Soap Opera Digest: Welcome back, Drake! How are you doing?
Drake Hogestyn: I feel good. I feel sharp. I’ve got a great support group; my family’s been amazing and my soap opera family has, too. The support goes a long way.
Digest: Are you happy to be back at the show?
Hogestyn: Yes. I’m an actor. I’ve tried messing around with some other stuff and tried to find some passions somewhere else, but I’m an actor, and this is what I do. I try to do as good a job as I can. Sometimes I’ve had success, but there’s always tomorrow. I don’t know if I’m being reflective or not, but you know, this whole thing with losing Joe Mascolo [ex-Stefano] … I really loved that guy. I thought that he was going to live forever. I really did. I mean, his mom and dad lived up to their hundreds. So, as we go through weddings and funerals on the show, we do it in our own lives, too, and it’s kind of crazy.
Digest: This year marks 31 years since your debut.
Hogestyn: I’ve been fortunate to be here off and on for half of my life, and I think I’m appreciating more, if that’s possible. I’m trying to listen more to the people here at the show and be involved in their conversation more and let people know how I feel about them as often as I can. I enjoy being back here and I enjoy plying my trade as long as they will let me, and basically playing with this really fun group of people here who all share the same interest, and that’s the lovely art of acting. We work kind of a crazy schedule, and boy, everybody just comes in prepared and is just really on point with their dialogue. We put out great work in a short period of time, and it’s a real smooth-running machine right now.
Digest: How has your welcome home been from your cast and crew?
Hogestyn: Everybody’s great. It’s been very supportive and very welcoming. It’s a very protective space to be in, and that’s a good way to put it. We do close ranks around each other whenever there’s problems or anything and help everybody get through whatever’s going on in their real lives, so this is a very, very safe cocoon to come in and work. You can take a deep breath and let go in the little town of Salem; that’s a pretty comfortable place to be sometimes. When I first came back, I had written down in my diary how much time I would have to spend on the dialogue. I just told everybody, “I don’t know if I’m going to be close or not,” but everybody was so great. They’re just a safety net and they’re fast on their feet and picked up wherever I left off. Deidre [Hall, Marlena] was amazing. I’d like to say now that I’m getting back to where I was. Or maybe this is the new me, I don’t know.
Digest: You sound great.
Hogestyn: Yeah, I feel good. I do. I’m working every day this week and trying to do my best with the material.
Digest: Does the show feel different?
Hogestyn: The material lately has been really, really good. It’s getting back to kind of a feeling like — I get some goosebumps sometimes — when I first started years ago. Yeah, there’s soap opera involved, and you have to suspend disbelief a little bit, but it’s going to put characters in a position that shows off their strengths. As for John and Marlena, well, what can you say about John and Marlena? They’ve done this a hundred times in past lives, I think, and they’ll continue to do their thing.
Digest: Now that your health is improving, how are you feeling about your life in general?
Hogestyn: I feel life is good. Whitney’s getting married, and that’s going to be my third and final daughter walking down the aisle. Time’s going by. That’s just it. It’s amazing. It’s remarkable. We live a dual life here, you know what I mean? We not only have our real life, but we come here and have another life, and it’s really, really unusual. I wish everybody could experience this. It’s really rich and it’s really full and I’m very blessed. It’s a great way to go through life. I was texting with a real estate mentor of mine — I have my license and I am helping Whitney and her fiancé look for a house — and he said, “Hollywood really is a meat grinder,” and I said, “Yeah. You have to know when you’re on top of the roller-coaster ride and be prepared for what’s coming next.” Because that roller coaster goes up and goes down, and you have to have a very, very strong support group and sense of self and be very realistic. He was saying, “It’s amazing that you’ve had a gig half your life working in the entertainment industry on a show, and being passionate about what you love to do. How fortunate are you?” And I said, “Yes. Exactly.” So that was nice.
Digest: When you look back on the past year, what stands out to you now with everything you’ve been through?
Hogestyn: The past year with everything? Well, these back-to-back accidents I had could’ve turned out much differently than it did. No one’s got a crystal ball. The experts, they don’t know. But they’re optimistic. I’m just staying the course, and I’m staying optimistic.
Touch Of Gray
Hogestyn has let his hair go to its natural gray. “It was time,” he says. “I’ve got some grown kids on the show. I think there should be a demarcation. In reality, I’m looking kind of down the line here at life’s cycles. This last year has been a real eye-opener about how fragile life is and how life can go south in a hurry, so this is me and I’m owning it. I was telling my wife, ‘I’m kind of curious what’s underneath all this.’ And then Ruby, one of our French bulldogs, died, and I just felt that I would get a haircut to lift my spirits. It had been longer and when I was there, I just said, ‘Cut more, cut more, cut more.’ I came home and Victoria went, ‘Wow!’ because there was a lot of gray showing. She said, ‘What are you going to do?’ I said, ‘Leave it.’ She goes, ‘I like it.’ And I really trust her opinion. She’s just spot-on. Her instincts are amazing. I did text her in the morning, though, when I went to work, and I said, ‘Little nervous about walking on set.’ Someone took a photograph or whatever and I saw this guy with silver hair and I said, ‘Wow. Who’s that guy?’ But I feel comfortable and it’s all good.” The actor says his family had mixed reactions. “I was FaceTiming with the grandkids, Rachael’s kids, Avery and Graham, and all of a sudden they go, ‘Aah! What happened? You have gray hair [laughs]!’ Rachael, a doctor of few words, leans her head in sideways to look and just says, ‘I don’t like it.’ Ben likes it, though. I think for the kids, it’s more, ‘Mom and Dad are getting older.’ ”
JPI
