By Heather Filemyr

In between shooting scenes for Gus and Harley’s nuptials (airing this week on Guiding Light), Ricky Paull Goldin and Beth Ehlers open up about first impressions, third parties and why they really wanted Harley to be a runaway bride.

SOAP OPERA WEEKLY: Why do Gus and Harley want to get married now?

BETH EHLERS: For Gus, all that stuff that he loves about Harley is also the stuff that drives him crazy. He loves that she’s spontaneous and reckless and he hates that she’s spontaneous and reckless. He wants to nail this down before she has a chance to fly off in another direction again.

RICKY PAULL GOLDIN: His life has never been settled, so he would like to start over and be the father figure he didn't have. And he'd like it to be with her.

EHLERS: Oh, God! I've got to get pregnant again?!

WEEKLY: Are you worried about the "happy couple" curse?

EHLERS: We were like, "Please don't marry us!" It’s death. We wanted to have these near-weddings that would never happen, which would have been great.

GOLDIN: They're both so flawed. When something goes wrong, it’s not going to be two people going, "Well, let’s work through this." It’s going to be two explosions.

EHLERS: In many ways she’s marrying him because he stayed and was loyal to her, but she knows she’s going to screw this up again. And there is that elephant in the room, which is Mallet. Her ex-husband is back in town, there’s been no closure with that relationship...

GOLDIN: Please. I could take him.

WEEKLY: She kisses Mallet before the wedding. How large a threat does he pose?

GOLDIN: If it gets any bigger I'm going to go down to my executive producer and ask for a storyline with Laura Wright (Cassie).

EHLERS: I assume Mallet is here for a reason. But if it’s a breakup, it’s got to be a great breakup. It’s got to be heartbreaking.

WEEKLY: What were your first impressions of each other?

EHLERS: I thought he was very L.A.: sunglasses, Louis Vuitton luggage...

GOLDIN: Louis Vuitton luggage?! Oh, man.

EHLERS: You did! You had that big piece of Louis Vuitton luggage. You were constantly flying back and forth from New York to L. A. in the beginning. You were either getting off the red-eye or running to the late flight on Fridays.

GOLDIN: That’s true. That’s why I needed to move back to New York, because L. A. is like a disease. I thought. "Oh, God. She’s a big soap star, this one." Usually that comes with wanting Evian for bath water, having special needs. I didn't know if she'd be on my side or not. She’s got self-protection devices — we all do — and for the first week, I was scared. But I'd also been watching the show and knew if I could gain the trust of this person it could be good.

EHLERS: We had very different processes when we first started working together. We're different people. He was the single guy, and here I was, pregnant with my second child. He’s not as glued down as I am. I've grounded him and he’s loosened up my performance a great deal. But it took us a long time to get used to each other.

WEEKLY: How long before you were comfortable working together?

EHLERS: Not until after I gave birth to Will.

GOLDIN: A good half a year.

EHLERS: I was in a bubble when 1 was pregnant, so I had to get that baby out and get those hormones out. My first day back at work [after maternity leave] was September 10. Then September 11 happened and we were dark for a week. We came back and I gave birth [on-screen]. And you and Michael O’Leary (Rick) were so funny while we were shooting.

GOLDIN: She was giving birth in the jail cell, so...

EHLERS: You were doing Scotty, Michael was doing Captain Kirk [from Star Trek] and I was having the alien baby coming out. The crew was dying! We laughed so hard that day.

GOLDIN: It was the type of laughter that you're embarrassed about, too...

EHLERS: Because of what had just occurred.

GOLDIN: And also because we were working! It’s almost a sin that they paid us that day.

WEEKLY: Was there a moment when you first thought. "This could work"?

GOLDIN: She'd had an argument with her husband in real life and I thought, "This could work." But then they made up. It’s ridiculous (laughs).

EHLERS: I remember the first time you kissed me. I thought. "Wow! Well, it'll definitely be fun."

WEEKLY: Beth, you've had many memorable romances on GL. How do you build that chemistry?

EHLERS: I find something in each man that I've worked with that I like about them and that’s what I focus all of my attention and all of my love on. I did it with Carl Evans (ex-Alan-Michael), Robert Newman (Josh), Grant [Aleksander, ex-Phillip] and even during the little story that I had with Michael O’Leary. I get into a very intense relationship with whomever my love interest is. When Michael and I worked together, we would drive to and from work together every day. That’s part of my process. For Ricky and me, when we're on-camera, we're in love.

WEEKLY: How did you build that relationship?

EHLERS: He and I have only been out to dinner twice in 4 ½ years.

GOLDIN: They were nice, though.

EHLERS: We spend a lot of time talking. On the couch, in the dressing room...

GOLDIN: That sounds lame, but you don't get that many new friends as you get older. A lot of people don't have room for it. But this is one of my dearest friends in the world, who knows secrets about where I'm coming from and things that don't work out in my life. I don't know how I'll handle it when we're not working together.

EHLERS: We're very spoiled. For such a long time, I've basically only worked with him. And now Rob [Bogue, Mallet] is here, and it’s me, him and Rob. I don't work with anyone else and I've got to say, I like it. Even if there are 10 other people on the set, it’s always me and Ricky- in the corner, talking, talking, talking. We're always irritated at the same person at the same time.

GOLDIN: Maybe twice in five years have we been on different pages about something.

WEEKLY: Ricky, when Harley was in prison and Beth worked with Rob every day, was there any professional jealousy?

GOLDIN: Yes. I hated both of them.

EHLERS: He was so mad. And even- time Ricky walked into the makeup room. Rob would have just walked in the door and I would say [to Rob], "Hey, how are you doing?" Then Ricky would walk in: "Oh, you guys are together again. I was like, "We just started talking. I swear!"

GOLDIN: I'd walk out from the set and they'd be walking back from a cafe. It was so lonely and painful.

WEEKLY: Any favorite Gus and Harley moments?

GOLDIN: I like the love scenes.

EHLERS: Anytime I get to sit there and just watch him, because he’s a master at monologues. He breaks my heart.

GOLDIN: She only likes that because that means she’s got a lighter load that day.

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CRACKING THE CODE

After so many years of working together, real-life pals Goldin and Ehlers have developed a secret code.

"We had this one day where Ricky was in the courtroom and it looked like we were not going to finish by lunch," sighs Ehlers.

The shooting delay caused a conflict for the working mother. "I told my son I was going to pick him up from school, and once again I was disappointing my son," she frets. "I was pissed and Ricky had a three-page monologue that he had to finish off. I was sitting in the background, moving my chair around, harrumphing, and he was picking up on my anxiety."

A concerned Goldin approached Ehlers on their lunch break. "He was like, ‘How you doing there, sweetie?’" recalls Ehlers. "And I said, ‘I had to tell Hank I couldn’t pick him up again. Whatever. How are you?’ He was like, ‘Baby, I hear what you’re saying and I respect all that. But I’ve got a three-page monologue up there and I’m feeling your energy and it’s messing me up.” And I said, ‘I’m so sorry! I wasn’t thinking about you for one second.’ We made our pact at that time that we would have a code: ‘It’s cloudy out today, isn’t it?’ Which means, ‘Could you focus on me?’ Whenever one of us says that to the other person it’s, ‘Stop talking over there and focus on me, because this is about me right now.’"