Meet Marianne Muellerleile: Queen of the Bates Motel
Comic characters always brighten a soap opera watcher's day, but Passions' Norma Bates gives new meaning to the phrase "laugh riot." Last winter, Norma brought down the house -- actually the infamous Bates Hotel -- when the Psychotic hotelkeeper chased guests Tabitha and Timmy within an inch of their lives after Timmy accidentally fell over the skeleton of Norma's "father."
Highly experienced character actress Marianne Muellerleile - whose TV resume includes Will & Grace and 3rd Rock from the Sun - was such a hit in her first run as Norma that her character has been brought back this summer for another hilarious visit. Norma is again running after Tabitha and Timmy, but this time she's carrying around "Father's" skull in a Snuggly and wielding an axe!
SC's Connie: Were you surprised to be asked back on Passions?
Marianne Muellerleile: I was stunned! When I first came on last winter, I was
playing a parody [of the Norman Bates character in the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film Pyscho] and once the parody was done, it was over. Or so I thought. I am quickly learning that [soap head] writers can do anything they want.
SC's Connie: In the last twenty years, you've literally done dozens and dozens of
roles on sitcoms (everything from Murphy Brown and Friends to Ellen and 3rd Rock from the Sun). How is comedy different on a soap?
Marianne Muellerleile: The genres are so different they allow for different
expressions of comedy. Doing the soap is just this side of melodrama in everything except for the body movements. Passions has an element of farce, which sitcoms have at times, but there's a lot more latitude here on this soap. That's why it's so much fun to play Norma. Sometimes I think everybody wants to play her, including some of the directors...
SC's Connie: How do you like working with Juliet Mills (Tabitha) and Josh Ryan
Evans (Timmy)?
Marianne Muellerleile: As an actress who got her start on stage, I already revered the Mills family -- Juliet's father [Sir John] and her sister [Hayley] -- they are a dynasty! So I was delighted to work with her. When you know you have a strong actor to play against who can deliver, the job becomes much easier. I don't get a chance to get to know many 19 years olds, [FYI: the married Muellerleile is childless], so it's great to get to know Josh. And Josh is a person who loves to have fun. So that's what we do in our scenes together. It's really easy to make him laugh.
SC's Connie: In 1991 you appeared in the Sally Field soap spoof Soapdish. Now you're working on an actual daytime drama...
Marianne Muellerleile: Yes, my best girl friend, Mary Pat Gleason [ex-Doris Hodges, Texas], who was also my college roommate [at St. Louis University] and I played fans who rushed Whoopi Goldberg and Sally Field [Soapdish's fictional head writer and aging diva] in a mall. It was fine that [the job] was only a few days' work. You can't compare that to creating a role on a soap which takes a long time, affords more of an
opportunity for freedom of expression, and is sustained over a period of weeks or months.
SC's Connie: You've done loads of other movie roles (such as playing a tattoo
artist in the recent film Memento). You've also guest-starred extensively in primetime (beginning with a stint as a Russian spy on Magnum P.I. in 1980). How does soap work compare?
Marianne Muellerleile: You get recognized in public a lot more! At the movies! In a supermarket! And people really, really pay attention. For example, my husband never usually watches soap operas. He's a retired air force colonel. He's disabled so he is in bed most of the day. Usually [when he is up] he works on his computer or reads science fiction. But now he's totally hooked on Passions. And I tell him - now you know why I like soaps so much. I'm actually a big The Young and the Restless fan, and I was on the show briefly last year playing a home-care nurse for Millie. That was a thrill! But that's nothing compared to playing Norma. I love this character because she's totally whacked!
