anyone notice geri on the young and the restless today? was this her first time on the show? i have not seen it in sooo long. is this a recurring character?

It doesn't say anything on the Y&R website, so I'm not sure what to tell you about it...

What type of character did she play...

Y&R: Geri Jewell Teaches Brittany "The Facts of Life"

On Friday, March 26, Brittany (Lauren Woodland) gets some sage advice from a familiar face. Actress/comedienne Geri Jewell, perhaps best known to television audiences as Blair's Cousin Geri, plays Rose, a woman with Cerebral Palsy (Jewell herself has CP, and was one of the first actresses with a disability to have a recurring role on a TV series).
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Brittany, mired in self-pity over her scar, has a heart-to-heart with Rose on how to take control of her life. And Jewell is no stranger to life's struggles, having to fight people's misperceptions of her disability. We caught up with Jewell on the set of Y&R, to hear about her experience shooting Y&R, as well as how she uses her humor and warmth to help people understand living with Cerebral Palsy.
So, how did this all come about?

Geri Jewell: My agent called me and asked me if I would be interested in doing this role. And I read it, and I was like, "Yeah, that's cool. I can do that."

Have you ever done a soap opera before?

GJ: No, this is my first soap.

What did you think?

GJ:I liked it. I love working with Lauren. She was wonderful to work with. Plus, I could relate to the whole scene in many different ways. That's why it flowed so easily. It was a reversal of circumstances in a way, because in 1999 I broke my neck, from C1 to C7. And I was psychologically and emotionally in the exact same place that Brittany is in. I was a wheelchair user. I couldn't walk. I thought that my career was over, just like Brittany. So I can relate to the pain. I knew what needed to be said. It mirrored back reality.

After you broke your neck, how long did your recovery take?

GJ: It was a long recovery period. It probably took me about two years to get my mobility back. What I have to do now is, I have to pace myself. Because there are some days where I really can't walk at all. I use canes. And then there are some days that I do really well. It's not like the same CP as before.

How did you break your neck? Were you in an accident?

GJ: You could say that! [Laughs] I was talking on the phone. I mean, no writer could come up with a broken neck the way I did it. I'm very creative. I was talking on the phone. I was standing up, and my heel cut a box, and I flipped over backwards on my head, busted myself up from C1 to C7. Now my neck is 40% titanium.

How real does the script's subject matter feel? Did you discuss any of this with the writers beforehand?

I talked to the writers. They had asked me questions about the script. They specifically asked me if I ever encountered people who were making fun of me and so forth. Yeah, I get it all the time. It wasn't that long ago, where I was getting on the bus and I had my shoes in my hand, they weren't on yet, but I was all packed. And I ran up the stairs and got on the bus, and this woman said, "You teenage druggies are all alike." And I was like, "Excuse me? First of all I'm not a teenager, and I'm not on drugs." So she said, "Then you must be ********." I was like, "Whoa. Where does she get off?"

I get that stuff all the time. I have to move on and not let it bother me. Sometimes it hurts really bad. Then I have to step back and say, "You don't know what her history was. You don't know what she went through. Forgive her, and move forward." Or else it will knock you down. It would eat at my self esteem.

Fortunately for you, you can keep your humor with these situations.

GJ: You have to. That's probably my greatest gift, that I can find humor in stuff -- there's an enormous wealth of humor. In fact, most of my comedy is based on the ignorance of society, and I just play with it.

So, you're working on the new HBO series, Deadwood?

GJ: I play Jewell. Great name. Original, isn't it? It is an incredible show. Absolutely phenomenal.

How did it come about?

GJ: Well, it was April 2001. And in order to do pain management [for my neck], I get 6 shots of Botox in my neck. This particular morning, I go to this yuppie-buppie pharmacy in Santa Monica to get my Botox. It was really early in the morning for me, about eight o'clock. I wasn't in the best of moods. I was in a lot of pain, un-Botoxed. I got in line, and that's where I met David Milch, who's the executive producer of Deadwood.

And cut to the chase, he said, "I love your work." I said, "Thank you." He told me who he was and I was like, "Wow I love your work." It was mutual. And he asked me what I was doing in my career. I told him I broke my neck, and I said I'm on the road, doing seminars. He said, "Do you want a television series?" I said, "Hey, hey, hey. My mind is drug free right now, don't play with it!" He said, "No, I'm not. I'm doing a western for HBO called Deadwood." A Western? And then I looked up as far as my neck will allow me to. I said, "God you have a quirky sense of humor. I'm standing here with CP and a broken neck and David Milch wants me to ride a horse!"

And it's been a wonderful learning experience for me. The cast has been wonderful. If you had asked me in 1999 if I was ever gonna be back in Hollywood, I'd have said, "No way, it's over." That part of me is dead. What I've learned in my own life is to keep an open mind. And what I told Brittany is, don't give up. So this was kind of a cathartic role for me. Because in a way, I was talking to myself too. Don't give up.

Do you ever tune in and see an episode of The Facts of Life? And do you have any memories there or fun experiences from that showB²om being on that show?

GJ: You want something humorous about The Facts of LifeW¥rything's humorous about The Facts of Life! I'm kidding! Well, it's funny, because my name was cousin Geri, so everywhere I go it's "Cousin Geri!" And I'm thinking, do I have more relatives than I thought I did? It's hard for me to decipher which is which, and I go "Wow, what a large family." And you're always known as Cousin Geri!

It was a fun show. It was the first time that anybody with a disability was ever cast in a Prime time series. It was never done before. It was breaking ground, and the challenge wasn't exactly getting The Facts of Life, because that was a dream come true; the challenge was to stay there after the "International Year of the Disabled." That was the real challenge, and I did not know how hard that challenge was going to be, and basically I dealt with attitudes like, "Well we already did an affliction story this year." Oh, I'm an affliction now. Not only am I disabled, I'm afflicted! I had to keep going even though all the affliction stories were completed.

