After years alone, Walt Willey‘s Jackson Montgomery suddenly finds himself with an extended family on ALL MY CHILDREN that includes a newfound daughter (Greenlee) and adopted son (Reggie). Newly tanned, Willey is freshly returned from spending quality with his real-life family on a vacation in Hawaii….Walt Willey: I was vacationing with my family in Hawaii and it seems like a dream now, it was so wonderful. My wife, Marie, arranged everything. We stayed in a tree house in a mango tree, and we stayed in this $6 million, 11-sided 360-degree-view house in Honolulu. It was sitting on 106 acres, including waterfalls and pools. It was wonderful. We kept a log book every night…with drawings of everything inside.Weekly: How old is your son, Chance, now?
Willey: He’s 8. He’s off the hook. All of a sudden he has this fear of spiders. We were in a jungle area and you couldn’t help seeing a spider or spider web. He was getting very excited about the whole thing: “Oh, God, no, no spiders! God, no, I hate them! I hate them!” I said, “Chance, just be quiet, just listen, what do you hear?” “I hear water running.” “Yeah, that’s a little brook there.What else do you hear?” “I hear birds singing.” “What else can you hear?” “I hear myself screaming there are spiders everywhere!” The kid is just scary — he was setting me up the whole time.Weekly: And your daughter?
Willey: She’s 5. When you look at her without any perspective to her size, she looks like a 14-year-old girl — with a little “bukini,” as she calls it.Weekly: Your character, Jack, has also been spending a lot of time with his new family lately.
Willey: It was nice to see “my” family because for about the past six or seven years I was pretty light on that. I think right now we have truly the best ensemble of actors this show has had in a long, long time — since Peter Bergman [ex-Dr. Cliff Warner; now Jack, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS] was here. I mean, this guy here [Cameron Mathison, Ryan] — he came back 10 times the actor he was. Having a baby changes all of that.Weekly: Jack has a lot going on with Greenlee and the other kids.
Willey: The poor guy, he doesn’t have sex! Jack has a lot of kids. It’s pretty amazing. I constantly get e-mail [saying] I wish I had an Uncle Jack. I do think Jack is a really nice guy. I don’t think he’s a doormat. I’ve learned a lot of lessons from Jack in terms of relations with my family — I really have. I think of things he’s done on the set, how he just bites the bullet and accepts them.
Weekly: He’s tough, sticking by Erica….
Willey: He sticks by her, and I think that’s the reason that relationship has had such longevity. It’s the reason that I have had such longevity on the show. You can say Mike Roy is the only one who can handle her — and they do compare Jack and Mike Roy. I understand the comparison, but I don’t try to “handle” her. He gives her space — grudgingly, sometimes, and I’m sure it’s with a great deal of rationalization, but who can get through the day without one big, fat rationalization, you know? [Like] the way they got Reggie to be my son. It was kind of forced, but it’s turned out wonderfully, and I love Michael [B. Jordan, Reggie].Weekly: And he’s a great young actor.
Willey: He lives in Newark [N.J.] and I live in Jersey City. Now he’s driving and has his own car — a nicer car than mine, by the way! I’m driving a Ram 4 and he’s driving a brand-new Beemer. It’s a little embarrassing. Before he got his license I used to drive him, so we built quite a rapport in those rides, we talked and stuff.
