Eve Russell

Eve Russell is a fictional character on the American soap opera Passions, which aired on NBC from 1999 to 2007 and on DirecTV from 2007 to 2008. Created by the soap's head writer, James E. Reilly, Eve was played by Tracey Ross for the series' entire run. In 2003, actresses Amanda Maiden and Kimberly Kevon Williams played the character in flashbacks to her childhood and her time as a nightclub singer. Ross was initially hesitant to audition for the role following her negative experience on Ryan's Hope, but was attracted to the show after learning about its supernatural and fantasy elements. Her casting was part of NBC's attempt to include a racially diverse ensemble on daytime television. She based her performance on Joanne Woodward's role in the 1957 film The Three Faces of Eve and Catherine Halsey from Ayn Rand's 1943 novel, The Fountainhead.

Eve, part of Passions' Russell family, is introduced as the perfect wife of T. C. Russell and mother of Whitney and Simone. Eve's desperation to conceal all evidence of her past relationship—and child—with Julian Crane leads to the breakup of her marriage and family, especially when her adoptive sister Liz Sanbourne arrives in the fictional Northeastern town of Harmony and ruins Eve's life for abandoning her first family. Later storylines focus on Eve's on-again, off-again relationship with Julian, and her search for their son, who is revealed as Vincent Clarkson despite long-running speculation by the show's characters and media outlets that he was Chad Harris-Crane. Ross and Johnson made cameo appearances as Eve and T. C. in the series finale of the NBC primetime drama Providence. At the end of the show, several props and costumes related to Eve were sold in an auction, along with other items from the show.

Critics and fans praised Ross' performance, although the character's later storylines were criticized by the cast. Eve and Julian, known by fans as "Evian", were dubbed "the Odd Couple of Passions" by Soap Opera Weekly, and critics reacted positively to the actors' chemistry. Ross felt that Eve's relationship with Julian showcased an authentic representation of an interracial couple. She received eight nominations for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama Series, winning at the 38th NAACP Image Awards.

Development

Casting and creation

Tracey Ross was originally hesitant to audition for another soap opera after her stint as Diana Douglas on Ryan's Hope from 1985 to 1987, which she compared to "working in a morgue" because the show was constantly threatened with cancellation. She initially rejected the offer to play Eve Russell, but she was repeatedly contacted by NBC about the role over several months before her agent convinced her to audition for Passions' casting director Jackie Briskey. Ross said later that she did not realize that Passions was supposed to be "wacky" until the character Grace Bennett floated out of her bedroom window. Based on the first week's scripts, she described Passions as "my kind of show" owing to the supernatural and fantasy elements. Ross played the role from the series debut on July 5, 1999, to its finale on August 7, 2008. In 2003, actresses Amanda Maiden and Kimberly Kevon Williams played the character in flashbacks to her childhood and her time as a nightclub singer. Ross described Passions as the opposite of Ryan's Hope; Passions, she felt, was "the spring of a soap opera" because of the cast and crew's excitement about future storylines, while Ryan's Hope was "the winter of one" due to the fear of cancellation.

Sheraton Kalouria, senior vice president of NBC's daytime programming, said that the show's racially diverse ensemble, as represented by the African American Russells and the Hispanic Lopez-Fitzgeralds, exemplified "truly color-blind storytelling". Ross believed that Eve was not defined by identity as an African American: "If they wanted to make my character any other ethnicity they wouldn't have to change a thing about her... She's just a person." The actress cited the show's racial diversity as a primary reason for her attraction to the role. She stated that she felt "tremendous support from NBC and Passions that the black characters and/or Hispanic characters are all essential parts of the story". She has cited Eve as helping to expand the TV representation of African Americans and interracial relationships.

