I went home during a 15-scene break and overslept! I didn't even oversleep that much -- it was by about 20 minutes. But I came back, and they were calling me on the set. I was in my own clothes; I had bed-head and smudged make-up. But you know what's interesting? I went to Maurice and I said, 'Have they been calling me long?' And he said, 'Not at all'. They had only called me once, but I was like, 'Holy crap [laughs]!' So it wasn't really apparent to everyone that I had done that. For me I was just more frazzled, because I would have liked to have been more situated before I got up on-set.

The powers-that-be have a huge say in what you can do with your hair. I'd been asking for a long time if I could go brunette, and the answer was always no [laughs]. When I asked why, they said, 'Because Carly is blonde.' I was like, 'That's funny, women change their hair color all the time. Carly is so adventurous that she'd definitely do it.' Anyway, I kept dropping hints, and Bob [Guza] and Chuck [Pratt] finally said okay. They were really happy with the work I'd been doing, so they said, 'For what you've done lately, go ahead and do whatever you want with your hair,' which I really appreciated.

I had asked to go back to my natural color a few times but I was always told no, so I gave up. I thought, 'As long as I'm Carly, I'll be blonde.'

I'm so grateful for the work that they're giving me. It's pretty incredible stuff.

[I'm] burnt and exhausted. That's why if I have a day off, I treasure it. But often I'm exhausted because I do go to the emotional depths. I'm not one of those people that can turn on tears and make it go. It's not like I've got this switch and here comes the emotions for Carly and then they're gone. I go to the real places in myself. I use Tamara's real emotions to express Carly's. Some people can work from the outside in. I can't.

Tamara would like a little joy to play for Carly. I just think that our show needs more joy.

Carly and Sonny will still be partying and having fun. They'll be the kind of passionate older couple that's doin' it until the day they die!

It was Braun who decided not to wear any makeup during Carly's coma scenes. "Maybe I'm an absolute idiot, because I didn't look so glamorous, but wouldn't it be distracting [for viewers] to be like, 'Why does she have lipstick on?' “

I didn't know what to expect when I started. All I know is that to be thrown in with that many pages, with that much dialogue, with the storyline I came into...I thought, 'They are trying to kill me. But I didn't know any better.

It was really fun at first. I loved it because I've never carried a baby. I mean, it was a piece of foam in a bodysuit, but...Then I got tired of it because that bodysuit yanked and pulled in areas that didn't become so pleasant after awhile [laughs]! And the biggest bummer is that after all that time, I didn't even get to bond with the most beautiful baby in daytime! Courtney got all of the love; Carly got none from the baby! But really, Tamara is the one who loves babies. I love babies.

I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. I really do love the family that has been created here at GH. I love that I have a place to go to every day and do my work. I love where I am here. I can't complain. I have a really good job and I know it. I really do.

If you take everyone on our show and looked at their psychology and their psychosis, we need a therapist!! And I have been saying for years now that it would be hysterical, a great comedic break, to bring a therapist in. One that's really unconventional, who sticks it to you. Especially when the Alexis-Carly-Sonny triangle was going on? Put them into group therapy, [make them] role-play. It would be hysterical!