Daytime Icon Eva LaRue Opens Up About Sarah Michelle Gellar, CSI: Miami, And Being Stalked

3 days ago

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On the September 2nd episode of Soapy with Greg Rikaart (Leo, Days of Our Lives / Kevin, The Young and the Restless) and Rebecca Budig (Taylor, The Bold and the Beautiful), Emmy-winning actress Eva LaRue reflected on her decades-long career, from her soap beginnings on All My Children to her primetime breakthrough on CSI: Miami, as well as personal struggles that shaped her life.

Daytime Icon Eva LaRue Opens Up About Sarah Michelle Gellar, CSI: Miami, And Being Stalked

Starting Out on All My Children

LaRue recalled her early days on All My Children, which she joined at just 23 years old. It was also when she first met a teenage Sarah Michelle Gellar, who was fresh off Swans Crossing.

“All My Children was my first big role on a soap—I got it when I was 23. She [Sarah] had just come off Swans Crossing. She was only 15, and we started the same week. She turned 16 within that first month. So she was just a baby,” LaRue shared.

Both Rebecca Budig and LaRue touched on the stigma surrounding daytime actors at the time, and how difficult it was to transition into primetime.

From Soaps to Primetime: Landing CSI: Miami

Despite the challenges, LaRue credited her soap background for helping her win the role of Natalia Boa Vista on CSI: Miami, which ran until April 8, 2012.

“I ended up getting that job because of daytime. The executive producer, Anne Donahue, was an All My Children fan. When I auditioned—alongside about 300 others—she knew soap actors were reliable. We came prepared, didn’t need much money, didn’t have huge egos. We worked hard and we worked fast.”

Looking back, LaRue said her time on All My Children felt like her formative years:

“It was like my college days, my high school days, and my most character-building time of my life.”

Coping with Loss

The actress also spoke candidly about the devastating loss of her ex-husband, John Callahan (Edmund Grey, All My Children) in 2020 at the age of 56. Their daughter Kaya struggled with grief, which strained their mother-daughter relationship.

“I went into a spiral for almost two years. It was a tough time for us as mother and daughter. You’d think a kid clings to the living parent, but a lot of times they don’t. Kaya was angry, she shut down, and it was so hard. Therapy saved us. Now we’re closer than we’ve ever been.”

A Terrifying Decade of Stalking

LaRue also revealed horrifying details of being stalked with her daughter, Kaya, for nearly a decade. It began when Kaya was just five and LaRue had been on CSI: Miami for two years.