Well, her character on Guiding Light is losing her mind. And the actress recently sat down with Soap Opera Digest to talk about it…
Soap Opera Digest: What has your experience been playing someone who’s losing her mind?
Gina Tognoni: I love it! At the same time, it’s really kind of depressing. We won’t be telling the story forever, but I’m having a good time doing it because it’s different.
Digest: What did you learn about mental health while you were in preparation?
Tognoni: From what I understand, people who have a brain injury like [Dinah’s], where the brain suffers a trauma and goes through a period of coma or swelling, can wake up just not functioning the way they used to. It’s similar to a stroke. You start to lose some of your faculties, and it’s different for each person.
Digest: How do you think Guiding Light is handling the sensitive story?
Tognoni: It’s a very realistic story, but we have the challenges of daytime and keeping it exciting and dramatic. They did a very good job. People getting hauled off to the looney bin and [guys] coming in white lab coats — that’s soap opera! But I also think we have a lot of truth. That’s what I like. We tell good story.
Digest: How has the story changed Dinah?
Tognoni: Once again she’s lost her way, and she’s trying to use everything she’s learned from every experience to pull herself back up. Sometimes it’s frustrating as an actress, but [Dinah] is a great character and one of the most interesting I’ve ever played. She is the definition of an anti-heroine. Not a lot of shows have that.
Digest: What would you like to see happen with Dinah in the future?
Tognoni: If anything, I want her to learn. [We] have to keep her a little edgy so she has that darkness in her, but I want her to overcome something. That’s a very important element that I think we’ll start seeing in her.