Leyden Says “See Ya” to Simon
Weekly grabbed a few minutes with AS THE WORLD TURNS’ Paul Leyden (ex-Simon) just days before he headed out of Oakdale and back to the Land Down Under. In this Q&A, Leyden talks Carly, chemistry and characterization — and gives himself a little direction.
Soap Opera Weekly: Was it strange to leave on a Simon/Carly note when you came in on a Simon/Katie one?
Paul Leyden: Simon and Carly were thrown together as fellow partners in crime. They had an incredible amount of chemistry. The whole romance had to be forced and pushed fairly quickly. If Maura (West, Carly) wasn’t going on maternity leave and I wasn’t leaving, then that would be allowed to develop and evolve in a really organic way. Simon and Katie have terrific chemistry but that chemistry was allowed to evolve — like Carly and Jack’s. Maura and Michael (Park, Jack) have an amazing amount of chemistry because it’s history and it’s been evolved. You only have to look at them and you’ve got such an amount of history and past to draw on that the emotion comes.
Weekly: You primarily worked with Terri Colombino (Katie) before. What was it like working with Maura so much?
Paul Leyden: She’s been an amazing person to work with. She is a complete professional. She’s got this sort of TV down. You only have to look at her when you’re acting with her and your work is done. She is really so present in everything that she does. I can be pretty scattered but she is an absolute pro.
Weekly: What about working with Ewa da Cruz‘s Vienna?
Paul Leyden: She’s doing a really great job playing that character. Simon and Vienna, they’ve got a bit in common as carefree characters. They don’t really have any solid roots. They fly by the seat of their pants. That’s what I loved about working with her, that they’re two peas in a pod.
Weekly: Were there things that you wanted for Simon this time around that didn’t quite pan out?
Paul Leyden: I love working with the people I work with. I love coming here and I love being a part of it. I really enjoy playing this character. But they’re not always going to get it right and, not to be mean, they often get it more wrong than right. That’s part of your job — to try and commit and make something out of things you find difficult. This time around, one of the things I was told was that there wouldn’t be any gimmicks with the storyline. It would just be a very heartfelt storyline. And this storyline had more gimmicks than I’ve ever had in the whole time I was here before!
Weekly: Gimmicks?
Paul Leyden: The apartment stuff, not having any insurance, getting indebted to the mob, etc. But the good thing with Simon, and the hard thing with Simon, is that he’s not an easy character to write for. The guy is a bit of a loose cannon and a free spirit. When you’ve got a character like Jack, who is very constrained by his own moral sense, his throughline is very strong. A character like Simon, he goes from falling in love and loving someone to being able to rob someone to hitting someone to falling out of love very quickly. But given all of that, I still had a blast.
Weekly: So, you’d definitely consider coming back?
Paul Leyden: Whenever I do come back, it definitely feels like I come home. It’s such a joy every single time. If the time is right and things happen down the line, and it works out again, I won’t hesitate to come back.
Weekly: I’m sure the Simon fans are very happy to hear that.
Paul Leyden: I know viewers get frustrated when I come back and then I leave again. They get frustrated when Simon comes in and he ends up ruining some relationship. But it’s soap opera, it’s what you’ve got to expect. There is definitely a place for this kind of character on the show because there is no male character like him. And he’ll say the things that will get him into trouble and he won’t learn from his mistakes.
Weekly: So, what’s next for you besides Australia?
Paul Leyden: I’m shooting a couple of things out there and then I sold this script called The Factory I’ve been working on with a writing partner of mine. We sold it to Dark Castle so that was a big deal. We’re currently doing re-writes on that. If all goes well, hopefully that will be in production. It’s a direction I really have been passionate about for longer than acting. That is really where I want to head: the writing/directing sides of things. This is a big score, being able to sell one of my first scripts!
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