As Michael and Marcie prepare for a cross-country move this week on ONE LIFE TO LIVE, Digest catches up with actor Chris Stack to get the skinny on his exit and where we might see him next.
Soap Opera Digest: What have you been up to since you finished taping at OLTL?
Chris Stack: I came back and worked a couple episodes to wrap up a storyline, and I’ve been working at the Actors Studio on Long Day’s Journey Into Night, which is a fulfilling experience. As wonderful as working on ONE LIFE TO LIVE was, to turn around and pick up a Eugene O’Neill play and just work on an art-for-art’s-sake project has been really good.
Digest: Are you auditioning for TV or film?
Stack: I would, gladly [laughs]. It’s been a little slow, which isn’t to say I haven’t had any auditions since I stopped working on ONE LIFE. I think there has been a little less work than normal while they were hammering out the SAG contract with the producers, so there’ve been some stop-work issues.
Digest: Although it was cut short, did you enjoy your run on OLTL?
Stack: I loved it. Loved it. It’s such a unique experience to be able to work on a soap. It’s unlike any medium and the people without exception were all wonderful. It’s really exciting to know that no matter what happens in the scripts, basically anything can happen. Like if I got a script that said Michael and Marcie are plucked out by aliens and taken to Venus to perform brain surgery on the Venutians, I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s a great job and it was always fun to go to work.
Digest: Did anyone have any interesting reactions or advice when you were let go?
Stack: Other than people just being disappointed that we were let go, there wasn’t much advice except, “Come back!”
Digest: You said you taped more episodes recently. Can you tease what that was about?
Stack: That had to do with Shane’s stem-cell transplant and Gigi, Stacy and Rex’s storyline.
,br>
Digest: Who do you think you’ll stay in touch with people from the show?
Stack: I’ve been in contact with Trevor [St. John, Todd] and Bree [Williamson, Jessica] a little bit, and I’ve been meaning to write Kathy [Brier, Marcie] an e-mail just to say hey. Ideally, I’d love to keep in touch with everyone, but that rarely happens. It’s kind of one of the perks and the negatives of this industry; you meet people on jobs and you like them and then you don’t see them for a long time, if ever, again. Bree is producing a film project, which her husband, Michael, is directing, and some of us are working on that, so hopefully that’ll be something we can all get together on.
Digest: Who else is in that?
Stack: Melissa [Archer, Natalie], John Brotherton [Jared], Renee Goldsberry [ex-Evangeline] and a few other ONE LIFE people. I am playing the love interest opposite Bree, who is starring in it. It’s a feature-length script that they’re making into a trailer, basically as a teaser to promote and get funding to be able to finish the whole thing.
Digest: Aside from that, do you have any big plans for the summer?
Stack: I’m going to a friend’s wedding in Mount Shasta, CA, and am looking forward to that. Then I come back and work on this benefit for a writers series called Tuesdays@9 for a theater company called Naked Angels. They’re having a benefit on June 23 and then I’m going up to Hunter, New York, with a group of folks from Naked Angels to workshop a new play. And I’m doing a play in the Samuel French festival in July, which is a competition of short plays. The winner will be published by Samuel French, so fingers crossed we win that one.
Digest: Sounds like you’re pretty busy!
Stack: So far so good.
Digest: How can fans keep up with you?
Stack: Google my name? I don’t have a Web site! I’m as elusive as the wind [laughs]. I could show up in your neighborhood at any time, America.
