INTERVIEW WITH SOAP OPERA DIGEST ONLINE
Stephen Nichols
ROLE: Stefan Cassadine, GENERAL HOSPITAL
BIRTHDAY: February 19
HOMETOWN: Cincinnati, Ohio
FAMILY TIES: Wife: Lisa. Children: Vanessa, Aaron, Dylan. “I have a beautiful 19-year-old daughter who is going off to college, my 17-year-old is in junior college, and my little girl is wonderful. They’re all great kids. I have a great life, I’m blessed. Especially with my family.”
OTHER SOAP CREDITS: Steve “Patch” Johnson, DAYS OF OUR LIVES; Skylar Gates, SANTA BARBARA
JUST SPOOFING OFF: Nichols had a bit part in the 1991 soap spoof “Soap Dish”, and recently filmed a soap satire vignette titled “Dutch Elm Palm Heights” for the USA Network, which will air in October. It was a change of pace from his GH character. “Yes, my dark and dreary existence at Wyndemere…. Wind and beer!” Nichols joked. “Yes, it’s quite different. It’s nice to break out and do something a little crazy. I always enjoy doing that. Stefan is certainly a very serious person, and not the kind of person who would be a laugh a minute, you know. So this is good to be able to do this.”
THE COMPLEX CASSADINE
When the Cassadine family invaded Port Charles the last time around, they were an evil bunch who tried to turn the world into a popsicle. The recent influx of Cassadines are three brooding, complex and attractive characters — with their own megalomaniacal fantasies. Soap Opera Digest Online chatted with STEPHEN NICHOLS about his character Stefan and what the future holds in that happenin’ town in upstate New York.
DIGEST ONLINE: What’s it like playing Stefan Cassadine everyday?
NICHOLS: It’s a great challenge for me, because the character is so specific in terms of motivation and speech patterns and all that kind of stuff. It’s a real challenge because I can’t just walk in and kind of play myself, and paraphrase. I have to be so damn prepared. It’s good work, good hard work.
DIGEST ONLINE: Do you put any of yourself into Stefan?
NICHOLS: Well, I have to. You know, I think every actor has to put himself into the people — because you’re playing real people. The word ‘character’ kind of irritates me, as a matter of fact, because I really think they’re people. I have to look at them as people and I have to speak from that point of view. But, yes, absolutely, I have to put my life experiences in every person I portray.
DIGEST ONLINE: So what of Stephen is in Stefan?
NICHOLS: Fierce determination and a very soft spot for children. I think Stefan feels the same way in that children should not suffer the indignities of the world. I think it’s a great device to have a child in my life on GENERAL HOSPITAL because it gives me that chance to show the vulnerable side.
DIGEST ONLINE: So when do you think Nikolas’ paternity issue will come to light?
NICHOLS: I have no idea. That is a real big card that they can hold onto for as long as they want to and use it whenever. So, I don’t have any idea. There are no immediate plans to reveal anything about that.
DIGEST ONLINE: You reached daytime stardom as Patch Johnson, who was such a great character on DAYS, and now you’ve come onto GH, as another, totally different and yet, incredibly rich, complex character.
NICHOLS: Well, I have Bob Guza to thank for that because he actually created the concept for the Stefan character. And yes, it was a very hard thing, coming in like that and having to recreate that kind of success, and trying to come up to that level, that I couldn’t think of it in terms of that, really. I had to just think of it as another job, and there was work to do, and I have to discover who Stefan is as I go. It was a great challenge, and I’m real happy about it. I’m just grateful for the opportunity.
DIGEST ONLINE: How do you like working with TYLER CHRISTOPHER, who was pretty much just starting out when you began working together?
NICHOLS: Well, you know, he’s such a brand new actor, a lot of great, raw energy. He just has that thing, you know? He has that presence, he has the talent. It was a lot of fun working with him because there was nothing in the way. You could just be there with him in the scene and he would respond. He gave me a lot of stuff to respond to. It was fabulous, and it still is. We love working with each other. It’s a real great match.
