Another Whirl:
After Ten Years and Three Returns, Tom Eplin
Promises that the Best is Yet to Come
Soap Opera Update
September 19, 1995
There was one day in particular when Another World's Tom Eplin decided that he'd had enough California sunshine to last him the rest of his life.
"My agent sent me out to an audition for an interactive CD game. So I go to this audition and I see Holly Gagnier (ex-Cassie, OLTL_ sitting there," says the actor of the four months he spent in Los Angeles after he left AW to try his luck out in LaLa Land.
"I'm sitting there, and there's like this soap opera echo in my ears -- I just left a job where I went to work every day, that wants me back, where I made great money, had a great time, and here I am auditioning for a CD ROM computer game and they're making me wait!" Eplin says. "So I didn't even audition. I just put the script down and told the person at the desk, 'You know what? You've got the wrong guy here. I've gotta go.' I made the decision that day.
Outta there, he was. Back to Brooklyn, New York (where AW is taped), he was bound. That he was gone but never forgotten says a lot about the power of Tom Eplin. During his time away, "Jake" (and the mystery surrounding his disappearance), received more airtime than some of the actors who were actually working on the show.
"I would say that I missed Judi (Evans Luciano, Paulina), but I didn't," he pauses, "because while I was gone, I saw or talked to her once-a-week."
Although his 11-year-long, on- and off-again relationship with NBC and the character of Jake has been tumultuous at times, it has not been without its rewards. Fame and a steady paycheck have afforded him a shiny-happy-people type of lifestyle, complete with cars, women, a Harley-Davidson parked in theee drive, and his pride and joy, a luxurious seven-seater airplane that he pilots himself. Yes, life has been good to Tom Eplin. He is blessed with dark hair, striking eyes and a real-life edge that translates on air as a powerful sexual aphrodisiac.
Despite theee trappings that his success had provided him with -- they were just that, trappings. For his own peace of mind, Eplin needed to chuck everything and start over in Los Angeles. was it to see if he was missing out on anything? To do a feature film? The actor isn't sure.
I don't know what I thought I wanted to do," Eplin admits candidly, "It's not like when I left I thought Tom Cruise was going to go, "Oh no! I better get a job, here comes Tom Eplin...'" He's been back at work for about a month at the time of this interview, and aside from the fact that he has a different dressing room, things have slowly fallen back into their routines. Eplin has just finished hhis daily jog, and he's now in the rehearsal hall, putting ziploc bags filled with ice on his aching knees.
"Working," he answers, when asked what he missed most about his job at AW. "My father has done very well in life and we were basically from a blue-collar family. I was raised that yuo get up in the morning and you go to work. It was funny (while he was out in L.A.), I won't name names, but soap actors you would know would call me up in the morning and say, 'Hey, you want to go golfing?' I was like, "I can't, I have to go to my job.' I bought a new jeep, I think I washed it 50 times while I was out there. Conservatively, I'd say I played 500 hours on the computerr."
Ironically, it was the two-week ride back to the east coast that was the best part of his hiatus from the show. "I flew my airplane cross-country," he relates excitedly. He excuses himself for a moment, goes to his dressing room, and returns holding a slew of photos that he took from the cockpit of his plane. "Riding in a plane is not borking like in a car," he says. "One minute you are flying over San Francisco, then 30 minutes later you are over the most treacherous mountains in the United States, then 20 minutes later you are flying over the most barren desert in the country." Eventually, Eplin and his girlfriend/co-pilot Stephanie ended their adventure and made their way back home. Although four months doesn't amount to a blip on the screen when you are talking about a show that's been on the air for over 30 years, things at the studio have changed. Eplin has an entirely new set of writers, producers, and directors to work with, and the heat is on.
"I feel like I have a different responsibility now than I had before I left," he says in between leg-stretches. "The show is lower-rated than it has been, so its like, 'Let me see if I can make a difference with that." I mean, its not like I think I can carry the whole show on my shoulders, but I'll carry my part."
Eplin isn't the only one to have grown a little wiser during his time away. It seems that Jake, too, is different these days. It's not just because he's got a snappier wardrobe -- he's also more confident and self-assured.
"Maybe that's just the actor coming through," Eplin says with a devilish smile, "I think that (Jake's returning a millionaire) is a good story. It seems like ultimately the best way to figure out what the Achilles' heel of the character is, is by giving him everything that he ever wanted," says Eplin. "I think that's what the story they are going to tell is about. Here's a guy who has just gotten everything that he has ever wanted, and he is still probably not going to be happy."
When Eplin gave his notice to AW four months ago, the soap cynics started in almost immediately, claiming that the whole hiatus thing was just a big publicity stunt.
"That's ridiculous!" Eplin says. "I think there was always a hope that I would return. I honestly left here not hoping that I would never return, but hoping that something would work out for me in L.A.," he says. "It wasn't a firm deal, but I was told that they were going to give me a window of time and keep the story open for me to return. What I found in L.A. was that it seemed to be a place with a bunch of aactors who were looking for work. They didn't send me out for anything that was any better than Jake. I don't know whether Jake is just such a good role, or that I love Jake that much, but I just didn't see anything out there that was knock-your-socks-off better than doing what I do every day for a living here."
Likewise, Eplin is proud to be a card-carrying member of the daytime community. His time away from the show has only made his devotion to the daytime genre grow stronger. And when he heard that former Knots Landing start William Devane, while declaring that his upcoming series THE MONROES was not a "soap," was quoted as saying, "I don't think you're dealt with seriously as a soap actor..." and that Devane had called soap opera a "derogatory" term that separates serials from other dramas, and lowers the respect that cast and crew recieve, Eplin was understandably furious. "I don't have a problem being a soap actor," he declares. "We have goood actors here. #$%^ William Devane. For any actor to knock soap actors, he must have some insecurity about being one himself. He can kiss my #$%^. William Devane couldn't work here. Tell him to come on over and give it a shot!"
Letst there be any doubt, Tom Eplin is back!