Ryan Serhant beat out eight other contestants on INTURN 2 for a 13-week contract on AS THE WORLD TURNS, for what turned out to be a plum role: He’ll be playing the son of Evan Walsh, played by Greg Watkins from 1991-95. Serhant first airs on November 7, and Digest caught up with the actor recently to congratulate him on his win. Find out what he's expecting from the job he trained for on camera all summer. Then test your knowledge of this season of INTURN with our quiz.

Soap Opera Digest: What was your reaction when you heard your name?
Ryan Serhant: Surprised, I guess, is the best way to say it. I prepared myself to lose so that if I did lose, it wouldn't be that bad, at least for those first couple of minutes.

Digest: Were you really nervous?
Serhant: Yeah, I think we all were. It's a stressful environment and I think they do their best to try to make us as nervous as possible.

Digest: What was it like with Dyon and Jessamyn after you won?
Serhant: It was such a weird, hard moment because we knew that one person was going to win and it was going to really suck for the other two. So when they called my name, it wasn't like, "Oh, man, I won. Let's jump up and down." It was, "How do I deal with this awkward situation on live TV?" So I hugged them both and tried to say something from the heart.

Digest: What happened next? Did they sweep you off to give you all the details of the job?
Serhant: No, I heard my name, we stood there for a couple of minutes and then everyone just disappeared [laughs]. They had me do a couple of interviews about my reaction, but after that everyone just sort of got into cabs and went home.

Digest: How did your family react?
Serhant: They were really excited. Only my older brother lives on the East Coast, so he was there. I hung out with him and his wife and my nephew. They were all really excited. The rest of my family, I just got to talk to on the phone, but everyone was ecstatic. My mom was kind of bananas about it!

Digest: We've since found out who you'll be playing: Evan Walsh IV. It's actually a character who connects to the show's history.
Serhant: I talked to Chris [Goutman, executive producer] this morning, which was really weird. He said it was going to be a big part and it's going to be a lot of work and that he hoped I was up to the challenge.

Digest: Why was it weird?
Serhant: Just hearing his voice on the phone is a very scary thing because every time I've heard his voice on the phone has been extremely nerve-wracking.

Digest: You'll be working with some of the big names on the show....
Serhant: Yeah, like Elizabeth Hubbard [Lucinda] and Scott Bryce [Craig]. It's going to be crazy.

Digest: I hope you'll have some stuff with Cady McClain [Rosanna]. Her character had a romance with your character's father at one point.
Serhant: Uh-oh! Chris said, "All you need to know is that you're a young, hotshot biochemist."

Digest: Do you know anything about biochemistry?
Serhant: No. I'm going to have to do some research. I'm a little terrified of the terms I'm going to have to be saying.

Digest: I'm glad you're not playing Frank the bartender or whatever.
Serhant: Me, too! When he said, "You're going to be playing Evan Walsh IV," I was like, "Nice!" A guy with a little dignity.

Digest: So you're starting soon?
Serhant: Yes, it actually works out perfectly because I'm in a play right now that ends on September 22, and then I start working at the show on September 24.

Digest: Tell me about the play.
Serhant: It's so funny, because actors in New York have these blackout months. I had just done Much Ado About Nothing in January and then I had two or three months where I had nothing going on, so I said, "No one's going to make me famous, so I'm just going to have to do it on my own." So I raised $20,000 to self-produce a show that I had done a staged reading of before called Purple Hearts. It's actually being made into a movie, which is exciting. It's a true story about three guys who were trapped in a supply room in the sunken U.S.S. West Virginia at Pearl Harbor. So when they raised the ship they went in and looked for bodies. They opened up the supply room and found three guys dead in there. They had chalk, so they wrote all over the walls.That's where the playwright got the idea. It's a tough piece, but I think it will be good. It opens September 6. It's at the Gene Frankel Theatre [in New York].

Digest: That's exciting.
Serhant: And to be able to do that and then go straight on to AS THE WORLD TURNS ... I'm booked for the next four months. It's the greatest feeling in the world.

Digest: Would you want the WORLD TURNS thing to last longer than 13 weeks?
Serhant: Obviously!

Digest: Not necessarily. You'd be surprised.
Serhant: I don't think 13 weeks is enough time for me to learn everything I want to learn. I'd love to extend the run, and if I'm good enough and people like me enough, it would be amazing. I think they wrote the character with enough potential and depth that he could keep going.

Digest: It speaks to their level of confidence in you.
Serhant: [Chris said my character] is trying to sell Craig Montgomery to this whole biomedical tech field, but I've also got another agenda.

Digest: Well, everyone does when they come to town.
Serhant: I hope it's to find my mom!

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