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Interview: All My Children’s Vincent Irizarry on the final day of shooting
and taking the show online
What’s it like to play the same character for the better part of 10 years?
Vincent Irizarry, who played the villainous heart surgeon, Dr.
David Hayward on All My Children, told me that it was “exciting” and an
“enormous opportunity” to “travel that journey.”
All My Children, which ran on ABC for 41 years, aired its last
episode Friday, September 23rd but the good news is that
Prospect Park,
the company that
acquired the rights to the show, has announced that they will bring it to the
web. Vincent said that the company is just now starting to reach out to “a
handful of actors” but that they are still in the negotiating stages.
I talked to Vincent, who won a Daytime Emmy in 2009, about his time in the
fictional Pine Valley, memorizing 30 pages of dialogue, what the last day of
shooting was like and his upcoming fan event,
A Tribute to Pine Valley.
You’ve been playing the same role for, what, 12 years now?
Vincent Irizarry: Yes, I left for two years. I left to do
another show for a while.
What’s that like playing the same character for 12 years?
Vincent Irizarry: I’m sure you can appreciate this as an
actor, to have the opportunity to play him for 12 years, that’s an enormous
opportunity. I really do feel like I know the intimate details of this
character, being who he is and what makes him tick.
Just to travel that journey with him. This character is such a complex
character to begin with because his father committed suicide at a young age,
when he was young boy he was 11 years old. And his mother provoked him to do it.
So, he is really very damaged and that’s the reason why he became a cardiologist
to begin with, every time he saves a life it’s as if he is bringing his father
back.
So, he’s very complex but in many instances, actors who get to do a play for
a limited run or even night time television, you might do it 5, 6, 7 years but
if you spend years with a character… it has been exciting.
When you’re playing a character for that long, you probably know him
as good or better than the writers. Can you go to the writers or producers and
tell them some ideas you might have for them for the character?
Vincent Irizarry: Absolutely, yeah, I can. Years ago, one of
the more defining moments of my character was the storyline where they
introduced the history of my father and they brought in my mother onto the show
as the character named Vanessa. Up until then, the audience knew that I was an
antagonist but they didn’t know why I was the way I was, what made me tick.
I went to the executive producer at the time and the President of network for
daytime, that’s Angela Shapiro, and I said, “I really feel like we need to bring
somebody on the show from my past, that knows my history. That we can introduce
the audience to who I am and why I am this way. Because we will fade away
quickly because we’ll just be a nuisance in the eyes of the audience. They won’t
get it.” They completely agreed and they created this wonderful storyline for
me that really did substantiate those behaviours, the pathology of the
character. So I loved it. I’m very happy about it.
How do you prepare for a day shoot? You’ve got a ton of dialogue and
it’s a full day. How do you prepare the night before? Is your day and night
just work, work, work?
Vincent Irizarry: It is, yeah. Especially when you’re in a
heavy storyline. I mean, these last three months, I was a major player
throughout the entire story. Everything seemed to be centered around my
character. I was doing seven, eight shows a week. During those times, I could
be working hours of 8 to 14, 16 hours a day on that and then going home and
learning 30, 40, 50 pages of dialogue for the next day. So my hours are
sometimes, 60-70 hours a week.
It’s a lot of work and those weekends, I’m exhausted and it’s just not long
enough frankly those weekends. Because then I’m busy Sunday, you know. Even
Saturday sometimes as well working on stuff for the week, trying to get a head
start on it and I pace myself. It’s a lot. The volume of material that we
produce on a weekly basis is astounding. We did 242 one-hour episodes this past
year. That’s crazy. One-hour episodes or a one-hour nighttime shows, they
shoot in 7-9 days. We do more than an hour-show each day. That should give you
some indication. It’s an enormous amount of material.
What about memorizing the script? Over time, does your brain get used
to soaking up all those lines you see on the page?
