The reality was that they had a VERY young actress with enormous natural beauty and talent. They could have left her in typical teen stories that would have interested no one and wasted Genie, OR.....They could give her a "Lolita" story that was completely new to the soap genre and let it see where it went. How about "Through the roof"? The big surprise was Tony as Luke. He was a character actor who had a huge range. He was brought on to be a dirty trickster, a smarmy character, for sure. But that range was so magnetic that he was fascinating to watch. You couldn't help sympathizing with Luke. He was an underdog story. Bringing them together was inevitable.
At 18 I had just finished high school. My parents would never let me date a man who was 33 yrs old. I didn't even know any guys that age. I only knew my classmates.
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Could you have or did you relate to a man of 25 or 30 the way Laura did? Despite her not having that much life experience, she spoke to Luke on an equal level (as we mention quite often). There was no way in the world I would have been able to talk to, much less have romantic feelings for someone that age. I wouldn't have been able to go near them. I wouldn't have been comfortable at all with someone that age pursuing me. I'm glad Gloria Monty did it all slowly.
Age wasn't the focus back then, I doubt it would be done this way today (but I'm sure glad they did)!
The actor Paul Walker who died in the car crash was dating his girlfriend when he was 33 and she was 16. That was real life and it gave me the creeps.