DIGEST ONLINE: What’s it like working with MARY BETH EVANS again?
NICHOLS: It’s a joy. I love Mary Beth. I’m hoping that the angle that they come up with for the story between us — the romance — is believable and really in character for Stefan and Katherine because we’re two very complex people now, not like Patch and Kayla — they were very simple people. You know it’s hard to come up with story, and to do it right.
DIGEST ONLINE: How do you feel about their romance thus far?
NICHOLS: I think there have been some very good things about it, and there have been some things that [have been] questionable. But all in all, I think that we’ve done our jobs.
DIGEST ONLINE: Do you know that there’s an online group called the Crystal Tree?
NICHOLS: Yes! They send me a lot of letters, sort of love letters to us. I really appreciate that a lot. A lot of [the letters] were very astute. You could tell that people were watching the show and forming their own opinions about their relationship and the way Stefan feels, the way Katherine feels. A lot of the stuff was very smart, right on. I really appreciate letters like that.
DIGEST ONLINE: Where would you like to see the romance go?
NICHOLS: Well, you know, I’m not a writer. That’s why I can never criticize these people who have to write an hour show a day. Because it’s got to be just such a brutal job. So, I don’t know exactly. I just know that whatever we do has to be motivated from a very clear point of view, because Stefan is a very clear, very awake person, and so is Katherine. Nobody’s ditzy, and goofy here, these people don’t do things impulsively. She might, I don’t know, but Stefan does not. So, it just has to be very specific and well-thought out. You can’t just say, “Oh, why don’t we have them be stranded on an island somewhere and then, you know, a boa constructor slithers up between them and gets in the way.” I don’t know, you just can’t throw any old thing out there for these two people, it has to be specific. It can’t be anybody else’s scene. They can’t write us scenes that they write for other people. It cannot be, because we’re just too well-defined. Especially, I think, Stefan. I’m not a Quartermaine, so don’t write me dialogue that sounds like Quartermaine dialogue. I’m a little different ilk. I’m slightly European, probably more educated, not sarcastic. Sarcastic humor to Stefan is cheap. Whenever that stuff comes up I just go, wait, that’s not me.
DIGEST ONLINE: There was a recent episode where Stefan was picking up on the differences. Nikolas had said something that sounded very American. It must be so difficult for you to maintain the speech pattern of Stefan.
NICHOLS: It’s not difficult if it’s in the script, because I can learn those words. And I notice things. Because I am American, I can kill those Americanisms when they come up. I can say, whoa, that’s not it, or that’s an Americanism. We’ve made a big point of it now, and the writers know about it and it’s an issue. We have a writer named Elizabeth Korte, she writes an occasional script — she should be writing more, but — she wrote that script where I met Katherine at the poolside and talked about the Americanisms and I appreciated that. She really tuned into what I was doing. You know, if they write it, I can say it, and I can make it my own, but if they don’t write it, then it becomes something else, and it’s not character specific.
DIGEST ONLINE: Where would you like to see Stefan go?
NICHOLS: Go? Straight to hell! (laughs) Oh, God, I can’t say, because I’m walking such a fine line with that whole Stefan thing. Is he a villain? Can an evil man love? All those questions, I don’t know, I mean, I’m not a writer. I just want them to write good stuff, and I’m there for it, I’ll show up for it. It’s hard to say, because it’s very convoluted with this Katherine thing, and getting rid of Bobbie… it seems like, sometimes there’s a tendency, when they know a story is not going to go anywhere, they kind of cut it off at the knees before it’s really finished, and the thing with Bobbie and I was sort of cut off at the knees because they decided — well, they knew from the beginning, really, that it wasn’t going to be a real soap romance, you know, that something else was going to happen. So, instead of really finishing the story out as it would be naturally, in terms of what character, what they would do, they sort of chopped it off. I have complete confidence in the writers and I know that they’ll work things out.
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