While sitting down with Weekly for a recent feature interview, ONE LIFE TO LIVE’s Nathaniel Marston (Michael) opened up about his secret passion.
Beginning with the seemingly innocuous statement of “I’ve been watching a lot of surfing videos,” he gives us an intimate look at something that, for him, goes beyond wetsuits and boogie boards.
“Step Into Liquid,” he goes on to rave, “and then there’s the second movie, Riding Giants. This guy Laird Hamilton — an absolute freaking animal, Dude. He’s just a beast. I would like to be put together like that dude, Laird Hamilton. You look at this guy’s body. He’s 6 foot 3, 215 pounds of pure [muscle].”
Marston’s admiration of the famous professional surfer doesn’t stop there. “The reason he’s in such good shape is you have to be. If he wasn’t in that type of shape and bailed on a wave, he would get his arm ripped right out of his socket. He’s a serious guy. He’s the top of what he does. Big wave riders, he’s the guy.”
Although he’s riding his own big wave of daytime success as one-half of the fan favorite Marcie/Michael pairing, Marston admits, “If I had to have a hero, that guy [Hamilton] would be it. He lives the life I wanted for myself.”
Marston is unabashedly candid. “I cry every time I watch it [the video],” he tells WEEKLY. “I mean, I literally do ’cause sometimes I feel like I missed the boat. It’s really strange but, [for] a lot of people, what I do is what they aspire to do. I grew up in Hawaii, for a period of time, and I was great. I was a really good surfer. I still surf well, but I’m not really great at it. If I had kept with it…I really missed the boat, huh?”
They say that home is where the heart is and Marston confirms, “A lot of it is Hawaii. My heart is there. It’s like, wow, that’s something I could have done with that life. You wake up with the sea; your playground is the ocean. Your office is the ocean. I am a success at what I want to do, but I feel like I missed the boat.”
Life in New York City can’t quite separate the surfer from the actor or quiet the call of the ocean. “It becomes part of your lifestyle. You wake up,” he shares. “I just visited home. When I was there, I woke up every day and went down to the beach.”
While daytime viewers are thankful that Nathaniel Marston chose soap suds over sea water, it is obvious that part of this handsome dude is still out there somewhere…searching for the perfect wave.
