Megan Ward
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Enjoy your youth while you can, Megan Ward!

The General Hospital star turns 39 today. Just one more year until the big 4-0...

In the January 8 issue of Soap Opera Digest, there's a fun feature on Megan Ward.

In the article, the General Hospital beauty opens up about her secret Hollywood crushes. The actress talks about what it was like to work with the following leading men:

Jason Gedrick, Class of '96, 1993:
"[The cast] was all pretty close in age so it was very much like a college experience. We were all very close. I have really fond memories of all of us going out and hanging out together and having a Christmas party at Jason's apartment with just the actors. I think he and I bought Kari [Wuhrer, ex-Reese, General Hopital] ice skates [laughs]!"

Jon Favreau, Jeremy Piven, David Spade, PCU, 1994:
"That was the best. I had been in Toronto all that winter, from August through April, doing Class of '96. In May, we were canceled. I got PCU and went back in June to film on the same campus, in the same town, that I had just spent the year in. So, I was 'Julie the cruise director' for the entire cast. We were all under 30, most of us in our early 20s, with a per diem, working night shoots, sleeping all day.

It was the best, so many talented people were in that film before anybody knew them. Piven was awesome. Spade and I were totally buddies. He was the big star of the film and I took him under my wing. It's true! I showed him around town and got him all connected. The last time I saw him, he and Favreau were at a party at the Playboy Mansion."

Donnie Wahlberg, Boomtown, 2002-03:
"I was not as big a New Kids [on the Block] fan as some of my peers. I was a little too old [laughs]." How's this for a funny story? My brother and brother-in-law both worked on that job, too. My brother-in-law was a gaffer and my brother was the dolly grip. It was my first job after having [son] Oliver and it took me awhile to get back in shape, longer than I thought it would.

On my first day of work, I was completely naked with Donnie Wahlberg in bed with four people in the room — me, Donnie, the camera operator and the dolly grip pushing the camera, so who was the fourth person in the room? My poor brother! He couldn't look up because I had three pieces of tape on! And by the way, I had just had a baby and I was actually okay with that. In fact, it was one of the best, most liberating scenes I've done as an actor and I'm so proud of that scene.

It's still the first scene on my reel. I was never more physically confident — because I was so grateful for what I had left [laughs]."

Here's an interview with Megan Ward, courtesy of Soap Opera Digest:

Soap Opera Weekly: Kate Howard has been likened to Anna Wintour, the former editor of Vogue. Is she your inspiration for the role?
Megan Ward: At least half the inspiration for the character is Anna Wintour, but she is an older woman who's had a long career. I'm not of that age yet, but I imagine Kate could become that person, eventually. I draw from Lauren Lauder, Estée Lauder's granddaughter, who runs the Estée Lauder company, and a well-known interior designer named Kelly Wearstler, who was one of the judges on [Bravo's] Top Design. What I loved about her was every week she had a completely different look.

Weekly: You actually have a fashion background, don't you?
Megan Ward: Yes. I started modeling when I was 9. I grew up in Hawaii, and there was a large Japanese modeling market there. I went to Japan seven times from the ages of 15 to 19. I lived there anywhere from two weeks to seven months. So I know a bit about the fashion industry.

Weekly: Is it true you speak Japanese?
Megan Ward: Yes, but what's sad is it's going away, because I never use it. I took Japanese in high school, instead of Spanish or French. At the time, I was modeling often. I was taking off school and going back and forth to Japan to do jobs three to seven days a month. I was working with Japanese clients, so I had the opportunity to practice.

Weekly: Well, after mastering Japanese, playing Kate/Connie can't be as difficult — or is it?
Megan Ward: What's been challenging has been playing Kate — that person who is strong and flawed and one can be critical of — but maintaining the qualities of Connie, the girl Sonny fell in love with. She's still completely in there. I have to play the projection of Kate Howard, but it's all covering the Connie Falconeri underneath.

Creatively, I've had to constantly balance being forceful and dominating in situations, but still let you see that the true girl doesn't mean to be that forceful and dominating. The true girl is someone you'd like to know.

Weekly: Who can you relate to easier, Connie or Kate?
Megan Ward: Definitely Connie. Connie is a smart girl. She knew what she wanted, but was still grounded in reality and capable of loving and letting someone know that she loves them. Kate is a creation, a manufactured identity. What's sad about Connie, and she's learning that as we go along, is that she might have been wrong that she had to be Kate Howard to get where she is. That's what Sonny represents for her. You have to be strong and ambitious to accomplish great tasks, but you don't necessarily have to be purely Kate Howard.

As Megan, I've made choices to have children and be committed to my marriage, which may have gotten in the way of some of my career ambitions. But for me, life is all about balance. It's choices for good or bad. That's where Connie is now: discovering that some of the choices may not have been for the best.

Weekly: Is it difficult juggling motherhood and acting?
Megan Ward: I have to say that I'm a lucky girl. This is probably the best job in the world for me right now. The General Hospital set is only 20 minutes away from my home. So I can send (six-year-old) Oliver off to school and hand the (one-year-old) baby over to the nanny, then I can go to work in the morning. I'm usually done by lunchtime, so I can go to the post office, go to the bank, and pick up Oliver from school and have the afternoon with him and Audrey. It's wonderful.

Megan Ward is 5’6” tall. It's not so short for a woman... but the General Hospital star often feels like a midget when compared with her leading man, Maurice Benard.

“A lot of times, Maurice puts his hand on his hip and slouches down so he can look into my eyes," Ward recently said to Soap Opera Digest. "Then, I stand awfully straight and proud like, ‘You’re not going to get to me.’ All of a sudden, I look taller!”

Meanwhile, if Ward had her own magazine column, she wouldn’t go the route of her alter-ego and dish on fashion to her readers. Instead, the actress would focus on her online habit: YouTube.

The General Hospital star and her friends go to the site often. How come? Because it has “[e]verything you could possibly imagine” she says.

It's hard to argue with that.