Already have an account?
Get back to the

Interview!

ICYMI: Eric Martsolf Interview

"To The Beat" Special Screening
BURBANK, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 06: Actor Eric Martsolf arrives for the "To The Beat" Special Screening at The Colony Theatre on August 6, 2017 in Burbank, California. (Photo by Greg Doherty/Getty Images) Credit: Getty

This month marks nine years since Eric Martsolf debuted as Brady Black, a character ruled by impulsive emotions — quick to fall in love, and just as fast to sink into the dark abyss when things go wrong. “He is definitely colorful,” observes Martsolf, “and I can say that I’m grateful to [Head Writer] Ron Carlivati for bending his pen a little bit and writing to those complexities within Brady’s character.”

Martsolf found himself in Salem after PASSIONS was abruptly canceled in 2008, a year after moving to DirecTV from NBC. Martsolf, who had played Ethan Crane for six years, was completely taken by surprise. “You have to understand that DirecTV had promised us a long lifetime with them,” he relays. “We had a very fancy party where [executives at] DirecTV said, ‘We can’t imagine this show being on our network for less than 10 years.’ We all kind of took some stock in that, you know? You try to take everything in this business with a grain of salt but at the time, I was hopeful. I was very blessed in my life with these twin boys, and my wife, Lisa, and I were so in love. The job just looked great, and then it hit the fan.”

JPI

The news took an emotional toll on the actor. “I was devastated,” he recalls. “I didn’t believe that I would work again. I thought my time at PASSIONS was so special that this opportunity would never hit me again. I had just purchased a new house in a gated community and had thrown every single one of my nickels into it because I had twin boys and I had to give them the best of the best, even if it was beyond my means. ”

In a stroke of good fortune, lightning struck twice when DAYS’s former co-executive producer, Gary Tomlin, reached out to Martsolf about playing Brady Black, previously portrayed by Kyle Lowder. “I was familiar with the work that Kyle had done with the role, and he was very good in it. I also knew him as an acquaintance and as a friend. I didn’t want to step on toes,” says Martsolf, who was a recast on PASSIONS after Travis Schuldt opted out as Ethan. “You always worry about that when taking over a character. You don’t want folks to take it personally. After I got over that initial reaction, I tried to familiarize myself with the character but not too much, because it’s a fine line between doing the research and going in with your own intentions, your own vulnerabilities, and your own ideas. It’s been a lovely ride. I feel pride taking these two characters, Ethan Crane and Brady Black, and evolving them into other flavors.”

Martsolf learned quickly how ever-changing things are in daytime drama during his first week in Salem. “I can remember being seated at a long boardroom table, where Gary told me, ‘Brady is coming back to resolve some issues with his ex-wife, Chloe.’ I was like, ‘Great, this is going to be terrific!’ because I knew Nadia Bjorlin [Chloe], who is talented and lovely. Sure enough, my second episode, I was at the Brady pub, where Brady was reconciling with Chloe and telling her, ‘We should probably just be good friends.’ They shook hands and the following day, Brady was hitting on Nicole [Arianne Zucker] at the Titan gym. So what I thought I was going to do was switched, and that’s just something that you have to be able to do in this genre. It’s not a secret that we’ve had some high turnover here in the hallways over at our show, and you have to roll with the changes or you drown.”

The sudden shifts since then have come at a dizzying speed, with Brady cycling through six doomed romances. In addition to Nicole, there was Arianna, Madison, Kristen, Melanie and Theresa. The loss of each leading lady wasn’t easy. “I don’t like good-byes,” shares Martsolf. “So I just say, ‘Aloha,’ because I know that eventually we will meet again.”

Despite Brady’s string of heartbreaks, Martsolf prefers not to see his Salem alter as a loser at love. “Loser has such a bad context,” he explains. “Losing can be done gracefully. Why is Brady a loser at love? Well, on the surface I just think it makes for interesting soap opera. It’s fun to watch hearts get broken. Viewers like to see people ascend after they’ve been ripped apart, how they grovel out of the heartache and find their strength again. On the other hand, I think Brady doesn’t allow the seedlings of love to grow enough. He jumps the gun a little too much on his relationships, and because he wants love so bad, he tends to jump on those feelings, and what he thinks is love may just be deep affection. I think he’s an addict that not only desires substances and power, but is also addicted to engagements and saying, ‘I do,’ and wanting those moments.”

Courtesy of Eric Martsolf

Martsolf’s personal life couldn’t be more different than Brady’s. Last month, he and his wife, Lisa, celebrated their 14th wedding anniversary. “Marriage is an interesting thing,” he observes. “Lisa’s a Taurus and I’m a Leo. She and I always have our own opinion about things. Neither of us rolls over to the other’s whims. We clash heads, but at the same time, we love each other more than anything in the world.”

The actor, whose twin boys, Chase and Mason, turned 11 last April, credits fatherhood with giving him new depth as a performer. “I remember being on PASSIONS, and having a son on that show, and not really understanding what those bonds were,” he notes. “Now that I have children of my own, when I work with kids, it’s just the easiest thing because I can tap into my own experiences and emote those out into the camera, because they’re natural and it works that way.”

As Martsolf looks back on his 15 years working in daytime, he marvels, “The world of entertainment is based on rejection and failure. I’m grateful that NBC — and DAYS — has made me part of their family.”

JPI

First Passion
In the nine years since PASSIONS went off the air, Martsolf has maintained ties with several former castmates. “PASSIONS people pop up like popcorn all over the place,” he smiles. “I recently did a show in Vegas, and Heidi Mueller [ex-Kay] came to see it with her husband, DeMarco. Every once in a while, I check in with Lindsay Hartley [ex-Theresa]. I see James Hyde [ex-Sam]. Los Angeles really isn’t that big. The PASSIONS reunion that we recently had in July was so great. I hope more of those are planned in the future. You feel so good walking away from something like that. Everything just comes flooding back, all the memories, the good times and even the bad. PASSIONS was such a bonding time, especially for me starting out my career there. So it will always hold a special place in my heart.”

just the facts
Birthday: July 27

Birthplace: Harrisburg, PA

We Are Family: Martsolf married wife Lisa on October 10, 2003; they welcomed twins Chase and Mason on April 7, 2006.

Standing Firm: “I think that the hardest thing that I’ve had to learn as a father is to say no to my kids.”

Before Brady: “When I moved to Los Angeles, I went for a reading at DAYS, but I don’t believe the character ever came to fruition.”

That’s Entertainment: “My wife got me into binge-watching CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND. I have musical theater friends who were hired for some of the music numbers. I come from that background and I love quirky, smart shows.”

Previously Occupied: “I’m in Darin Brooks’s [ex-Max; Wyatt, B&B] old dressing room. He had a giant mural of the ocean painted on one of the walls. Much to my surprise, apparently you can’t move a new actor into a dressing room with that kind of art on the wall, so it had to be painted over.”

Good-bye Girl: Of Arianne Zucker’s recent exit as Nicole, Martsolf reflects, “Ari was there with me in the beginning, and I was with her when she left. Ari is a lot like me, in the sense that we share a sense of humor. Our attitudes about life are very similar, so seeing her leave was like losing a sister.”

Comments