Lovers' Lane

Digest caught up with PASSIONS's Lindsay Korman (Theresa) and Justin Hartley (Fox) to chat about intimate details of their real-life relationship. Read on to learn which half of this engaged couple receives the morning massages, who celebrates several birthdays a year and whether they really want their characters to be romantically linked.

By Lori Latusek(www.soapoperadigest.com)

Digest: Have you met each other's families?
Lindsay Korman: Yes, I love his family. I love his mom; she's incredible. It was a whole family reunion thing, so I was a little overwhelmed.
Justin Hartley: It was like a photo shoot.
Korman: It was a photo op [laughs]. It was his little sister's birthday and his whole family came in because they knew he was coming.
Hartley: It was the first time I had seen everyone in like eight years.

Digest: Describe a day in the life of the two of you.
Hartley: We'll go to bed talking about anything that would allow us to sleep. [In] the morning usually ... Lindsay gets a back massage.
Korman: He cracks my back.
Hartley: Lindsay gets a long back massage. Not every morning, but you know. Then, like, a pot of coffee. We might go to the mall and go shopping. We might decide to go to a movie and then not go because we never go to movies.
Korman: We've only been to one movie since we've been together.
Hartley: Two.
Korman: Oh yeah, two. We walked out of one. We were laughing so hard. We bumped our heads in the theater and we were like, "We have gotta get out of here."
Hartley: We'll go out to eat a lot. Every time we go out to eat, for some reason, it's my birthday. I'll come back from the bathroom and I'll be finishing my Coke or something and I'll hear "Happy Birthday."
Korman: I tell them not to sing.
Hartley: And they come out with this big brownie and candles. The one time I tried to get her, the guy comes out and he's like, "I forgot about your thing. Here, it's on me. I'll just pay for it." And he threw [the cake] on the table.

Digest (to Korman): Why do you do that? Is it to embarrass him?
Hartley: She never does anything to try to embarrass me, I swear to God.
Korman: I just want to make him feel good. I bought him a birthday cake, him and Charles [Divins, Chad] last January. It made him so happy. He was new on the show and we had spent so much time together working day after day. I remember the way it made him feel, so sometimes when we go out, I want to celebrate 'cause I know it would make him feel good, even though it's not his birthday.

Digest: Do you want Fox and Theresa to be together?
Hartley: Of course! I'm in love with her, so any moment I get to spend with her....
Korman: We love working with each other.

Digest: Do you realize how many fans want Theresa and Fox together?
Korman: The [Favorite Couple] poll in Digest is amazing. It's incredible. [Editor's Note: Theresa and Fox have won the title of PASSIONS's Favorite Couple in the online poll nearly 40 times in a row.]
Hartley: Think about how die-hard those fans are. I have the best fans, I swear. No matter what, they're right behind us.

Digest: Do you run lines together?
Hartley: We always run lines together.

Digest (to Korman): Do you pretend to be Whitney?
Korman: I don't pretend to be anyone. He has a way of working — just like I do — and basically, we don't pretend we're the other characters at all 'cause we know clearly what we want. I think we're comfortable with our choices, so we just run lines so we know our words.
Hartley: There are a couple of times where I'll be reading and say, "Sweetheart, this is a perfect opportunity for you to do this." Then, I'll watch [the live feed], she'll do it, and [the director will] come out with notes and I'm like, "Oh!" So, I stopped doing that.

Digest: What has been your favorite scene together?
Korman: Probably the pool stuff or the dancing stuff. I love everything with him; it's so fun. Or the hospital stuff.
Hartley: My favorite scene is when they were on the beach and Fox and Theresa were going to kiss. After we did the scene, it became about what happened before and after the kiss, which is cool. It was about the acting. I really felt good with my work in that scene.
Korman: Mine, too.
Hartley: I had to kiss somebody who I kiss every day and afterward make it look like that shouldn't have happened or wasn't supposed to happen, but you liked it.
Korman: We were still acting. I just love working with Justin because I feel like I'm on this wave with him. It's the coolest thing. It's not because I'm in love with him because I felt this before we were even together. I feel like we have a good connection or good chemistry or whatever you want to call it.
Hartley: She's convinced that we're good together. I don't know [laughs].
Korman: I just have so much fun. Anybody who works with him will tell you that he's so incredible and you feel like you're on this roller coaster.
Hartley: That's very kind.
Korman: It's true. He's a beautiful person and incredible actor, so when I have scenes with him, I'm so excited because I know it's going to be like, "Forget anything I have to think about, just know my lines and then just...."
(He kisses her.)
Korman: Thank you, honey.... "And just go for the ride." It's awesome. I really love when I work with him.

Digest: How did your co-stars react to your engagement?
Hartley: They're all happy for me, but they're trying to convince her that she's made a mistake. I'm totally joking. They love it, they're all happy. They're thrilled. Some of them are shocked, but shocked in a good way.

Digest: Who was the first person you told that you were engaged?
Korman: We had to work that day. I think his mom was the first person we talked to because she came into town that night with his younger sister. But she knew; he told her before. She didn't know what day.

Digest (to Korman): How did your parents react?
Korman: They're thrilled. My mom knew. She knew before I even considered dating Justin that I liked him. She told me later, "Oh, I knew, just by the way you spoke about him all the time." I was like, "I did?" Sometimes you don't realize things.