Téa Delgado

Téa Delgado was designed as the "tough-talking, yet soft-hearted attorney" of the series.[13] The writers gave her a fragile personality, layering her as someone capable of showing great love and who is also "dying to be loved herself". One moment, Téa is seen as fiery and enraged; the next, she is witnessed as being soft-spoken and understanding.[13] Having perfected these aspects of the character when paired with Roger Howarth's Todd Manning, actress Florencia Lozano acknowledged Howarth's help. "He's not an actor who's in his own world," she said.[14] Todd had been romantically involved with Blair Cramer for some time already, and his divorce from her and custody pursuit of his daughter, Starr, soon positioned Lozano's character as a new love interest for Todd.

The pace of the soap opera was at times overwhelming for Lozano, and she looked for a way to manage this. "I try to keep feeding the fire, feeding some of the emotional stuff that Téa had to go through," she stated. "It's tiring because, on some level, I have to go there. I have to feel sad. I don't know any other way to do it."[14] Detailing what she thinks about in order to produce onscreen tears, a query she often received from fans, Lozano stated, "Well...things that would make me cry. It's hard sometimes, but also it feels good when I feel like I portrayed something honestly."[14] Having a good grasp on who Téa is provided Lozano with enough room to "make things up" even while keeping her character true to form.[14] In addition, she looked to make each scene unique. "That's the thing about acting," she said. "When you're rehearsing over and over, how do you make it new every time? Well, it is new every time because it's the first time you've done it that time."[15] Lozano saw each take as an opportunity to improve, rather than as something to be annoyed by, commenting, "I love it when we screw up, because we get another chance to do it, and every time it's a different scene." Lozano added, however, that she does enjoy perfecting her scenes. "It makes me really happy when I feel like I kicked ass in a scene," she stated.[15]

Not every character action was originally in the script. "A lot of the times," Lozano said, "someone [would] make me laugh, and then my next line [would] be about responding to that. Any number of things [could] happen, which are usually the best moments. I [wanted] to be open to that. But it's hard, too, because I [didn't] want to screw up my lines." She further relayed, "There are many times when I think I didn't get a scene. When you don't feel anything, it's frustrating. I'm less hard on myself because I realize how difficult what we do is. But, as an actor, you hope that you go in there and get caught up in the moment. I think, self-indulgently, that's why we become actors in the first place — to feel things."[14]

Roger Howarth as Todd Manning and Florencia Lozano as Téa Delgado.

One Life to Live viewers originally resisted Todd being paired with anyone but Blair. Soap Opera Digest stated that Téa not only did not have any history with Todd, "she was breaking up One Life to Live's most popular (if unorthodox) duo".[13] The magazine added that it was Lozano's "consistently strong and convincing portrayal" of Téa as the tough but soft attorney that won viewers over.[13] Viewers saw immediate chemistry between Howarth and Lozano.[16]

Todd and Téa's marriage is at first nothing more than a business deal; Todd offers Téa to be his wife and lawyer for $5 million to ensure custody of his daughter (Starr).[12][17] He is out for revenge against ex-wife Blair, feeling she ruined his chances at happiness when he returned to town after being presumed dead and discovered her having sex with Patrick Thornhart (Thorsten Kaye) on the floor of the penthouse he once shared with her.[12] It is after this Todd shuts down emotionally, almost completely.[18] He subsequently only shows kindness to his daughter and his sister (Victoria Lord), and occasionally to children. Soaps In Depth stated, "Téa being Todd's wife often put her in conflict with wife No. 1 and No. 2 — Blair."[10][19] During one heated confrontation, the women's argument becomes physical. Lozano said "I'll never forget the time I crashed out the window. Kassie DePaiva (Blair) had to push me, and she was so nervous about really hurting me that I actually had to calm her down."[10]

With Téa in his life, the writers had the emotional walls Todd had built around himself slowly collapse. As Soaps In Depth described it, Téa is the one who made Todd's heart "grow at least two sizes bigger".[10] While Todd's tough bravado and insensitivity are lessened in Téa's presence, his reluctance to be sexually intimate becomes a prominent obstacle for the couple. After having felt betrayed by Blair with Patrick, Todd not only has trouble letting another woman into his psyche but also into his bed. This factor often causes Téa to be sexually frustrated while near Todd. Although they have agreed to keep their relationship platonic, she finds him sexually attractive and starts to desire him romantically.[16] The writers often emphasized this, at one point having Téa strip down naked in front of Todd and plead for him to have sex with her, to which Todd painfully and angrily throws her out of their penthouse into the cold. He explains his reaction as being more about not being ready than actually rejecting Téa.[20]

Todd and Téa's romance was written as tempestuous, star-crossed, loving, and abusive.[21] The pairing would go from almost having sex one minute, to verbally abusing each other the next. Physical abuse takes place in one instance when Todd is on the run from the police and proceeds to kidnap Téa; he punches her out when she implies he will rape her as he had done to Marty Saybrooke (Susan Haskell) years earlier; Téa later knocks Todd out with a shovel to escape.[21] However, during these scenes, the characters' love for each other continues to show; Todd releases a mournful, monstrous scream after having knocked Téa unconscious and relaxing her body on a chair in front of him, and Téa is seen to seemingly sexually desire Todd even while having tied him up after her attack on him. A disappointed Téa calls Todd a rapist after his kidnapping of her, which is a breaking point for Todd. She is one of the few people to believe that there is good in him. When she gives indication she now sees him as his enemies do, it is as much a slight to Todd's well-being as anything physical. "Téa called Todd a rapist," Lozano said. "By saying out loud that he's a rapist, it was the only way she could push him away. She needed those weapons, both verbal and emotional, to cut the tie because it had been so strong."[21]

When working alongside Howarth, Lozano never felt as though she was simply reciting lines. She said, "I feel like we're just talking, listening and responding to each other. And that makes it relatively easy to concentrate. I feel like we're connecting."[14] She called on her imagination, adding, "I do a lot of substituting. I think, 'What if Todd were a real person in my life?' The situations are so dramatic that in some ways it's easy to feel worked up."[22]

Further differentiating Todd and Téa from other couples on the series was the application of theme music. Dark, sad but romantic theme music was applied to the pairing. Composer David Nichtern explained the emotion he wanted to convey. "This was kind of as close as we get to Todd 'romantic' music," he said. "It's still dark and mysterious, but has the possibility of a little sensuality and romance. I worked on these cues with my pal Kevin Bents (who does a lot of the keyboard work on the show) but when it came time for the demented variations, I just had to be alone (just kidding)."[23]

While characters on the series have struggled to understand Téa's love for Todd, the writers made the pairing's love story detailed enough in its complexity for viewers to comprehend.[16]