Kin Shriner – Scott Free
Soap Opera Weekly: How’s New York?
Kin Shriner: I got a great apartment in Billy Warlock‘s (ex-A.J., GENERAL HOSPITAL) building with a view of Central Park. I can see people, activity — I’ve got a movie in my apartment every day.
Weekly: How did AS THE WORLD TURNS convince you to move to New York?
Shriner: The promise of a better life…How did they get me to return to Brooklyn after 25 years (laughs)? I did the first show and it all came back to me. It was like going back to a college I was at 25 years ago.
Weekly: What were you doing in Brooklyn 25 years ago?
Shriner: TEXAS (playing Jeb Hampton).
Weekly: Oh, right! That was a spin-off of ANOTHER WORLD.
Shriner: Yeah, they were side-by-side. I remember Ray Liotta (ex-Joey Perrini, AW) hitting on Catherine Hickland (ex-Dr. Courtney Marshall, TEXAS; now Lindsay on ONE LIFE TO LIVE). It was the early ’80s. We were in our 20s and everything was happening.
Weekly: Have you talked to Catherine Hickland since you moved back?
Shriner: Yeah. I called her, and when she called me back I said, “Guess where I am? Brooklyn.” She had to do a little trip down memory lane. The studio has changed a little bit, but Brooklyn is exactly the same. There’s no place to eat.
Weekly: But now you get a car service to take you there, whereas before you took the subway, right?
Shriner: That’s right. The beauty of the ride out and back is that it’s a forced study hall. “Well, I guess I should learn my lines.” It’s not bad.
Weekly: You’re working a lot?
Shriner: I am. Almost every day.
Weekly: And we’re finally allowed to talk about who Keith actually is.
Shriner: Yes, Keith is Julia Larrabee’s much younger brother.
Weekly: (laughing) Oh, really.
Shriner: What are you laughing about? They do a good makeup job on me.
Weekly: What, do they have masking tape behind your ears pulling your face back?
Shriner: Okay, I’m her slightly older brother, who is some kind of war hero who now flies for the airlines. He has been looking after his sister. She got in some trouble and disappeared, and he’s been trying to find her. And then the two girls, Martha Byrne’s character and Maura West’s character…
Weekly: Lily and Carly.
Shriner: Yes, they track him down and bring him to town. “What happened to you? Don’t do that to me! Where is JJ, my nephew who I’m obsessed with?” And so it starts to unfold.
Weekly: Does Keith share any of the same qualities as Scott Baldwin?
Shriner: Same haircut. They’ve both got the same unfussed hairdo, product-free. Scott Baldwin, after all those years, could have been anything. He was a buffoon, he was wily, he was dangerous, he was all kinds of things. This guy [Keith] was a soldier, a hero in the Gulf War, so I try to make him more no-nonsense, like he can get the job done. “Here’s what you need to do, Julia. Where’s JJ?” He’s that guy. I kept my hair very short and clipped tight.
Weekly: Like a real war hero.
Shriner: Yeah. There’s a steely, military-esque quality to him because I have a lot of stuff with Michael Park (Jack), who’s a cop. There’s a lot of confrontation. “Stand down. Back off. This is what I’m doing.”
Weekly: Oh, are you a tough guy, Kin?
Shriner: Not a tough guy, per se. He’s in control. He assesses the situation more quickly than most people because of his military background. At least that was my goal. Whereas the guy from RESTLESS (Harrison Bartlett) was just a flat-out crackpot. All he had on his mind was who killed his mother. I didn’t want to be that guy. I told Chris (Goutman, ATWT’s executive producer), “I don’t want to be such a crackpot.” He said, “No, this guy’s a good guy. He’s just trying to straighten out his sister’s life and keep things on track.”
Weekly: Did you know Chris Goutman from when he was on TEXAS (as George St. John)?
Shriner: I didn’t really know him. You know, Chris came down when I had a boat in the marina. Fifteen years ago, he was on my boat! I hadn’t crossed paths with him for a number of years, but he’s a really good guy and a really good producer. He’s on top of everything. He’s in the booth, and his door is open for anything. It’s a great way to work.
Weekly: What about romance for Keith?
Shriner: I don’t know. Right now, that’s the last thing on his mind. Something happens, and he has to take care of everything. There are some things going down that we can’t disclose at this time.
Weekly: Did you know a lot of people on the show?
Shriner: I knew Jon Hensley (Holden) from way back, and of course, Sarah Brown (ex-Carly, GH; now Julia on ATWT). Michael Park is the funniest guy. Maura West is great. Martha Byrne is great. I stumbled into something that reminds me of the old days because they have a different feeling here. This is a show where everybody’s doing something. Everybody’s happy. They work fast here in New York, too. It’s not like you’re being spoiled with big dressing rooms. It’s guerrilla soap opera-making, where you just get it done. I’m really enjoying that, because it’s such a different feeling when everybody has something going on. It’s not like, “Oh, that’s the star of the show, and the rest of you people do nothing.” There are four or five different stories going on and everybody feels like they’ve got something going on, so there’s no disgruntledness. It’s such a change from what I was doing (at GH). “You’re under arrest.” “You’re free to go.”
Weekly: That’s funny. Do you get to have a sense of humor on ATWT?
Shriner: I don’t have the wisecracking guy going. He’s not that guy yet. The beauty of these shows is, it takes a while to feel who your guy is, but as they write more for you, you spread off into different areas. Down the road if I was romantically with somebody, that might be when you see that he’s got a sense of humor. But that has to come out of the other characters they hook you up with. If I’m being confronted by Michael Park’s character, I’m dealing man-to-man. It’s not about anything else.
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