Former season five AMERICAN IDOL contestant Constantine Maroulis joined THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL this year to play a singer named Constantine.
Soap Opera Weekly: Are you following the fan reaction to your arrival at B&B?
Constantine Maroulis: A little bit. The fan mail has been insane. They've been sending boxes back to New York for my assistant to take care of it.
Weekly: Are you bi-coastal?
Maroulis: I'm going back to New York tonight. I'm being honored at this massive Greek-American event called the Hellenic Times Scholarship Fund. There's a lot of prominent Greek Americans there, like Bob Costas, Olympia Dukakis, Melina Kanakaredes (ex-Eleni, GUIDING LIGHT) from CSI, Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Pete Sampras. I'm receiving the Humanitarian of the Year Award. I do a lot of charity and I always have. I love it, but I guess now that I'm "somebody" it means more. But it has always meant a lot to me.
Weekly: How do you like being out here in Hollywood?
Maroulis: I've always loved it out here. I've been coming out here a long time. My brother lived out here for about 10 years. After the IDOL thing it was crazy for awhile. I'm a New Yorker. I have a way of blending in and not being noticed. The weather, the cars, the houses here are amazing.
Weekly: Did you turn to anyone for tips?
Maroulis: My good friend Frank Dicopoulos (Frank, GL) called me during my second week and said, "I saw you! You didn't tell me when you were airing!"
Weekly: We had no idea you are such a tall guy!
Maroulis: That's me! Between 6'3" and 6'4". Television, especially the way IDOL is shot, condenses. I also lost some weight since my time on the show.
Weekly: Wasn't Shanelle Workman (ex-Gabby) on the show when you two dated?
Maroulis: I wouldn’t say we were "dating." We met and went out a couple of times. We all became friends. That's how I met Adrienne (Frantz), who's also a good friend. That was when I was on IDOL. My favorite part of the day was the downtime I had where I could lay in my dressing room and do nothing. I would put on the live feed and watch rehearsals of B&B, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS and some of the East Coast stuff. It was great, because we're so used to seeing the finished product at home, but it's great to see people casual with their scripts and their robes, going, "What the hell is my line again?" I first saw [Shanelle] there, and she came to rehearsal, and we all became friends. She's getting married now, which is great. We have the Greek connection. She's got some Greek in her, and I come from a huge, 100 percent Greek family.
Weekly: So you could relate to My Big Fat Greek Wedding?
Maroulis: Sure. I was there the first day, and it was a great movie. It was very stereotypical, but I think we could have taken that movie and put it into an Italian home, Spanish home, Jewish home, whatever. It's the idiosyncrasies of first-generation Americans. It's good stuff.
