Soap Opera Digest: So you’ve spent time in both of America’s entertainment capitals.
Michael Easton: Yeah, it’s funny. I was just talking the other night about New York and Los Angeles and [Washington] D.C. and how those are the cities where everything sort of revolves around one thing. Cab drivers in D.C. are talking about the deficit, cab drivers in L.A. are pitching screenplays, and in New York it’s funny how like half the staff at the corner bar seems to have been on [OLTL] in some capacity.Digest: Are you happy to be back in New York?
Easton: Yeah, but it’s changed since 15 years ago when I got here. There’s no sort of fringe element now. Back then, the whole meat-packing district, it was like transvestite hookers. Then [in 2004] I’m getting married there and it’s really different. It was kinda strange. New York was a bit of the Wild West back then.
Digest: Are you glad that “The Triangle” is finally taking a backseat on the show?
Easton: [The triangle] definitely needed another dynamic. It was great when David [Fumero, Cristian] came back. I like him a lot as a person and he’s a really good actor, but it also — and this is just the reality of being on daytime — the landscape shifted when he came back and you just have to deal with it. We got kind of thrust into a storyline that we never really planned past six months. Melissa [Archer, Natalie], Renee [Goldsberry, Evangeline] and I really got hit over the head with that one. We did our best with it, and I think I really accommodated David coming back into the storyline, and hopefully that dynamic will pay some dividends. But it was time to do something. You can only string along the audience for so long. That’s the nice thing about the Spanish novelas and to a certain extent PORT CHARLES was trying to do it, too, where you deliver some rewards in 12 weeks or whatever, and I think these stories need to start resolving themselves on some level. It doesn’t have to be definitive. You don’t have to put somebody in the ground. But at some point it gets to be like you’re playing trickery unless there’s some resolution.Digest: John’s post-triangle story has given you a chance to play a lot of different things.
Easton: One of the problems with daytime is if you do it for a little bit, your character becomes kind of predictable. You know how this character is going to react. Which can be good. You also know a lot how Bruce Willis is going to react and we love going to see him. So that has its place, but it doesn’t come across as that interesting on a daily show. The nice thing about playing Caleb [on PC] from the beginning was when you play a vampire, you’re not really bound to anything or loyal to anything, so you can sort of be free to do what you want. He could yell or scream or fly or laugh — it didn’t matter. That guy was not of this world, so you could create his own world. John has got to fit in, though, but I think he’s finally finding a place.Digest: So thanks for agreeing to do this interview. I must admit, we were pleasantly surprised when you said you’d do it.
Easton: Well, the fans are pretty incredible, and they’ve been really supportive. They’re the reason why we’re there. Without them we really don’t have a reason to be doing the show, so you want to do [some press] for them. I’ve actually been really involved in my Web site [www.michaeleaston.com]. It’s at the point now where people ask questions and I answer them. I remember one time somebody asked me what was my favorite television show, and I think I answered South Park. And they wrote back, “You’re lying. You probably don’t even have a television set. You’re sitting in a bar reading poetry and drinking.” I think when I was reading it I actually was sitting in a bar, but I do have a television set and I do like South Park…. I like to have a laugh like the next person. I have a goofy sense of humor. I don’t want to portray some image.
