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Tri, Tri, Again? Berris would welcome Everett being in a second love triangle with Abigail Klein’s Stephanie.
Were you shocked to learn that Jada and Everett have a past? “Totally. Elia [Cantu, Jada] knew more about it than I did at the get-go, but nobody tells you anything when you’re on a soap opera. I think props came and was like, ‘Hey, I need to get a photo of you and Elia together. Where do you want to do it?’ That sort of a thing. And I was like, ‘Who’s Elia?’ I’d only been there a week or two. And then it was really fun. I met Elia, and she’s so lovely. She had heard that [our characters] were involved prior to Jada arriving on the show. It was similar to Stephanie and Everett.”
Then you take that engagement photo and find out the magnitude of their relationship – they were married! Did it take your surprise to a whole new level? “Definitely. I was like, ‘Wow, this is a serious.’ I read the other pages [of the script], and I see Jada looking at pictures and all this. But at the same time in my storyline and what’s written, nothing in Everett’s dialogue or action speaks to anything about a relationship with her. So you’re like, ‘I guess that’s where it’s going….’ ”
What were your thoughts about the surprise twist? “I thought it was interesting, and I knew that Jada was involved with Rafe, Galen’s [Gering] character]. So I was like, ‘Okay, there’s a potential triangle there as well.’ Then I started to see that Jada and Stephanie had a lot of material together and seemed like [they were] buds and that there was a history between their characters as kids. So I started to see where this might be going.”
It opened the door for your character to be in two triangles, potentially: Everett/Stephanie/Chad and Everett/Stephanie/Jada. “For me, the more triangles I can be involved in, the better. It’s great. It’s more interesting. The Chad triangle has been great. From the get-go, I just adored Abigail [Klein, Stephanie] and have such respect for Billy [Flynn, Chad]. I love working with them. I’ve always wanted to work with Galen, so I was excited about that prospect. And Elia is absolutely lovely. So it’s been great. I felt really lucky to be immersed in both of these storylines.”
How do you like the way Everett has developed so far? It seems like he’s become more of a man of mystery as the story has unfolded. “At this moment in time, I’m absolutely approaching everything as if everything he’s saying is 100 percent true and that he is good for his word. But when you see something like [the reveal of his past with Jada], I suppose the thought process goes, ‘Well, either he’s lying about something or there’s something he doesn’t remember.’ There’s obviously the coma. It’s a soap opera, so there’s lots of options of what reasons that he might not have an awareness of this other relationship. But you’re like, ‘Is he a con artist? Does he have a twin? Does he not remember [because] he was in the coma?’ ”
Or is he lying? Could the whole thing be a scam? “Right. But as an actor, you don’t know. They haven’t told me. So I’m sort of like, ‘Well, if he’s a scammer, he better be a really good scammer! You’ve got to play this just completely as serious as possible.’ And then on the other side of things, if he’s not a scammer, you don’t want to start playing him like a scammer if he’s genuine. I think Everett is quite genuine and that some of the suspicion about him might be displaced.”
You’ve played the good guy. You’ve played the bad guy. You’ve played the crazy guy. Do you have a favorite archetype to play? “I love a world of contradictions. I like when you’re never too squarely in any corner — not too good and not too bad — because I don’t believe people are that way. The world is full of contradictions and complexities, and that’s the beauty of it. For me, I love when it’s complicated and messy and human. Everett really feels that way to me. I like when somebody’s up to something and pursuing their own agenda without people knowing. I like a little bit of that and doggedness; I love when a character is pursuing something with determination. That’s why I love Everett. He’s pursuing Stephanie. He’s passionate about his job. He wants to bust the drug ring open. He’s dogged. He’s determined to seek justice both for himself and for the world.”
