THE BEST DAMN RECAST IN DAYTIME
I was born in Florida. I grew up an hour north of Orlando. I did a lot of plays when I was little, in grade school, but once high school came around and college, I didn't do too much of it. My (college) degree is actually in accounting. My father is a CPA, and I thought I was going to work for him. Now, by my fifth year of college I realized that I actually wasn't going to do that. But I was having a good time with the fraternity, so that's why I stuck around school. Afterwards, I was down in Miami for a while and I got into doing some commercials. But, four years ago, there just weren't a lot of places to study acting down there. I decided to move to either New York or L.A. I figured if I was going to be poor for a really long time, the best place to be was LA.
When I got to LA, I worked at a pizza parlor. I mean, I got a commercial agent right off the bat, but I really didn't want to go out there and audition and not know what I was doing. I wanted to learn a bit more so I wouldn't be so completely green. So I started studying acting. I made it like college. I sat in class and watched and watched and watched. I did that for a couple of years. Then, about a year and a half ago was when I really started doing a lot of theater. I became a member of a theater company, and then I got more plays because people who saw me would say, "Hey, would you come audition for this?"
I had been out in LA about six months and my commercial agent said they were going to send me out to audition for Sunset Beach. So I went and ended up being a lifeguard on the show for a couple of days. A year later, they remembered me and I came back and tested for a contract role. I didn't get the part, but they ended up bringing me back for a recurring part. I played David. I was the bartender on the show. So I would work two or three days out of the month. I was the bartender that people would come to and get advice from and things like that. It was actually a really good experience. But that show was quickly off the air, so I wasn't on there very
I also did Beverly Hills, 90210. I think they remembered me from Sunset Beach. I played Donna's boyfriend, the website designer, Mitch. I played that role for a little while and then that show was off the air, too. I seem to be bad luck for these people. The people at As the World Turns don't have to worry, though. I have a feeling they've been around long enough. I can't do anything to make it bomb.
About a year ago, I auditioned for the role of Paul on ATWT. I didn't get the part, but they remembered me and called me. At that particular time, I had just tested for something else and I wasn't sure if I wanted to move to New York City. So I didn't audition when they came to LA. But they called my manager and spoke with him, and so I came out here and tested. I had a screen test with Lesli Kay (Molly). There was really good chemistry there and I thought I had a good shot at it. When I got back to LA a couple of days later, I got a call and they said, "You got it." So I had about four days to move out here and get everything going. It was a bit of a mess, but I got out here
I came in on a Saturday night; my cab was taking me into the city from JFK. We're in Times Square and there are like a hundred thousand people there, ten thousand people just on that one block we're on. My cab was going fast and suddenly a couple stepped out in front of us and ran across the street and I'm like "You idiots!" Then I looked over and I was like "Oh my God, I think it's that Molly girl! No way!" I went to my hotel, which was a block away, and I ran down to see if I could find her, but I couldn't. So I thought I must have been wrong. But she had left me her cell phone number, and I called her and said, "I think my cab almost ran you over." She called me the next morning, dying with laughter! "Oh my God, that was me. You almost hit me with your car!" So I was like, "Wow!" I mean, if I had hit her, I wouldn't have a job anymore!
I had 15 pages of dialogue the first day I worked, and then 30 pages the second day. It was a baptism by fire. "Boom, here you go." I didn't know until I got here who Mike Kasnoff was, or that he used to be on the show six or seven years ago. I didn't know this was a recast. I got together with (Executive Producer) Chris Goutman and he pretty much told me all the past history, and I also kind of made my own assumptions.
I actually did my first two scenes with Cady (McClain; Rosanna) yesterday. I have Maura (West; Carly) next week. I have a lot of people next week. With Lesli, there's already this comfort level there because I knew we clicked in the screen test. With the other two ladies, I wasn't worried about it, but at the same time I was anxious to see what would happen. But that anxiety really works well because (Mike) hasn't seen these people in six or seven years. Molly, I had never seen before so I could play the newness. But the other ones, to try to come in and play a previous relationship was a bit difficult, but at the same time it kind of worked because there is an uncomfortableness between me and Cady's character.
It's tough not seeing sand and water and trees right now. I lived in Venice Beach when I was in LA. I was at the beach all the time playing volleyball or surfing. There's not going to be a lot of that here in New York. My workload over the last three weeks has been so tough that it's really been difficult to try and get anything going here. Which is good -- it's better than sitting around and being bored.
I went to the (charity) softball game with Michael Park (Jack). There were just lines of people there to see him and the rest of the cast, and I've never been exposed to this. You would think I was walking with Michael Jackson the way people were screaming and taking pictures of him. I was kind of awestruck from watching all these people. But he handles the people so well. It was kind of like having a brother there to say, "Listen, this is what you do." That helped a lot. It was fun. Playing in the softball game was great. We won.
