Téa Delgado is a fictional character from the American daytime drama One Life to Live. The role was portrayed by Florencia Lozano from January 27, 1997, to March 2, 2000, and briefly in 2002. Lozano returned to the role once again on December 5, 2008, and remained through the original television finale aired January 13, 2012. In April 2012, Lozano become the latest One Life to Live actress to join General Hospital with her alter ego. Scheduled to premiere in May, with Roger Howarth (Todd Manning) returning with her, she premiered on the series on May 9, 2012, last appearing December 3, 2012. Lozano reprised the role when daily episodes of One Life to Live debuted on Hulu, iTunes, and FX Canada via The Online Network April 29, 2013.
Téa was conceived as a character with a stern but passionate personality. She became one of the show's most popular characters and part of one of soap opera's most popular romances for her complex and volatile pairing with Todd Manning, a troubled and sometimes villainous character on the series. Soaps In Depth stated that Téa "set the small screen ablaze" during her time on One Life to Live.
Background
Character creation and portrayal
Téa Delgado was designed as the "tough-talking, yet soft-hearted attorney" of the series. 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. 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. 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." 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." 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. 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." 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.
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."
Todd and Téa
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". 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. Viewers saw immediate chemistry between Howarth and Lozano.