Star: STEPHEN NICHOLS
Role: Stefan Cassadine, GENERAL HOSPITAL
Birthday: February 19
Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio
Soap Credits: Steve ("Patch") Johnson, DAYS OF OUR LIVES
Skylar, SANTA BARBARA
GH Reunions: 1) Mary Beth Evans (Katherine) played Patch's wife,
Kayla, on DAYS;
2) Matthew Ashford (Tom) played Patch's brother, Jack, on DAYS;
3) Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis) played Julia on
SANTA BARBARA;
4) Genie Francis (Laura) played Diana on DAYS;
5) Wally Kurth (Ned) played Justin on DAYS
KING OF THE CASSADYNASTY
Stephen Nichols talks about DAYS gone by, his raucous reunion with Charles Shaughnessy, the role role he didn't get on GH, cross-dressing, family life... and more
DIGEST ONLINE: Tell us about your role in the movie, "The Glass Cage"...
NICHOLS: I shot it last year right here in L.A. with Eric Roberts. It's
a New Orleans cop story. It's a very interesting character. I'm a French
Algerian man who was a bartender in the bad guys' club in New Orleans.
In the beginning of the movie they cut my finger off, my little finger,
because I've stolen a bottle of liquor. My name is Renzi, by the way.
I spend half of the film chasing Eric Roberts around who is Detective
Monterchez. I'm trying to convince him that these people are dealing
heroin, and he's not listening to me because he has a plan of his own.
Subsequently, I get caught with a bag of heroin, which I have stolen
from the bad guys to show as evidence, and they end up cutting my hand
off. It's basically me running around trying to convince these people
that these are drug dealers, they're bad people. I'm trying to get
revenge.
DIGEST ONLINE: You've done several other films recently, too...
NICHOLS: I did "Threesome" with William Baldwin and Lara Flynn Boyle,
and another movie called "Cover Me." I played the killer in that one.
It was an interesting role because I was in drag most of the time. I
also played an action hero in a film called "Phoenix." [fyi: You can
look for all these films in video rental.]
DIGEST ONLINE: You were one of the first daytimers to guest star on THE
NANNY? Didn't you play a soap star in that episode?
NICHOLS: Yes. It was a real blast.
DIGEST ONLINE: Was it fun to be reunited with Charles Shaughnessy, who
used to play Shane Donovan on DAYS?
NICHOLS: Yes. I was just so happy for him, to see what success he's
gotten. He's just such a nice man -- a good actor and a good worker --
and I was really happy for him. It was sort of like coming home in a way
, the two of us working together again, after doing the soap for so long
. [During rehearsal] we were remembering scenes that we had done on the
soap. Some ridiculous stuff. Adventures -- yeah, we had to laugh. There
were times he had to untie me, I had to untie him. It was a lot of fun
to reminisce.
DIGEST ONLINE: Was it pure coincidence that you wound up being cast on
THE NANNY?
NICHOLS: Yeah, I read for the show. They liked my performance and they
hired me.
DIGEST ONLINE: Was Shaughnessy surprised when you walked on the set?
NICHOLS: Oh, yeah. He wasn't aware of anything that was going on. I
didn't know that Fran Drescher had any connection with the soaps, but [I
guess she's watched them]. While we were rehearsing the episode, they
asked me if I would put my patch on at the end of the show. I kind of
resisted, because at the time I was also shooting SECOND CHANCES, a
series with Connie Sellecca. I had a recurring role on that. I needed
time to go shoot that show and so it was kind of a bargaining chip [at
THE NANNY]. I said, "Okay, I'll put the patch on at the end if, you let
me go and do this other job and come into rehearsal late." They let me
do it. I could have actually asked for more money, maybe, but it was
more important to me to go [do the other show].
DIGEST ONLINE: During your long stint in Salem, you became very
identified with that eyepatch. In retrospect, how do you feel about DAYS?
NICHOLS: It was fine. The truth is, this whole soap thing, it was so
huge for me. When I took the job, I thought, "Oh, my goodness, this is
not going to be a problem, I'll have a patch, and when I'm finished with
that job, when I decide that I've had enough, I'll take the patch off
and that'll be that." There are a lot of actors film stars, who did
soaps for a year or two -- Kevin Bacon, Ray Liotta, there's a big list.