Vincent Irizarry: Yeah I think, absolutely. I have always
been good about memorization. When I was younger, I studied classical piano and
I’m not a good sight-reader because I would read the music, I would read like
3-4 times the Chopin Waltz or something and then put it away and not look at it
again and I would just play it by memory. As a result, as I’ve said, I’m not a
good sight-reader, but I still could play some of the songs from 35 years ago by
memory. I just don’t have the technique I used to have back then because I don’t
play as much as I used to. But my memory has always been exercised that way.
The thing is, after I’m done, I basically unload my hard drive, it’s gone. I
don’t have to think about it anymore. And when I see it on TV sometimes a month
later, I have even forgotten about those scenes. “Oh yeah, that’s right.” So,
that’s the way it works.
What was the last day of shooting like on the show?
Vincent Irizarry: It was very emotional. For me, it was
sort of an out-of-body experience. I finished my last lines and it was like, I
couldn’t remember doing the scene. I was doing it with David Canary,
a brilliant actor. He plays Adam and Stuart on the show. And it was emotional
but at the same time, it was a celebration. You know, it’s done. Agnes
Nixon gave a beautiful speech and we’ve all sat around this beautiful
tree that was made for us with the family tree of All My Children. And
everybody came together with the crew and celebrated together and we actually
had a wonderful sending off party. It was very classy.
What are your thoughts about taking the show online. Are you going
to participate?
Vincent Irizarry: I think it’s great. I think it’s a bold
venture by Prospect Park to want to do this. Their intentions are to do 260
one-hour shows a year. They promised the audience they want to maintain the
quality, the integrity of the shows, bring back the past. But we’re still in
the beginning stages of that. There’s a lot to T’s to cross, I’s to dot. They
just started reaching out to a handful of actors, the majority of people they
haven’t even spoken to yet. They are still negotiating with our guilds, which
is a good thing that they even want to negotiate to make sure that everybody who
is working on them get, you know, actor protection, that they need to provide.
That’s what we’re trying to do. That’s exactly what we’re trying to do and I
give them credit, I think they are visionaries in this and I think it’s
certainly the way of the future. So, we’ll see where it all goes.
So how did you get your start?
Vincent Irizarry: Well, I was going to music college,
Berklee College of Music in Boston and it was there that I started working on a
play there. I got involved with a theatre company at the school, which was run
by my English teacher and fell in love with it. He asked me if I’d ever desired
to be an actor or act before and I said, “It was one of the things that I had a
natural interest in but never got off my backside to do anything about it.” And
he invited me to audition for Jean Genet’s play called Deathwatch, he thought
I’d be right for. I got the part and I fell in love with the process. I really
did. For me, I found it even sort of therapeutic. Because I was spending 6-8
hours a day practicing piano by myself in a room every week, day in and day out.
I was becoming more and more anti-social. This was very different, for me it was
almost cathartic. On stage, in front of a group of people having a meltdown and
breakdown right there and like flipping out and killing someone on the stage, or
to to get into the psychology of a person like that and be able to show it
through acting. I loved the process. That’s where it started and from there, I
kept auditioning for other plays in Boston and got them and then decided to come
to New York, and try my hand here. And I did theatre for six years before I did
Guiding Light. That was my first first TV appearance in 1983. It was a two-day
role that turned into a two-year contract, at point on, I’ve worked in
television ever since.
What’s your advice to actors?
Vincent Irizarry: You know, you only become an actor if you
feel that you cannot not be an actor. That you have to do it because it’s a very
difficult vocation and there are no promises, no guarantees. It’s a wonderful
vocation if you are able to get the work and I would say that perseverance is
the key.
I can tell you that many people that I studied with when I first started
acting, I was a scholarship student with Lee Strasberg in New York before he
passed away and many of those same actors didn’t last. Maybe a couple of years,
two years the most but they didn’t persevere. I do believe perseverance is the
key. If you keep persevering, opportunities will avail themselves and you have
to be ready. Be prepared. Take it seriously. I can’t tell you how many times
I meet people that are somewhere even 40 miles outside of New York City, they
go, “I can’t wait to be an actor. I’d like to be an actor someday. I want to
be on a TV show.” And they are working, making an honest living, working maybe
in a restaurant or something. I’d ask, “what are you doing to make that happen
as a reality?” “Nothing.” “Why don’t you go into New York? You’re right here?
