By Travis Kinsey

WEEKLY: Santa Barbara was known for being a creative paradise for actors. Was that your experience?
Norris: You had input. That is why SB attracted the caliber of actors, writers and directors that it did. It was an intensely creative effort and very collaborative. I would talk to the writers about ideas that I had and they were always very supportive. Not everything I said (was accepted), but you wouldn't expect that anyway. (One time), I was listening to a classical station and I was just transported by [a certain piece]. It really hit me and I went to the producer and said, "Do you know what would make me so very happy? Even if you don't use it for the show, but if you would play this aria while I am [taping].' I was doing such nutty things all by myself, so I didn't have a lot of dialogue. If I did it was talking in my head. I said, 'If I could just hear that it would make such a difference because that's what Laura hears in her head. He (executive producer John Conboy) said, 'Sure, of course we will do that.' But then they didn't play it on the set and that disappointed me. Later, after whatever scene I finished, John came onto the stage and called me over and said, "Come with me for a second." So we went into the mixing room and he played the scene back to me and there was the aria. Tears came to my eyes. I said, "Yes. That was my intention as an actor." They used it on the air; paid for it and everything. That's what I mean by a collaborative effort. It was a very happy, creative period for me.

 WEEKLY: Your character became really bizarre by the time you left  the show. She ended up killing Sasha Schmidt and carrying her corpse  around in the car.
 Norris: When I first came on the show, Laura was a high school  principal married to a very successful businessman. They did not have any  children, but that's all you knew about her. She was pretty uptight and  straight laced; all of those things you might expect from a teacher. They  had the storyline as far as my son being killed and the priest (who was  the boy's father). But they didn't have where my story was going. Patrick  (Mulcahey, an SB writer) said to me - because we became quite good  friends - "The first week that I saw you on the show, I saw so much going  on behind your eyes that my mind started racing, and started realizing how  important that event was to the character." And that's basically why we  went off in this bizarre direction. That is one of the things that I found  so beautiful about Santa Barbara. Patrick was very sensitive to  what the actors brought to the words. He allowed me to lead the character.  He said, "I would just follow where your intonations or eyes took me."  That's a huge compliment from a writer.

 WEEKLY: And then the character had gotten so out of control, in  terms of her behavior, that your time on the show ended.
 Norris: Exactly. It was very sad. There was no more room. And  also, by the time I left, the show had kind of taken a different turn.