Dead Man Walking
Soap Opera Weekly
June 15, 2004
By Kathryn Walsh
"OLTL Didn't Kill David Tom, But Living In New York City Just Might."
No one ever said making it in New York was easy. Just ask David Tom, who moved to the Big Apple from L.A to take on the role of One Life To Live's Paul. Sure, he has a job, but the rest of his experiences in Gotham, have been "absolute hell", he says with a wry smile. "The worst experience of my life. Moving here sucks."
Realizing that he sounds a tad negative, Tom quickly adds, " Don't get me wrong, I love New York. I'm having a great time here. Meeting new friends and new people and experiencing New York at my age is awesome. But living here has been horrible. The logistics of it have been really, really, really bad."
He's had problems with the phone company, the cable company and the moving company. In fact, the night before this interview - six weeks after he got the OLTL job - he finally received his things, only to discover most of the contents (worth about $4,500) destroyed. To top it all off, "I'm congested and my allergies are kicking in. What next?."
How about a heavy workload at not only One Life To Live, but sister show All My Children, where he's been crossing over since day one? "Actually, that's been a lot of fun," Tom smiles. "It's been a lot of work, its been very hard, but its been fun."
Not only is the work hard, but the incidentals - like learning all the names of two cast and two crews - has been, too. Plus there's the added pressure of replacing an actor (Brock Cuchna) and dealing with people who think he got the job because of his sister Heather Tom (Kelly). The latter is something he's learned to live with, especially since it's not new: He faced the same prejudice when he joined The Young And The Restless (as Billy Abbott) where heather was already playing Victoria Newman.
The accusations of nepotism come not just from his fans, bu co-workers. "Its both," he confirms. "That's something I can't change. If that's the way you think, then that's fine. All I can do is show you that I'm professional, I do my work. I don't slack. I'm prepared and I will try and do my best. I'm not going to sit there and try and change your mind or your opinion."
Negative fan feedback is also part of the territory when you're playing a bad guy. "The Internet stuff has been interesting," he laughs. "What am I, ‘Rat Race' or something like that? I'm glad they don't like me; I'm a bad guy. I agree with J.Lo. They're talking bad about you. Fine. It's still good publicity. At least they're talking about you."
Fortunately, he has his sister nearby for support. "I'm very happy that she's here. She was a huge reason why I did come back because me being here by myself would have been ... I don't know. I'm a family person, I like being close to my family." And of course he got the lowdown about OLTL from his big sis before accepting the job. "I asked Heather a lot of questions, everything from ‘How are the days?' to ‘How's the crew and craft service?' Nobody here is full of crap. It's a different environment than it is in Hollywood - the way people treat you and the way they expect you to treat them. Its cool. There's not as much of a hierarchy here as in L.A, I like that."
Not that Y&R was a negative experience, by any means. "I was always planning to be there for three years and I think they knew that. There weren't any negotiations. I wanted to move on, try other things, test my boundaries. It wasn't an easy decision, but it was something you have to do at a certain age. I wasn't ready to settle down. They were sorry to see me go and I was sorry to leave, but I had to go on that adventure."
Now he's enjoying a new adventure playing a villain on a different soap. "It's fun", he grins, "something to sink your teeth into, instead of the nice guy who is always helping somebody else. As long as they don't kill me, I'm fine (laughs)."
Although Paul almost bit the bust, Tome wasn't worried when he read the script. He knew about Paul's resurrection in advance. "Frank (Valentini, executive producer) came up to me and said, ‘Just to let you know, you die, or we all think you die, but you're really alive, so don't worry about it. You've got about a week off.'" Valentini then suggested Tom go on a vacation because he'd have a lot of work to do when Paul resurfaced. Did he take the boss advice? "Nah. I had to work over at All My Children," he laughs. "No worries."
If only he could take that attitude with his personally life he's be fine, but it was a rough spring. He is looking forward to summer in the city, checking out Yankees games and the music scene. "Central Park had a lot of live music during the summer, so I can't wait for that. I love punk rock, traditional punk rock music. I've played the drums for about 15 years. I was in a band before I left [L.A]. I definitely want to get more into it as soon as I get settled here. But," he sighs, recalling his broken belongings, "I'm probably not going to be settle for a while."