Lara. I'm very excited to be here. I have wanted to
meet you for years. You made high school bearable. My question is was there
ever anything in the show that really scared you? Was getting in and out of
the coffin ever scary? Did the lid ever shut . .(inaudible) [audience laughs]
JF: No. You people were the doing all the acting, that's what I've always
claimed, reading into things. What scared me was not knowing my lines
everyday. I was nervous almost every day. It was absolute hell for me for
that first year. Certainly for a long while. I'm such a slow study. I'm
not really good for soaps - at least how they were done in those days. It
was very much weekly stock and you had to learn the lines overnight and not
in a week. So, I scared myself . . .
LP: We were too scared to be scared. (addressing fan who asked the
question) Were you scared right before you asked your question?
Fan: Was I scared?
LP: Yes. Were you scared?
Fan: Well, yeah.
LP: Yes, scared. That's how it eels when you act. I mean, you don't care that you are in a coffin. [laughter] You're thinking: "Oh my god, it's going to be my turn" [laughter and applause]
Fan: My question is really for Jonathan. First of all, it's wonderful to see you in person after admiring you for over 20 years. However, my question
is really about Alexandra Moltke who is another favorite of mine on the show. I am curious as to why they used two substitutes knowing that she was
pregnant and was going to leave? Why didn't they end the storyline with her and wasnt' there a general clamor among the fans to have her back? She was
popular . .
JF: I remember that happening. I was asking the same question at the time. Why she was leaving . . I can't remember how much they knew in the front office. Sometimes with an actor something can happen so quickly that you can't change. I don't have the answer, maybe Lara does.
LP: Ours is not to reason why.
JF: She just moved on . .
LP: Alexandra Moltke wanted to be off the show very, very badly. She did not want to do it. She refused to wear makeup, she hardly bothered to comb
her hair. She did not want to be there. If you watch the tapes towards the end you can see that she didn't wear makeup. A lot of times - as opposed to
the rest of us who were plastered with it - she would do the least possible. She had a contract and she stuck by it but she wanted to leave. She didn't
enjoy it. So when she got pregnant, they finally let her go. That's all I remember. I remember liking her very much.
Fan: It was strange to have a substitute for such a short time but with the pregnancy issue I can understand. Thank you. [applause]