40 miles to the city. Go take some acting classes, go do some theatre in the
city.” And they are like, “I don’t know, maybe. Maybe I’ll do that.” Well,
that’s not a passion. That’s not a desire. They are never going to do it.
That’s a pipe dream.
I f you want to
be an actor, its like anything else that you want seriously, you’ve got to have
a passion for it and a desire for it, because that’s the only thing that’s going
to help you with the countless amount of rejections that you have to coming to
you.
Tell me the Tribute to Pine Valley. That’s in October, right?
Vincent Irizarry: Yes, the
Tribute to Pine Valley.
I’m going to be getting together with five other actors from our show. Its’
Darnell Williams who plays Jesse, Cameron Mathison who plays Ryan, Michael E.
Knight who plays Tad, Walt Willey who plays Jackson, and Jacob Young who plays,
J.R. We are going to be doing three nights in October, it’s October 25th,
26th, and 27th, and one in New York in Time Square, a
beautiful old theatre there, Town Hall where we did All my Children. We did our
first Broadway Cares event there years ago. And we are going to be in New
Brunswick at the State Theatre on the 26th of October and on the 27th
of October at the NYC Theatre in Westbury on Long Island where I grew up.
It’s going to be unscripted. We’re going to be there on stage and doing
questions and answers, and pictures. We have the best time when we go to do
these things. It’s just a blast. I think it’s fitting tribute to the end of
the show.
VINCENT'S DEBUT AS A WRITER IN GLADYS
MAGAZINE
September 2010
www.gladysmagazine.com
Vincent will be featured as a regular
columnist in the magazine beginning January 2011
TV GUIDE CANADA INTERVIEW BY
NELSON BRANCO
3-3-10
UP IN THE AIR
Once again, Emmy
winner Vincent Irizarry finds himself commuting back and forth from N.Y. to L.A.
as ‘All My Children’s biggest villain, David Hayward, continues to unleash his
fury in Pine Valley
Watch your back, George Clooney!
There’s a soap star who may just beat your record for most frequent flyer miles!
After over a year of playing the
shady and mysterious David Chow on The Young and the Restless, Irizarry
was happy to permanently move back to New York in 2008 when All My Children
welcomed him back to their show as No. 1 villain David Hayward last year.
For his efforts, Irizarry finally
won a 2009 outstanding supporting actor Emmy Award, which he shared with his
former AMC co-star, Guiding Light’s Jeff Branson.
However, life proved it indeed has a
sick sense of humour, when last fall ABC announced that it was pulling up stakes
and moving its entire production from New York to Los Angeles to save on costs.
But Irizarry is used to living the
life of a gypsy.
At age 11, the Queens, N.Y., native
moved to Lake Grove, N.Y., to study piano, becoming classically trained in the
process, then continued his studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
There, the personable hunk fell in
love with acting while performing in numerous productions with a regional
theater company. Irizarry later decided to move back to New York to sow the
seeds for a career as a professional actor, soon winning a full-time scholarship
with Lee Strasberg at his Theater Institute.
After becoming an overnight
sensation in the breakout role of Lujack on Guiding Light in the early
‘80s, Irizarry left daytime TV to pursue the bright lights of Hollywood. After a
few guest stints on nighttime TV and an unmemorable role on Santa Barbara,
Irizarry returned home to New York to create a new GL role, Nick
McHenry, before assuming arguably his darkest and most complex role to date, Dr.
David Hayward on AMC.
And Irizarry, 50, has never looked
back since.
TVGuide.ca caught up with the
charming actor on Mike Gold’s Soap Cruise this past month to discuss working
with the likes of the late, great Beverlee McKinsey, why AMC’s David
Hayward is his most favourite role, where he keeps his Emmy Award, and why his
Y&R stint was doomed from the start.