Did you work with Marj Dusay (Alex, GL; ex-Vanessa, AMC) on that show? [Dusay portrayed Blair's mother, Monica Warner]

GJ: Yes, I did. What a wonderful woman! Oh, she was great to work with, very down to earth, very real.

When you give your talks about disability and your self esteem, do you ever get tired of people asking you questions about it? What would you like someone to ask you other than that?

GJ: Well, to answer your first question¦ah! It's a lot to live up to. You know, I want people to understand that I am a human being and I have strengths and weaknesses like everybody else. I think the disability can even play as a diversion from what my real challenges are. I mean, I don't wake up every morning and think, "God, I have Cerebral Palsy," again. I usually wake up in the morning and go, "God, I've got all this work to do! I don't have time!" I would like to people to remember that I'm no different from anybody else, and when you become a super disabled person, which I was or am or whatever it is, it's an illusion, it's not true, there's no such thing.

Who was especially welcoming to you at Y&R?

GJ: Everybody, but Lauren was especially cool. She put me at ease. Even though I have been a performer for 25 years I felt a newness about this job. I was nervous. I haven't done a soap before. I didn't know the pace. She had so much patience and was very candid. She was a lovely person to work with.

You seem so confident and I am sure you have had to fight for that. What do you think has helped you really become the person you are today?

GJ: I can tell you his: what you see is what you get. I am not phony at all. I am not capable of being phony. I have always tried to figure out why I am so real in an industry that promotes "unrealness." What people don't understand about me is that I survived "special education." Now, I am not knocking special ed entirely because I had the best therapy available. But when it came to academics or relationships with friends or growing emotionally, I never had the stepping stones. I can honestly say because those gaps exist in my development, I fluctuate constantly to adapt to where I am supposed to be. I'm like a really old soul and I'm really young, like 13! For a long time I didn't understand that about myself.

When you are bused to school for the first 15 years of your life and none of the kids in the neighborhood will play with you or talk to you and the only time you are allowed expression is in special ed with other kids who had disabilities too, and then you go straight home, it feels very isolating. I wondered always, "What do I talk to normal kids about?" I couldn't relate. My self-esteem was so incredibly low that I was painfully alone.

There is a flip side to every coin: Even though I was so isolated and alone (but not lonely, there is a difference) in order to survive emotionally, I created this whole fantasy world. I was an actress, a famous comedian. I had this whole world that I would play in day in and day out. I think the fact that I [went on to do this] in my real life tells me the silver lining underneath that isolation was an absolute profound focus. My brain believed I could be a famous actress, that I could do all these things. I learned how to act when I was a little kid because I was play acting all these different scenarios. My emotional playground was that I was a celebrity.

But how many young girls have the same fantasy that never comes true? Why did it come true for you?

GJ: Because I didn't have any diversion. I was so focused -- there was no thought to having playtime or slumber parties or going to a dance. There was a huge chunk of time in my life when I was the sole person in it. I was blessed that I had a younger sister, Gloria, because she broke up the isolation when she would play with me. We were the best of friends when we were little.

Geri, you know, there are a lot of people who have gone through what you've gone through and are very sad to be so alone. For whatever reason, they don't make a life like you've made a life. Why didn't you become sad, depressed, shut down?

GJ: A lot of it has to do with faith. I must have known at a very young age that this was going to be my journey. I can remember when I was about 11 and my big brother, Fred, was about 16. I was at a camp for children with disabilities. The camp took us on a field trip to Universal Studios and Fred went with us to help push wheel chairs. We saw Lucille Ball's dressing room and all these cool sets and I was like, "Wow!" I remember telling Fred, "Someday I am going to have my name on a parking space here." And ironically, the first year of The Facts of Life was filmed at Universal and I had a parking space with my name on it!

Ultimately it is going to be my attitude and the choices I make that are going to help me or hurt me. There is a reason we come into this world: we come into it to learn, hopefully grow and evolve. I am so blessed with supportive friends, family. When I broke my neck I thought honestly, my life is over. I thought I couldn't continue in this life, be this person anymore. I had to stop feeling sorry for myself and change my attitude. People think it takes being in the right situation or a lot of money to change your life around. It's completely the opposite. None of those doors will open, none of those people will be in your life, none of these opportunities will present themselves unless you plant the seed initially, attitudinally. If you can't do that, then you are stopping yourself. A bad attitude is the biggest disability you can have.

What has been most challenging about having relationships with people?

GJ: Sometimes you don't know if someone likes you just for whom you are. You wonder, "Do they like me because I am on a show? Do they like me because I have a disability?" It can be horrendously confusing.

In my innocence when I started in this business, I did not know people use you. It was incomprehensible to me. So when it happened I would be devastated again and again. I don't regret those years because I've learned what loyalty, love and trust really are. Those were things that didn't come easy to me. It doesn't happen so much now, but definitely in my 20s, people used to think I wasn't very smart. Somehow because my body is screwed up my mind must be also. Some thought they could take advantage of me really easily. As painful as some of those experiences have been, I wouldn't trade them in a billion years. Because sometimes it's our worst enemy that gives us the tools we need spiritually to grow.

My biggest challenge in my life is to walk my talk. When I am giving a motivational speech, I can't just walk onto the stage and say, "Ok, this only applies today or for the few hours I am in front of an audience."

I am a very spiritual person. I pay attention to what is going on around me and what I am doing to make life better for other people. I think where I have the most trouble is that I am so hard on myself. My friends want me to give myself a break. I have such high expectations for myself. Maybe in order to do as much as I did with my life, I had to have high expectations.