‘Phoenix’
Soap Opera Weekly Star Track: Life After Soaps
April 1995
On Soaps, Stephen Nichols played a Zen psychologist and one eyed rebel, respectively. But in Triad Films’ new release, Phoenix, he portrays a character with more of an edge- a mechanical edge in fact.
“I am a soldier who is commissioned by Billy Drago’s character, Kilgore, to go down to a mining complex and take care of a group of unruly androids,” Nichols says of his character, Tyler McClain. After several twists and turns, he realizes he is an android as well. He was Kilgore’s prized creation. It’s a real action-oriented film.”
Nichols was apprehensive about working in the action-adventure genre. “It’s the first time I’ve played an action hero and I thought, ‘Oh boy, I have to be the big hero and stand up and fight.’ I was a little intimidated by the idea at first because I generally don’t see myself that way. So it was a real challenge for me and I enjoyed it.”
In addition to Phoenix, the actor appears in two upcoming films. In Heaven’s Tears, Nichols plays a soldier in 1939 Czechoslovakia who falls in love with a Jewish woman. “It’ll probably go straight to video,” he notes. “There’s not a lot of violence, but there is quite frankly, a lot of sex. I was probably naked 40 percent of the time in that movie. I had to be in great shape for that one!” In Paramount Pictures’ Cover Me, Nichols plays a killer. “It’s a suspense story.”
On the small screen the actor recently had a stint on Empty Nest. I played Laverne’s boyfriend, Matt. We were childhood friends back in Hickory, Arkansas,” says Nichols slipping into the Southern accent he used for the role. “I came to visit and we realized that we love each other.” He returns for the show’s finale April 29, when the characters marry.
Having gotten a taste of the sitcom life, Nichols wouldn’t mind something more permanent in the future. “I’ve been going out on a lot of pilot auditions for sitcoms this season. In the past, they wouldn’t even see me. They wouldn’t think of me in that light. So I had to prove myself in that arena and now people are calling all over the place.”
Of course, the actor is still open to the idea of daytime, particularly Days. “When I look back on my days on soaps, it was more like real work for me, in terms of having some control over what I was doing and being able to really create a character,” he relates. “Of course, you don’t really know that until you leave, and then you look back and say, ‘That wasn’t such a bad experience.’ The chemistry of everybody involved was so magical; I don’t think that could be repeated. But with good writing, and good story, I think we could do another whirl.”
When not busy acting, Nichols is teaching drama. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, especially with children,” says the father of three. “The best actors in the world are children; they’re natural actors.”
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