TVGuide.ca: All My
Children’s N.Y.-L.A. move is over. How was it?
Vincent Irizarry: Not bad. Obviously, there are variables that are out
of our hands. We’re working with an entirely new crew. We were working with an
entirely new format now that we’re HD. The cameras are different. The lighting
is different. So that’s taking some time to adjust to. Our crew in N.Y. worked
so hard to make our show look seamless despite our lack of time. But that took
25 years. Alchemy needs to be formed in L.A. first. But our new L.A. crew is
wonderful.
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TVG: Adjusting to a new crew must be
akin to dealing with a recast. You need to develop a new rhythm and trust.
Is it surreal working on the left coast but all the sets and actors are the
same?
VI: Yes, it’s very surreal. Rebecca Budig and I taped AMC’s first
scenes in L.A. on January 5th — the show’s 40th anniversary. Taping the 40th
anniversary of a show with an entirely new crew on a different coast and new
sets was the very definition of surreal. Wildwind is an entirely different
set, by the way. But I love that David lives there. |
TVG: How’s it like working with Lorraine
Broderick again?
VI: I love Lorraine! I don’t think a lot of people know this but Lorraine
created my character. David was originally intended to be on the show for only
three months. Six weeks into working with Lorraine, Megan McTavish came in.
Every time I see Lorraine, I run up and thank her for creating this character
but I haven’t spoken with her since she has come back. Any time our show was
struggling with bad writing, I’d always ask [executive producer] Julie Hanan
Carruthers why she wasn’t trying to seduce Lorraine into coming back to AMC.
Just like Agnes Nixon, Lorraine knows the history of the show. As you know,
Lorraine handles AMC with respect and affection. It was odd. Lorraine
is an artist. I was lucky to work with her on GL for a period of time
as well.
TVG: Were you happy with how
former head writer Chuck Pratt Jr. wrote David?
VI: I know people had issues and problems with his writing but I can’t
complain. Chuck wrote David very well. So, personally, I can only talk for
myself and not for anyone else. And I’m grateful to have worked with Chuck. As a
result, I won an Emmy Award with his writing, so you’re not going to hear me
bash Chuck.
TVG: Well, let me interrupt
and just say that you won your Emmy Award. Writing helps, but in the
end, voters judged your acting.
VI: Well, thank you very much. That’s nice to hear, but you never want to bite
the hand that feeds you [in show business]. But you’re right — at the end of the
day, I did have to come up with the goods no matter what the writing was like.
That’s our job as soap actors.
TVG: You’re great at
subtext. And that can make mediocre writing sparkle.
VI: That’s the reason why I love playing David — he’s so complex. There is so
much to work with as an actor. He’s so broken. I do believe that David has
goodness in him. And once in a while, David’s humanity comes through. Those
moments are precious because it throws the audience off balance. David’s just a
human being starving for love, truth and acceptance.
TVG: I wish the show would
explore and explain David’s inner demons more in-depth as Young and the
Restless does with Victor Newman or One Life To Live’s with Todd
Manning.
VI: I thought they did when AMC brought on Marj Dusay as David’s
mother, Vanessa. When I returned to AMC the first time, well, it’s
funny because I went up to [former ABC Daytime President] Angela Shapiro months
and told her I hated that David was just an annoyance to everyone in Pine
Valley. David was in everyone’s face. I told Angela that the audience didn’t
know anything about his past, except for Allie, and we need someone from David’s
past to come on to show. We need to know why David acts the way he does with
women.
TVG: David has major issues with the
opposite sex!
VI: Yes, major issues! Angela agreed with me and created Vanessa with Marj
Dusay. My favourite scene ever is when David first sees Vanessa. At the
time, the audience has no idea that Vanessa was David’s mother-from-hell.
