Doing The Splits

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From her years playing Y&R’s Phyllis (and her recently concluded run as GH’s Nina), Michelle Stafford has been through her share of on-screen breakups. When one of her pairings reached an end, “I used to get very uneasy,” she recalls. “Only because you’ve been working with someone day in and day out for years. To compare it to another type of job, say you were working on a project together with one other person for four years and all of a sudden, ‘Oh, you’re not going to work with that person anymore.’ It can be a little jolting, especially if you like them. I think that it is only human to react in some way. It throws you off, especially if you don’t have anybody else that you’re gonna go to!”

For Stafford, that feeling intensified when her on-screen “ex” moved on with another love interest. “I have experienced that,” she admits. “They’re laughing with their new person just like they laughed with me. And you’re like, ‘Hey, wait a second. I thought that was our