Brandon Beemer guested on Digest’s podcast, Dishing With Digest, and looked back on his journey as DAYS’s Shawn, B&B’s Owen and GH’s Seth.
Soap Opera Digest: So, Brandon, you started on [DAYS] in 2006, but you had done a brief stint on GH before DAYS. Tell us about breaking into soaps and playing Seth for the short period that you did.
Brandon Beemer: I didn’t want to go and do a soap opera for four years ’cause I didn’t really do my research and really understand how cool it is to actually do a soap opera for four years. And so then GENERAL HOSPITAL, they called up. Mark Teschner [casting director], he called me and just asked if I wanted to — I’ve auditioned for him before quite a few times and he just asked if I wanted to play the role. He said it would only last for like a month and a half or two months and I get to go in and be a suspected rapist and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, but you’re not the rapist. I go, “Okay, that’s fine. Let’s do it.” So, that’s kind of where I got my feet wet, I guess, in daytime was over there at GENERAL HOSPITAL.
Digest: And you worked with Kirsten Storms [Maxie], who was Belle before you were Shawn.
Beemer: Yeah. How funny is that?
Digest: So then how did the audition for DAYS come about?
Beemer: They hadn’t seen me in some years or something like that. I went in, I remember I sat down and then they look at me. It was [Casting Director] Fran Bascom and her daughter, Cheryl, and they look over at each other and they go, “So what do you think?” And she goes, “Yeah, I guess so.” … And then I went to producers and then went to screen-test. The screen test was kind of funny, ’cause I didn’t know what to wear. I wore a tight tank top, like a wife-beater, and I guess everybody said I was referred to as “the wife-beater guy”.
Digest: Lovely.
Beemer: Yeah. I was like, “Oh, boy.”
Digest: That wouldn’t fly in 2020.
Beemer: No, it wouldn’t. Everybody else wore like button-down shirts or something like that. I was like, this guy’s a rebel, he’s like whatever, just kind of —
Digest: I don’t need sleeves!
Beemer: I don’t need sleeves! I mean, you wanna be sexy, show a little bit of body. And so I wore that and my manager called up and said, “Well, you got the job.” And I was like, “I do? Uh-oh. Oh, shoot. I got it? Wow, I didn’t think I was gonna get it.” And then it kind of sunk in and I got nervous. I was really happy, but I got nervous, ’cause I just didn’t really know what to expect fully. Everybody welcomed me with open arms and it was really nice and super-great. I look back and I loved every bit of it. I had such a great time with everybody. Some of the people are like my family. It’s like going back for a family reunion.
Digest: At what point did you find out that it was Shawn?
Beemer: Um, I kind of put it together. What’s funny is when I was in high school, my ex-girlfriend used to make me watch DAYS OF OUR LIVES all the time. After school she would have it recorded on her VHS tape and she would make me go in and watch it. After watching it over and over again, you start to get really sucked into it and I looked forward to it. I’d come over to her house and I’m like, “Hey. Did you already watch DAYS?” And she’s like, “No, I haven’t watched it yet.” And I go, “Oh, good!” And so we would watch it, so I kind of knew the characters a little bit. I don’t think they ever really fully told me exactly.
Digest: So what was it like for you? This was a show you were familiar with and now you’re on it.
Beemer: Yeah. It was really great. I mean, Peter Reckell [ex-Bo] kind of took me under his wing. He’s, like, telling me certain things and giving me tips on stuff. I mean, I think I had to shoot eight episodes in two weeks. I mean, I literally went in to finding out that Claire is mine and that Mimi and Bonnie have been lying to me and Belle doesn’t know that I’m the father of Claire and Philip is not. I think that was my first two weeks right there. I think I had like 15 episodes or something like that. We shoot eight episodes a week and so I think I was just back to back to back to back. It was all just crazy stuff. Farah [Fath, ex-Mimi] wrote me this big long thing saying, “Everybody is so happy with your work this week. You did such a great job. I’m so happy to be working with you.”
Digest: Oh, that’s so sweet.
Beemer: Yeah, and so that was nice. And the producers were very nice. They all kind of wanted me to fit in. They wanted me to make the transition nice and easy, so that was very nice of them to do that.
Digest: Your first go-round in Salem ended in 2008. How did you feel about leaving at that time?
Beemer: I mean, I didn’t want to leave, but I understood that’s part of the business. They were writing us front and center for so long. I don’t know exactly what sort of transpired and how that came about. The way that they said it, it wasn’t a permanent thing, but I went off to BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL and so I was like, “All right. Well, I gotta work.” So, I mean, I wasn’t happy about it. I didn’t want to go, but I was having so much fun working. Right when I got comfortable is when they let us go, they took us off contract. It was really weird. I was telling somebody else on the show, “I feel like I’m gonna get fired all the time.” And they’re like, “Are you kidding me? You’re doing great work. They’re not gonna fire you. You’re Bo and Hope’s son.” And then all of a sudden like three weeks later, “Brandon, the producers need to see you and Martha [Madison, ex-Belle].” … And so that was it. And then I was like, okay, I’m gonna go get another job then. And then BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL was nice enough to take me [as Owen].