Later, Vanessa runs out with Erica and suddenly has a heart attack! Erica
asks David for help, but all you see is David looking at her like, “You
bitch!” Instead of helping his mother, David just stepped over her body and
left! That said a lot. It was such a rich story. In that story, we learned
David’s father committed suicide in front of him. David’s clearly starved
for love. The only person who loved David put a gun in his mouth and blew
his brains out. What does that do to a human being? David has major
abandonment issues. And a relentless, infinite anger against life —and maybe
his father — for leaving him with this psychotic woman.
TVG: And Marj played your on-screen
mother twice —once on Guiding Light and then on AMC. Not
bad. Most actors familiar in other roles can’t pull that off — but you and
Marj did.
VI: I know! I was so lucky to work with Marj twice.
TVG: You know why it
worked? Marj and you are actors. You didn’t replay Nick/Alex on AMC.
VI: Thank you. That was an important goal of ours. |
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TVG: Not to take anything away from
the marvelous Marj Dusay, but you got to learn acting from the master —
Beverley McKinsey on GL.
VI: Oh my God. I love, love, love Beverlee McKinsey. That’s why I mentioned
her in my Emmy acceptance speech. She was at the top of the list. She had
such a significant effect on me as a young actor. I was 23! When they told
me GL was bringing on McKinsey as my mother, I had no idea who she
was because I didn’t know the medium. Everyone came up to me and said, “Oh
my God — you’re so lucky. Beverlee is an icon.” We clicked immediately. I
adored her. I respected her professionalism. In fact, to be honest, she
defined that term for me. She knew her lines, was always prepared.
As I grow older, I realize it’s people like
Beverlee who have had the biggest impact in my life. Angela Lansbury is
another hero in my life. I did a guest spot on Murder, She Wrote. I
learned from Angela that you have to make it fun for the crew to come in to
work. And they did have fun! Oh, they did. Show business is a team effort. I
don’t understand why lead actors have to be jerks on set. Remember when
Lansbury explains everything at the end of the episode of Murder, She
Wrote? She did it all in one take. And the crew appreciated that, let
me tell you. James Mitchell was another hero of mine.
TVG: Did you ever think you’d end up
an Emmy-winning soap actor/superstar?
VI: I never watched a soap in my life. This is one of the great ironies of
my life. When I was a teenager, my older brother and sister got hooked on
General Hospital’s Luke and Laura storyline — and I’d always make
fun of them for watching it! Every day, I remember walking through my house
where my grandparents were watching either Days of our Lives or
General Hospital, but I never sat down and watched with them. I didn’t
think anything of it other than teasing my brothers and sister for watching
soaps. Twenty-five years later, I’ve made a career out of the soap medium.
So who’s the loser now, right [Laughs]?! |
TVG: How did you feel when CBS cancelled
Guiding Light?
VI: Terrible! Especially when they announced they were replacing this
iconic TV series with a game show. It all comes down to business. Robert Newman
said that he’s happy Let’s Make A Deal was critically panned and didn’t
draw in huge ratings, but it’s cheaper to produce. That decision has tarnished
the CBS brand. It’s the New Coke syndrome.
TVG: You are one of those
rare actors in the business who created not one but three breakout roles. GL’s
Nick and Lujack, and AMC’s David. What happened on The Young and
the Restless with David Chow?
VI: When [former Y&R chief] Lynn Marie Latham found out I was leaving
AMC, she brought me on. Lynn’s always wanted to work with me. So she
gave a role that was only mentioned on camera and was never slated to be on
camera. That’s why I was stuck with the name of David Chow.
TVG: [Joking] Because you
look so Asian!
VI: I know, right [Laughs]! David Chow wasn’t one of those characters that was
fully formed or thought out. Heck, I was still airing on AMC when I
signed on with Y&R.
TVG: Where did LML fall in
love with you? Was she a soap fan?
VI: Before my three-month contract expired, Lynn took me out for dinner
to convince me to stay on Y&R. She told me she saw me audition for a
show she was creating, Homeward Bound, and she really wanted me for one
of the parts because I blew away the audition but the network didn’t think I was
right. But Lynn told me she never forgot my audition, which was quite flattering
to hear. It was between David Schwimmer and a few other big names. Clearly, I
lost the role.