Characterization and influences

The soap opera's official website stated that Eve was the "beautiful and compassionate town doctor" who was enjoying a successful career; she was described as an altruist by John Berlau of The Atlas Society. Ross initially saw the character as easy to play, calling her "everyone's best friend, and the town doctor, and a great mother". The actress had a more difficult time when Eve began behaving in morally questionable ways to protect secrets about her past. She felt that the change in Eve's character made the role challenging on an emotional level, comparing the experience to "getting a jail sentence and you're expected to go along with it without any explanation" or "the gods messing with somebody with no reason but to mess with them". When asked to describe Eve in three words, Ross responded that she was a "contradiction inside an enigma". Playing Eve, she said, was "as if somebody came and told you that your closest friend is doing abominable things". Ross appreciated Eve's characterization as a human being who was not portrayed as completely good or bad and had admirable qualities as well as faults. She later connected Eve's shame of her past life with Julian and inability to tell her family to Lavinia Kingsley's regrets about her youth in the 2002 comedy film The Banger Sisters.

In an interview with The Atlas Society, Ross related that her approach to Eve was inspired by Ayn Rand's objectivist philosophy. She said that Eve was "always willing to make sacrifices, and there's always somebody willing, as Ayn Rand said, to take any sacrifices you might be willing to make." She compared Eve to Catherine Halsey in Rand's 1943 novel, The Fountainhead, particularly around the middle of the novel, before Catherine "was completely destroyed". Ross described Eve as "a self-sacrificing animal", and emphasized that her character was distinct from her own self-identification as an individualist. Ross said that her portrayal of Eve was also influenced by Eve White, a character with dissociative identity disorder played by Joanne Woodward in the 1957 film The Three Faces of Eve. The actress researched books on sociopaths and psychopaths to help her approach Eve's desire to hide her past at any cost. During the filming process, she kept a diary to help her better understand how to approach future scenes. Ross also used the 2001 novel Hidden Passions: Secrets from the Diaries of Tabitha Lenox to inform her interpretation of Eve's past. She was surprised Eve's relationship with Julian was a "real short courtship" that turned her character from "the innocent girl to the woman on the Studio 54 dance floor having sex". After adjusting her perception of Eve's past, Ross chose to play the character's descent into drugs and prostitution as "more immediate, wild[,] and impulsive" and "very untamed and unrestrained".

Relationships

Early in the show, the actress based her understanding of Eve on the character's relationships with Grace and Ivy Winthrop. Ross described Eve's love for Grace as "my rock in the sea" when Eve took extreme, illegal measures to hide her past. Kim Johnston Ulrich, who portrayed Ivy, felt that her character viewed Eve as her only friend. Ross added that Eve respected Ivy's "ability to take charge" instead of "always tiptoeing around and walking on eggshells". She understood Ivy's schemes to blackmail Eve as an attempt at a deeper connection; as "the closest thing to a friend that Ivy had", Eve interpreted their relationship as a desire for friendship.

Ross described Eve's relationship with Julian Crane as an authentic representation of an interracial couple. She felt Eve was written as a fully realized person with her own story, rather than as a "walking, living philosophical statement" about race relations. Ross praised "the people who laid the groundwork for [her]" and allowed characters to be played other than "in a minstrel-like way", similar to Ellen DeGeneres paving the way for Will & Grace. Ross and Amelia Marshall, who played Eve's adoptive sister Liz Sanbourne, believed that the relationship emphasized a difference in social classes rather than races. Initially, Ross felt intimidated by playing a part of a supercouple, saying "[i]t means so much to me that I want to do it justice", but following the show's cancelation, she identified it as her favorite storyline. She went on to equate the Julian and Eve's love story to that of Romeo and Juliet. "My Baby's Gone", a song that Eve frequently performs on the show during flashbacks, was used to symbolize Eve's relationship with Julian. Ross recorded the vocals for it, as well as four other songs, without the aid of Auto-Tune. Passions was Ross' first singing role. When asked by a fan about her experiences singing on the show, Ross said she worked with a vocal coach, and described her sound as "sincere, soft, [and] non-grating".