Digest: Was it weird adjusting to a new set at all in terms of how they do things differently and that it was a half hour?
Beemer: Yeah. I mean, it was different. What’s so funny is that I thought this was so cool. I go, I was on DAYS OF OUR LIVES and I was related [to] everybody and I couldn’t be paired up with anybody; they had to bring a prostitute in to pair me up with. I was like, “All I have is Belle and Chloe.” I was like, “Oh, my gosh, I could hook up with anybody on this show now that I want.” … And then all of a sudden, I started getting thrown around all over the place, like, here you go, go over to here, go to Lesli Kay [ex-Felicia], go to Jennifer Gareis [Donna], go to Lesley-Anne Down [ex-Jackie] and then go to Bridget. I’m like, “Wait, do I love anybody? I’m just, like, the little wedge that likes to get in between people.” And then all of a sudden Owen and Jackie fell in love and that was fun. That was a cool little story to tell.
Digest: Well there was a period there on B&B where I feel like very five seconds Owen was wearing some new outlandish costume for a photo shoot with Jackie. Do you ever have nightmares about being spray painted from head to toe to look like a Greek statue?
Beemer: Um, yeah. I remember I used to sit there and I would say, I’m like, “Please, oh please, oh God. I can’t do this.” And then when they put me in the cage with the leash, I think I need to go to therapy for that. And then they’re making me go … “Put your hands on the cage and go [Imitates animal growl].” And I go, “I don’t want to do that, that makes me uncomfortable.” And they’re like, “Come on. Just do it once or twice. It’s just for fun.” I’m like, “This is really, really emasculating. I mean, I feel terrible in this cage with a leash on. This is not nice.” And they’re like, “Just do it.” And I’m like, “[Imitates growl].” And they’re like, “Just do it one more time.” And I’m like, “[Growls].” I’m trying not to do it. It was just constant shirtless all the time. I was walking the runway shirtless. And in a cage shirtless. But it was fun, though. It was fun. It added a little bit of humor to the show, to a serious daytime drama.
Digest: Eventually you did make your way back to DAYS. What was it like for you to return years later?
Beemer: That was definitely strange. I’ve always felt like I had unfinished business at DAYS because [of] the way that it ended. I felt like I was just learning the ropes and I was still so young and I haven’t really dealt with the disappointment of being let off contract. I always think back on that. At B&B my contract was up and they were just transitioning the show. I was working there for four years and all of a sudden I’m not. But then, DAYS was a huge shock when that came. I’m like, “I need to go back there. There are still things for me to do there.” So when they called up, I was kind of in shock. I was like, “Oh, wow. This is crazy, I’m going back. Wow, it’s gonna happen.” And so I went back and it took a little while. You get there and you see all of the familiar faces and the same people I would see at events and stuff like that. It was a whole new storyline. We’re all grown up. It was all very different. And then I started to get into the groove of things. I started to figure it out.
Digest: You also just recently came back for the “Last Blast Reunion” for the DOOL App. Tell us about reuniting with the gang. What was it like to film?
Beemer: That was a lot of fun. When they asked us to do it, I was just blown away. I was like, “Wait. What? You want to shoot what? The Last Blast? You know that I was not at The Last Blast.” And they’re like, “We know that, but we want to do it anyway. This is the stuff that they want to see.” And I was like, “Oh, okay. This is cool.” I heard about the storyline ’cause Nadia [Bjorlin, ex-Chloe] would talk about it. That was a lot of fun to be able to bring everybody back together. I took over for Jason [Cook, ex-Shawn] in 2006 so I didn’t get to sort of experience any of that sort of timeline and story. I got to do a little bit of research. We had to laugh at things that I wasn’t even there for, which is always kind of fun, too. I think it was really fun for all of us.
Digest: You mentioned you did start in 2006. Here we are in 2020 and you are still appearing on DAYS. What does it mean to you?
Beemer: I mean, it’s wonderful. It’s such a cool thing. I love working on the show. I would love to work on the show even more and I’m sure that they know that I’ve expressed that. I’m like, “You guys. Come on. I’m down.” Every time they say, “Hey. Are you available for the next two months?” I’m like, “Yep. I plan my life around you guys now. Let’s do it.” It’s a lot of fun to be able to come back and see everybody. The only problem is leaving. When you get that last script and you know you’re done, you don’t know you’re gonna come back, but you do know there’s a possibility, but there’s also the possibility of not coming back so you have to go say good-bye. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to say good-bye to everybody. I had to say good-bye like five, six times I think, just like I did the first time when I was like, “Okay. I just got fired,” and it feels like you’re getting fired all over again, basically. That’s the only hard part, is right when you’re getting into the groove and you’re finding your pace and you start working and you start feeling comfortable, then all of a sudden you start to read the scripts and you go, “Uh-oh. Shawn’s going back to Hong Kong. Oh, no. Now I gotta go say good-bye.” So every time it’s just difficult to have to not really know if you’re coming back. You never know. Nothing’s guaranteed, not even tomorrow.
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