These guys never got huge on a soap. They were on for a year or two. But
in my case, I was on for five years and within two years, I was all over
the supermarkets, on magazines. My name, Stephen Nichols [was everywhere
].
DIGEST ONLINE: Was it hard finding other acting work after you left DAYS?
NICHOLS: When I left and I went out in the world, and tried to get
other work, people know who I [was]. I don't care what anybody says,
they look down on soaps. The general population of the entertainment
industry looks down on soaps. They look at you as a soap actor. They
label you. It's not character, it's not type casting, it's media casting
. You're either a soap actor, a TV actor or a film actor and, quite
frankly, it's taken me a very, very long time -- it's been a struggle to
make inroads into these other areas.
DIGEST ONLINE: Do you think New York actors have a slight edge on the
Hollywood casting scene?
NICHOLS: If you are well known in the theater circuit, the casting
directors who cast films, who cast A-list pictures, know you from
theater and that gives you a little extra prestige. I've done a lot of
theater in Los Angeles, and I've won awards for the work I've done here.
But in Los Angeles it doesn't carry the same weight. When people know
that an actor is from New York, or has trained in New York, or has done
some work in New York, that person is known as "a New York actor." That
carries with it some prestige. When I started out in this town, and I
was auditioning for different things, people asked me if I was a New
York actor. They got that sense just from my edge or whatever, my
personality. They got a sense that I was a New York actor. It came to a
point where I just wanted to say, "Yes," because I knew it was an extra
boost for your prestige as an actor.
DIGEST ONLINE: You almost joined GENERAL HOSPITAL a few years back, long
before the Stefan Cassadine offer came up. Why didn't your first
negotiaitons with GH pan out?
NICHOLS: Yeah, I almost took a job on GH [a few years ago]. I was going
to do the Damian Smith thing. That same week, I also got the series,
SECOND CHANCES, and a movie. GH said, "If you take this job here, you
can't do the movie and you can't do the series." I was stuck between a
rock and a hard place, because here's the financial security, the chance
to work with Mary Beth Evans [ex-Kayla, now GH's Katherine] again, and
also with [producer] Shelley Curtis. It looked like a really nice
situation. Mary Beth couldn't say enough good things about the working
conditions, all the people. But I got these other gigs and I just had to
say no. I tried to work it out with [GH], but they didn't want me to do
the other work. Plus the fact that they wanted me to test for that job
[as Damian]. There was some [ABC] executive in New York who said, "Oh,
we've never seen Stephen play an upscale character; he's always played a
street guy, he's got to test.'
DIGEST ONLINE: But you played an upscale character on L.A. LAW. Couldn't
ABC have watched a tape of that?
NICHOLS: Yeah, and I've got a whole lot of other tapes. I was an
attorney on that show. But that was the situation, and I was a little
reluctant to actually go and test. Then they said I couldn't do the
other jobs, so I had to finally just turn them down. It was a very long
process of [executive producer] Wendy Riche bringing me in to meet
everybody. The network people in LA all loved me. The directors loved me
. They all just wanted to work with me. And at the last minute I had to
pull out. It was a very hard decision.
DIGEST ONLINE: Patch and Kayla made such an impact in the mid-1980s. Do
you think DAYS ultimately fumbled the storyline?
NICHOLS: Overall, it was one of the most exciting experiences I've ever
had as an actor. That was [true] for maybe the first three years of my
tenure on DAYS. Then after that, things just started to go really sour.
After [Patch and Kayla} were married, they started to develop other
characters and they kind of dropped the ball with us, which I believe
was a major mistake on their part. They actually admitted it, too, that
they just weren't thinking clearly. They didn't have story for us after
we were married.
DIGEST ONLINE: Tell us a little about your family life....
NICHOLS: My wife Lisa and I have a house here in Los Angeles. We're in a
wonderful neighborhood, with my kids in a great school. I've got three
of them. Vanessa is my oldest; she's 18. She's in college. She worked
very hard and graduated high school at 16. Aaron is 15 now, he's my son.
Aaron was on DAYS when he was 5 years old. My little girl is Dylan.
She'll was 5 in September.
Thanks to Dana Dietz for sending me this Q&A.