"Resurrection" - SOW

Nathaniel Marston has a new lease on LIFE – as OLTL's Al and in real life.

Viewers were shocked in July when ABC announced Nathaniel Marston had been fired from One Life to Live for storyline reasons. His character, Al, once a sap, was gaining popularity and Al and Marcie were the show’s (if not daytime’s) hottest new couple. Quickly, that shock turned to anger and the audience let ABC know that OLTL without Marston’s Al was unacceptable. To its credit, the network listened. Marston was rehired just 2 months after his firing and resurrected in a Heaven Can Wait storyline. Marston admits he had the same reaction as the fans: ABC was making a huge mistake. And like his followers, he let the brass know it. Here’s how Marston got his job back, how he plans to keep it (hint: he’s had to hire a nanny) and what has changed for the better in his life from the whole experience.

Soap Opera Weekly: First of all, congratulations. It’s quite a feat to get fired and rehired so fast on daytime.
Nathaniel Marston: Yeah, it’s pretty cool. I think it has to do with the fact that people kept on writing. I’ve been told there was wild support – there was one woman who was stopping people on the street! All I have to say is, ‘Wow.’ It’s strange to think that getting fired could be one of the best things that has ever happened to me.
Weekly: How’s that?
Marston: My focus is much better. It opened my eyes to the fact that employment is fleeting and a privilege in this business, and it’s not to be taken for granted. At the same time I got to see how much of an effect I have on people. If this had never happened I would have never known how devoted or special these fans are. I would like to thank them for the outpouring of love that followed my being let go.
Weekly: They didn’t want you back as anyone else.
Marston: They wanted Al. The writers took Al in a lot of different directions: he was bad, he was good, he fell in love with Marcie. He became a real person. Weekly: Certainly your connection with Kathy Brier and Al and Marcie’s love story helped.
Marston: Kathy is an unbelievable talent, really professional, a sweetheart all the way around. That comes out of what she does.
Weekly: I heard that at the fan club luncheon (8/9) you and Kathy encouraged fans to write in to bring you back. Did you think you had a chance?
Marston: Absolutely. If there’s one thing I understand it’s that money talks. Whenever there’s a fear of a loss…the same thing that can get you fired, can also be the catalyst for keeping your job. If you company is afraid they might lose money on you, they’ll back away really quick. If a company thinks they can make money, then they’re going to stick with you. It all boils down to economic gain.
Weekly: Did ABC underestimate Al and Marcie’s popularity?
Marston: Absolutely. The funny thing about it is for a little while there before I got fired, I kept hearing "They’ve never gotten a response like this to a couple." I’m hearing it from executives on the show and people at ABC. I’m like, "All right, this is cool." I didn’t believe it at first, but then I started seeing how much people were into this. I said when I was fired, "I think you’re making a really big mistake and that you’re going to give me my job back."
Weekly: You said that to Frank (Valentini, executive producer)?
Marston: I said it to a person who would be making the decision somewhere along the line. I’m not one for mentioning names, it’s just not smart. But I did say to what they call "The Powers That Be" that I think they’re making a huge mistake, I think my exact statement was, "I wouldn’t stay if you begged me to." Because I was hurt and I was acting out of my own sort of pain.
Weekly: But then you came back.
Marston: When it came right down to it, when that many fans rally and get behind you, if you turn around and say "No," that would be the ultimate slap in the face. The primary reason for coming back was the fans. They got me my job back. They wanted to see me there. I could say "no" to the network, but I couldn’t say "no" to the fans. Also, in retrospect, passing on a chance to get back into a situation where I’m working with Kathy Brier on a daily basis would have been stupid. Obviously, I didn’t ask for any more money, because I thought it would be inappropriate given the circumstances – nor did they offer any (laughs). But I worked on outs: being able to get out to do pilots, films, things of that nature.
Weekly: You‘ve been very open about your past issues with anger management. Did that come up when you were fired?