TVG: For a fan, she didn’t
write for you very well on Y&R.
VI: In the beginning, I had a lot of fun working with Victoria Rowell. She was
like a raw nerve, Victoria, you never knew what she’d do on set or with her
character, Dru. I love working with actors like that. Y&R was trying to
find David’s footing but then the writers’ strike happened. So things changed.
Ultimately, the new head writers made David a gambling addict and killed him off
the show. But I have to say David’s exit storyline was my favourite. Those last
five months on the show were a pleasure because Y&R had finally fleshed
out the character.
TVG: David’s exit storyline is still
impacting the Genoa City canvas till this day.
VI: I know. Which I think is so cool. What I loved about David is that he
wasn’t a heartless figure. He was a tragic figure who couldn’t win against
his addictions because they governed every aspect of his life. Personally, I
really believed David loved Nikki. It was ironic because just as I was
leaving Y&R, I finally felt like I could sink my teeth into David.
And I think the audience was coming around and finally enjoying David Chow
as well.TVG: When did AMC
contact you to reprise David Hayward?
VI: I think it was the last day I was taping Y&R. |
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TVG: And now you’re commuting back and
forth between L.A. and New York for AMC! Do you feel like life is
playing a little joke on you because when you filmed Y&R, you were
commuting as well?
VI: I never expected that. The best part of coming back to AMC is that
I wouldn’t be away from my children. Ten months later, after 40 years, ABC
announced we were moving to L.A. I had no idea how that was possible. I was in
shock. So that night, I bought an expensive bottle of red wine and told me wife,
“Honey, I’m going to be commuting again.” She was like, “Are you kidding me?’ We
decided to stay in New York because we didn’t want to uproot our children’s
lives. I got a nice-sized apartment in Santa Monica, Calif., so my kids like to
come with me and visit L.A. Commuting can be really tough on your body because
of the time difference, but if you’re in L.A. for at least four days, flying
back to New York isn’t as tough on your system. Less than four days, it begins
to wear on you.
TVG: Finally, what’s the
reaction to AMC’s new HD format? Are certain actors scared?
VI: Some people were worried. I had already shot in HD on Y&R
so I was prepared. I keep constantly telling people it’s fine. Everything is
new.
TVG: Where’s the Emmy Award?
VI: It’s in my bedroom! I didn’t want to display it in our living room.
I wanted to hide it a bit and have the award blend in. Once my office is
finished, I’ll probably move it in there. But the Emmy means a lot to me because
I felt like I was winning it in Beverlee's honour. The fact that Beverlee never
won an Emmy always bothered me and defies logic. I felt bad for Beverlee because
I convinced her to put her name up for consideration and when the industry
didn’t nominate her, I was heartbroken that the system failed. So when my name
was called, I could feel that she was smiling down from the heavens.
Beliefnet.com
|
SOAP VILLAIN'S
CHRISTIAN WALK
Vincent Irizarry, the machiavellian
Dr. David Hayward on 'All My Children,' is devoted to spreading the Word.
Interview by Wendy Schuman
Beliefnet.com – www.beliefnet.com
Soap opera fans know actor Vincent
Irizarry as the manipulative Dr. David Hayward, head of cardiology at Pine
Valley Hospital on the ABC-TV daytime drama "All My Children." The
black-haired, rugged actor, 42, has appeared on the series since 1997, when
his temporary stint (as a doc stoops to blackmail and attempted murder to
win back his girlfriend) was so popular that he returned in an ongoing role.
In 1999 the charismatic bad guy won Soap Opera Digest’s Award for
Outstanding Villain. Irizarry, 42, has appeared in a long list of soaps, TV
series, and films, in which he has played an abusive husband (Marie—A True
Story) and a seducer with a double life (Lying Eyes—a staple on Lifetime).
