Maxim Article - April 2000
Susan Ward
By: John Walsh
When actors in Hollywood tell you that they're "on the beach", it's
generally just another way of saying they're out of work. But Susan Ward spent
two years on the beach, and it was one of the busiest periods of her career. The
former model first made a splash on the soapy MALIBU SHORES and surfaced again
on SUNSET BEACH. "I finally got the last of the sand and body makeup out of
my car the other day," she laughs.
Susan is back on dry land in IN CROWD, playing the manipulative leader of a country-club clique. But while the Tobasco-sauce-hot Louisiana native can certainly turn on the genteel Southern charm, she doesn't care for real life snobbery. "For one thing I'm just not one of those girls," she says. "I've been to a few of those cottillions and coming-out parties as somebody's date, and I couldn't help thinking, "What's that girl doing wearing white?"
Instead of formal teas and debutante balls, Susan grew up among cotton fields, surrounded by animals. "You name it, I've raised it," she says. "Tropical birds, rabbits, snakes, wallabies...For a long time I was dead set on becoming a veterinarian. But, well, you know, all the blood--that part just wasn't my thing."And of course there was the small matter of a bubbling modeling career that took her to New York at the age of 14 to sign with the prestigious Ford agency. "It really wasn't scary," Susan recalls of being on her own in the big city. "I suppose it might have been, but I was so headstrong about my career that I didn't think of the repercussions." Modeling led to a stint on daytime's ALL MY CHILDREN and then to a fateful meeting with TV's T&A mogul, Aaron Spelling. "Aaron is so hands-on," Susan says of the legendary Malibu Shores and Sunset Beach producer. "He can look at you and tell if your hair's even slightly different, or if you shaved that day." That lucky, lucky man.
Even while working nearly non-stop, Susan developed an entertainment addiction of her own: "I'm a REAL WORLD fanatic." she confesses. "I can't help it! I saw a girl from the Hawaii season the other day, and I was too shy to talk to her. Isn't that sick? Tom Cruise could walk by and I'd be as casual as can be. But with somebody from THE REAL WORLD, I'm too starstruck to speak!"Some would-be-Romeos aren't quite so tongue-tied when approaching Susan. "I was out with a few friends one night," she says, "and this guy just ran his hand up my leg! I asked him just what he thought he was doing, and he told me that my legs were like buttermilk pancakes. I'm still trying to figure that one out!"
It's a safe bet that guy never saw Susan's bedroom. If he had he would have met "Freddy", a life-size skeleton keeping watch near Susan's bed. "It was a gift from an ex-boyfriend's sister. I'm not sure what that's supposed to symbolize," she says. Still, as roommates go Freddy's a pretty mellow fellow. "He dresses up for all the holidays. I've got lights and a Santa hat for Christmas, and he goes in drag for Halloween. And sometimes I'll just take him for a drive."