Flannery’s Stint Behind Camera

Susan Flannery, who plays fashion dynasty matriarch Stephanie Forrester on the CBS soap “The Bold and the Beautiful,” has had a career of firsts. Her previous daytime character, “Days of Our Lives’ ” psychiatrist Laura Spencer Horton, whom she played from 1967 to 1974, was one of soapdom’s first career women, serving as a role model for viewers during the blossoming women’s movement.

In 1974, Flannery broke into features in “The Towering Inferno,” winning a Golden Globe and opening doors to big-screen roles for other soap performers. And last summer she became the first of the soap’s cast members to direct the show.

The idea of her directing had initially been suggested several years ago by the show’s producer. She saw something in Flannery’s personality.

“I must tell this joke on myself,” she says, relating an old Hollywood tale about actors turning into directors. “ ‘Is this the first time you’ve directed?’ ‘Not according to every director I’ve ever worked with!’ ”

Flannery directed show scenes before graduating to full episodes last October. “I enjoy the technical aspects,” she says. “It’s like pieces of a puzzle that all fit together. And you’re choreographing the cameras and the actors.”

The reaction of those actors has been positive, she reports. “I directed them all along anyway! Having acted with all of them, I know them so well. I try to find ways to do everything to help them, and steer away from their weaknesses. Not that the other directors don’t, but it’s a different language.”

This is not the actress’s first foray behind the cameras: In 1986-87, she co-produced the cable soap “New Day in Eden” and several television movies. On-screen credits include the miniseries “The Moneychangers” and a 1981 stint on “Dallas.”

A Montecito resident when not working on “Bold and Beautiful,” Flannery also keeps herself occupied as a licensed pilot. She took up flying more than 20 years ago.

“I get bored,” she says of her multifaceted pursuits. “I just want to learn things and do things. You just have to move along and learn. You’re in the grave a long time.”