What many fans don’t realize is that Irizarry is a strong, believing
Christian whose faith infuses his life. Formerly married to Santa Barbara
co-star Signy Coleman, Irizarry, a father of three, lives with his second
wife, Avalon, in a suburb of New York City.
This month Irizarry creates a new role
off-camera as the driving force behind an ambitious yearlong walk through
the Bible for Christians in his hometown. "God kept putting it on my heart"
to help people become more Bible-literate, he notes. He expected about 30 or
so sign-ups. Instead, after a personal drive by Irizarry, nearly 200 people
from seven churches committed to the program. Irizarry spoke with Beliefnet
producer Wendy Schuman about his faith, his struggles with playing bad-guy
roles, and whether there’s any hope for Dr. David Hayward.
Do you ever feel it’s hard to retain
your faith and do what you do?
No, my faith informs pretty much
everything I do. [Acting] is a very liberal vocation, and there have been
times when I’ve questioned whether this is where I should be in my life as a
Christian, whether I should be in the entertainment industry. But then I
come up with the answer that I don’t believe that God is telling Christians
to pull out of the entertainment industry and abandon it to darkness. God
has used me in many significant ways in my industry, even on just a personal
level, one on one with some of the people I work with.
To be honest, in all different
industries and professions, it’s hard being a person of faith. The fact is
that we’re people living in a world that’s fallen, so no matter where you
turn there are always going to be complications. Do we abandon it? You have
a responsibility to bring something to wherever you are. I know that God is
infusing light into every business. God has even used me through fans who
have come together to form a group called "Friends of Vincent Irizarry."
These are fans who’ve met on the Internet and started meeting each other at
personal appearances I was doing. They came to me a year and a half ago and
asked if I’d like to have a fan club. I said it’s never really been an
interest of mine, and I don’t want to be in a situation where people are
exalting me, coming together for me. They came up with this wonderful idea—a
lot of them are women of faith—they asked, what if we used this as a means
to make people aware of some charitable organizations that you’re involved
in? We had an online auction on Ebay with memorabilia from "All My
Children," lunches with people from the cast, a tour of our show—we’ve
raised $25,000 for a group called Hope for New York. In a year and a half
we’ve raised $50,000. Right now we’re sponsoring a home for Habitat for
Humanity in Pittsburgh.
And this is because I know that God is
using me in my industry. But soap opera plots—with things like infidelity
and murder—seem to show the worst of life. I sometimes hear this from other
Christians, how can you be an actor in soap operas and be a Christian? Well,
our faith informs us that there’s only one perfect human being who ever
walked the earth, and all the others we’re representing as actors are fallen
man. I ask people, what movies are you seeing, what books are you reading
that don’t have antagonists and protagonists? Every story, when you boil it
down to its bare essence, is the story of the battle between good and evil.
And every story has a message, that usually good prevails. And that is our
experience in life—that good does prevail and that there are consequences
from evil. Because of man’s fallen nature, people put themselves into
situations that have consequences. It’s cause and effect.
I could say, OK, I won’t play this
character on a soap opera, but why don’t I play King David, who the Bible
says was a man after God’s own heart. But King David lusted after another
person’s wife, committed adultery, killed her husband, and covered it up. So
God is showing us that even the best of the people in the Bible had their
faults and committed heinous crimes.
Would Dr. David Hayward join your
Bible study group?
[Laughs.] Not now, that’s for sure.
But the one thing I like about Dr. Hayward—he’s a villain, by the way, I
don’t know if you knew that. He’s an antagonist, definitely—but the great
thing about him is that there’s room for redemption. And there have been
moments in the years I’ve been playing him that he’s been humbled and he’s
had to make choices. Unfortunately, oftentimes he’ll depend on his own
strength and his old habits to pull himself up. But it’s exciting because
you never know—the day may come with this character where he may be
completely transformed. It’s happened to the worst of us.
Do you know many actors who are active
Christians?
