Disney/Christopher Willard
Dad Tidings: Danny (Asher Antonyzyn, l.) and Jake (Hudson West) don’t see eye-to-eye on the subject of their father.
As Danny continues to grapple with the sudden and unexpected return of his “dead” father, Jason, he finds himself in conflict with his half brother, Jake.
Begins Danny’s portrayer, Asher Antonyzyn, “Dante has just been shot and Jason’s back and Danny doesn’t know how to deal with all this stuff. Jason has been gone for two years, so that’s a skip in his life that he hasn’t had someone, a father figure, to tell him what to do and what not to do. I mean, he’s had Dante, but that’s not really the connection he’s been looking for, which is the connection with Jason. I think his [recent acting out] is about him not knowing how to deal with everything, and taking it out in maybe not the best way.”
Antonyzyn says that he connected right away with Jason’s portrayer, Steve Burton. In advance of shooting their pivotal first scenes together, “I knew how important it was, Danny seeing his dad. I sat with Steve and he just kind of became my acting coach. He was just so good and he taught me so much, like, ‘This is great, now let’s try it this way,’ and encouraging me. That scene was a ton of fun, working with him and seeing him shot with a puddle of blood all around him [laughs]. That was pretty cool!” (And sticky, confirms Antonyzyn. “There was a moment where my coat touched his shirt and stuck for a second — when I tried to pull it away, his tank top came off!”)
Since their first face-to-face encounter, Danny has been craving the chance to make up for lost time with his dad. “Every time Danny leaves Jason, whenever he’s like, ‘Bye, Dad,’ he feels like this could be the last time he sees him,” Antonyzyn points out. “He feels like, ‘I just got you back. Why do you have to leave? Why do I have to stay away from you?’ It’s very hard for Danny to walk away from his dad.”
Jake, however, is warier of getting close to Jason, and things get tense when the brothers hash out their conflicting feelings. “We have very different points of view,” notes Antonyzyn. “And in the scenes we have, he’s like, ‘Our dad is just back, and as soon as he gets back, Dante gets shot. Yeah, that’s not a coincidence. Our dad did something. He left for a reason.’ And Danny is like, ‘I don’t believe you. I believe in my father.’ I think that they have very opposing points of view, but they both want to believe that their dad is innocent. But Jake doesn’t think as positively [about Jason] as Danny does.” Which bothers Danny, according to Antonyzyn. “Danny is like, ‘My dad is back and you’re not helping by saying he’s guilty. Why aren’t we getting together as a team and trying to convince people and help them realize that [Jason didn’t shoot Dante]?’ That Jake doesn’t see that really infuriates him.”
Tempers — or at least one temper, Danny’s — flare. “Danny throws a punch,” reveals his portrayer. “Danny says something along the lines of, ‘Why aren’t you giving him the benefit of the doubt?’ And Jake says, ‘Because he doesn’t deserve it.’ That’s what really ticks Danny off and causes him to lose his temper.”
While Antonyzyn doesn’t endorse Danny getting physical with Jake, “I do feel for Danny,” he says. “I don’t know what it’s like, but I assume that if you don’t grow up [with your father], then you want them to stay with you no matter what, you don’t want them to leave again, and you want to believe in them.”
After Jake and Danny part ways, Sam tracks down her son for an important conversation. Fresh from her trip to the PCPD to see Jason, who is in custody there, “Sam keeps saying to Danny, ‘Jason leads a dangerous life, you deserve someone better than how he acts,’ ” reports Antonyzyn. “I believe she even refers to him as ‘this guy’, like, she doesn’t even refer to him as my dad anymore.” For a pained Danny, her assertions cut like a knife. “He keeps saying, ‘Mom, why can’t I see my dad, I just want to see my dad, why can’t you understand that?’ ” the actor sighs. “He really does just want his mom to let him be like his dad and spend time with his father. She’s not understanding that, so I think Danny is not very fond of Sam right now.”
