Peacock
No Pain, No Gain: Bryan R. Dattilo suffered for his art to make Lucas’s injuries look realistic.
Lucas is recovering from a brutal prison beating. What can you share about the makeup used to achieve that look? “The makeup was so amazing. Things are more high tech now. So there was a prosthetic involved that [stuck] to my face. It was something that had to dry and set. The prosthetic made me look swollen. It wasn’t just bruises. Deidre Decker, who usually does my makeup, did the bruises. Elizabeth [Dahl] did the prosthetic. It was kind of a teamwork for the makeup room. It was a pretty bad beating. My face was deformed.”
How long did the whole process take in the makeup chair? “I’m so antsy and OCD. I can’t sit down much past 10 minutes. But I had to sit there for a half hour to 40 minutes. It was a little bit trying. The hard part about the makeup was matching it when I went in the next day. They really had to pay attention to that, and then the gradual [process of] getting better. They had to weigh how much [makeup] to take off, how much to put on, where I healed, and where I would not have heale. I’ve got to say, it’s very realistic, the way they do it. The makeup department should get an Emmy.”
Did you take a lot of pictures of the process? “Makeup did that for continuity, but I didn’t take any myself. I did go home once with the prosthetic on, and my daughter [Delilah] was like, ‘Dad, I know it’s fake. I mean, you’re at work. What am I, stupid?’ You can’t fool a nine-year- old who’s already an actress! She knew it was fake when I came home from work.”
Were you trying to get sympathy?! “I’ll take it from my wife. Anybody at our house. But they were like, ‘Why didn’t you take that off at work?’ I said, ‘Because I was trying to scare you.’ And they were like, ‘Well, it didn’t work. Take it off. Do you need some alcohol?’ ”
It must have been quite a task removing it. “Yes. There was gobs of makeup remover in my eye, which stings. They’ve got to do something about that. I don’t know why they make makeup remover that makes your eyes cloudy and sting. All the damage was around my eye. When I pealed off the synthetic rubber that was kind of cured on me, it took off a little bit of my skin. So I had to be careful. They were really good at removing it in the makeup room. When I had to do it on my own, I went back [to the studio] and [the skin around] my eye was red. They were like, ‘What did you do?’ ”
The pain of the makeup and prosthetics aside, did you enjoy this beat of the storyline? “It’s so easy to act when you’re in that kind of makeup. You already look hurt, so it’s easy to sell. I enjoyed working with Steve Burton [Harris]. He’s very good at rehearsing. He loves to run lines. He’s a perfectionist when it comes to running lines. He’s also my old high school buddy. I kept telling him, ‘Dude, we went to high school together.’ And he was like, ‘I don’t remember you.’ We both went to Beverly Hills High School, but he was a year older than me. He was in my sister’s grade. He only believes that I went to high school there because I told him all the teachers and the people I knew. Finally, he was like, ‘Oh yeah. Maybe you did.’ ”
Was there anyone else you got to work with that you hadn’t before? “Tamara Braun [Ava]. I’d always wanted to work with her. I admired her when she worked with Steve on GH [where Braun played Carly, then Kim, and Burton played Jason]. So it was almost like being on GH when I came back. I got to work with Tamara and Steve. That was actually really cool. There’s a handful of daytime actresses that are exceptional, and Tamara is definitely one of them. I don’t see any holes in her game. She’s very true to what she does. She’s very natural and real. She’s got a lot of sides to her, and she’s not bad to look at. I hope we hope we have more stuff in the future.”
So, all and all, this was another great “coming back to DAYS” experience? “Yes. It’s a great arc. I’m Lucas for life. Whenever they ask me [to come back], I’m there. I am always ready and willing. But the trend is when I go back, I’m not back for long. That’s been hard as someone who plans on playing the role for his life.”
Can you tease what’s coming up for Lucas after this beating and being exposed as a snitch? “He goes somewhere even worse than prison. The last place you want to be sent to after being in prison is where they send Lucas. It’s a hell of a teaser. You won’t see it coming. It’s from left field, and it’s hilarious. I got to play comedy too, so it was great. [Viewers] are going to love it. It’s one of my favorite storylines that I’ve ever had.”