Marston: Again, it’s the whole thing about how great this experience was. I wasn’t angry. I was hurt. At that moment, I was stunned, but I didn’t act out. I didn’t scream or yell. Through the whole thing I was really calm. I’ve finally grown up a little bit and started to understand that you take a bad situation and make it worse by behaving that way. I’ve recently become more focused on the Buddhist philosophies that I was raised with. Anger of that nature is a wasted emotion, a wasted energy. Not to say that I don’t get mad when I can’t get a lid off a jar of pickles. But when it comes down to real life things that require delicate handling, I’ve gotten a lot better.
Weekly: You had to continue working after you were fired, right?
Marston: I had to finish out the rest of my contract. They didn’t want to pay me for not being there. It was good, because if I hadn’t had that extra three months and they hadn’t written such a brilliant ending, people wouldn’t have kept writing. They were reminded of their loss each time they turned on the show. They’d turn off the TV and write another letter. Weekly: So you were fired but...
Marston: I was never off the show (laughs)! [After I was fired] one of the notes I was given said, ‘If you could do us a favor, while you’re finishing out your last few weeks here, if you could be professional and cordial…’ and I scoffed. Then I thought: ‘Wow, I guess there is the potential for somebody to be a baby and not do their work.’ What [OLTL brass] neglect to understand is the only person that that reflects badly on is me. My feeling was: ‘I’ve got another three months to be on air while I’m auditioning. I’m going to come in and do the best work I ever did.’ I said, ‘Don’t worry about me being professional. I’m going to come in here every day and blow the boards off this place – and you are going to give me my job back.’
Weekly: Do you think the mature way you handled the firing helped you get rehired? Marston: Yeah. I think that had a lot to do with it. I think a lot of the network executives were looking at me going: ‘Wow, this kid doesn’t have a job and he’s working his ass off. If this kid can perform under that sort of stressful condition…maybe we’re making a mistake.’
Weekly: You’ve always had a hard time waking up, which was a problem when you were on ATWT (ex-Eddie). Were there tardiness issues at OLTL?
Marston: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have a thing with waking up. It’s just never gone away. It’s gotten better. I’ve actually hired a woman who comes into my home every morning to wake me up. Alarm clocks don’t work. I finally figured out that hiring somebody is the ultimate way to [wake up].
Weekly: So you hired this woman when you got your job back?
Marston: I actually had come up with that a week before I got fired. Fiona [Hutchison, Gabrielle] had offered to come to my house in the morning and wake me up. She was like, ‘I don’t want to see anything bad happen to you, especially for something so stupid and trivial. Should I come to your house and wake you up?’ I said, ‘That’s preposterous. There’s no way that I am going to have you…no.’ She and my mom came up with Fiona’s nanny. She was looking for some extra employment. She gets to my house every morning at 7, except for Saturday and Sunday, and she wakes me up. She does a little bit of stuff around the house, so that when I come home at the end of the day, I can sit down and study and focus on work rather than whether I was going to have clean underwear tomorrow. I hired myself a nanny (laughs), but I need it. In the long run, it’s going to end up saving me money.
Weekly: Did the fact that you had addressed this problem help you get your job back?
Marston: I don’t think that it affected their decision one way or the other, although they did say, ‘You’re going to keep this woman, right?’ I said, ‘By all means. Why tamper with a good thing.’
Weekly: How have you changed from all this?
Marston: I’m a lot more together. I’m healthier – physically stronger, mentally stronger, prepared with a new hunger to do great work.
Weekly: Al’s resurrection has given you a new life.
Marston: It’s a complete phoenix story, out of the ashes. I’m burning hot. I really am. I went out and I auditioned for a lot of things while I didn’t have my job, and I did really well. It light that fire: ‘Wait a second, I’m an actor. Holy crap, I can do this!’ It erases that fear, and it’s a lot easier to go through life without that burden of fear. I’m not afraid of losing my job, especially now that I’m completely on the ball and doing the right thing. Even if I walked in there tomorrow and found out that I didn’t have my job, I’d be OK. That’s the most important part of the whole thing.




Home