I’m on the board of Intermission, a
ministry that brings together Christians in the entertainment
industry—actors, writers, directors, producers, singers, dancers,
everything. We have events, speakers, and even a theater company in L.A.
There are 2000 members in L.A. alone. The whole purpose is to equip
Christians to have an impact on the industry. We do Bible studies, and we
just finished a fantastic one called Experiencing God, by Henry Blackaby.
Before that we did a study of Philip Yancy’s What’s So Amazing About Grace?
In the Experiencing God, the whole premise is that God is always working and
that God desires to have an intimate personal love relationship with his
children. He’s equipped each of us for certain acts of service—He
communicates to us through His word, through prayer, through communion with
others, and even through events that take place in our lives.
Can you think of an instance in which
God communicated with you?
This [Bible literacy program] is a
perfect instance of this coming about. When I felt called to start it, I
could easily have just ignored it, and in time it would have disappeared.
But I prayed and said, OK, God, I’ll take one step forward. If this is what
you want, show me. And every time I took that step forward there was
something encouraging that moved me to the next step. Even when I got out of
my comfort zone, God moved me to the next level and opened it up greater
than I ever could have imagined.
How did you get so many people in your
town to do a yearlong walk through the Bible?
As an actor, I get the opportunity to
worship a lot around the country, sometimes for extended periods of time
because I may be doing a movie somewhere. When I was making Lying Eyes in
Northern California, I was doing another study, Bible Study Fellowship, an
intensive 7-year course. That was an amazing study. They have BSF meetings
all over the world. I was able to do my BSF with gatherings in Los Gatos, in
San Antonio, Denver, Vancouver when I was filming The Sentinel—all over the
place. You can be studying anywhere in the world, and they’ll literally all
be doing the same lessons that we’d be doing in New York or L.A.
Because I got the opportunity to do
that, I spent time with people from different churches and got a sense of
how knowledgeable they are about the Bible. I knew that many people in my
community who are Christians are not very knowledgeable about their faith.
It’s not a criticism, it’s an observation, because I personally know that
the Bible can be very intimidating. And people aren’t aware of how relevant
it is to us in our everyday lives. There are lessons to be gained everyday.
And I felt like God was putting it on my heart to extend an invitation to
people to read the Bible together, to help them in any way I can to become
more Bible-literate. So I wrote a letter of introduction to about 15
churches, pastors of different churches, and seven committed to it. They’re
from six different denominations—Congregational, Lutheran, Catholic,
Baptist, nondenominational, and two Presbyterian churches.
How is it set up?
We’re using the Daily Walk Bible, New
International Version, from Tyndale. We’ll be meeting every other Tuesday in
one of t he churches to gain a teaching from these pastors, reverends or
monsignors on what we’ve read for the two weeks prior and some insight into
what we’ll be reading for the next two weeks. We’ll break into small groups
that will stay together for at least six months, so people will get to know
each other personally. One of the purposes is to become more attuned to
where God is working in our community and to get to know the needs of the
other believers. We’re not there to proselytize or lead anybody from one
denomination to another. Where there are denominational differences in
teachings and interpretations, we’ll consider those hot spots and not delve
into them. We’re going to respectfully agree to disagree and move on.
Why give yourselves a time limit?
I myself am very goal-oriented. If I
don’t have goal in sight, it’s very difficult for me not to lose my focus;
and I think a lot of people are like this. So this offers a daily
discipline—you have five to fifteen minutes a day to read. I was appealing
to several categories of people who would be right for this study. The first
were people who had never read the Bible in its entirety; the second were
people who had read the Bible but who had gotten to a place where they were
either dry in their faith or they were having difficulty finding the
discipline to be in the Word on a daily basis. Another category are people
who are new believers and look at the Bible as intimidating, who don’t know
how to approach the reading. And another category are people who don’t have
a faith, who are curious about what it means to be a Christian, who don’t
understand why their spouse is perhaps forcing them to come to church every
Sunday. We’re hoping that in time some answers might be given and also that
they might understand why our faith is so significant to us. |
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