What are your thoughts on the end of Rafe and Nicole? “There’s always going to be drama [in a relationship]. The question is, ‘Can you weather the drama?’ Clearly it wasn’t in the cards for these two. In the back of his mind, I think Rafe felt their relationship was doomed, to a certain degree, to begin with, because he cheated on Ava, and that’s really not his m.o. He felt like, ‘Of course, this ended up happening. You’re paying the karmic price.’ ”
Did you feel the writing was on the wall for the couple’s demise when Greg Vaughan returned as Eric? “No, not at all. I don’t know what I thought, but I certainly didn’t think [their relationship] was going to end so abruptly. It just disappeared overnight. That was weird.”
What was your reaction when you saw this starting to happen in scripts? “Surprise, I guess. In this genre, or even in life, just because you end up separating from someone doesn’t mean you don’t get back together. You don’t really know what’s going to necessarily transpire, even though you see something on the page. It could just be a temporary situation. It certainly makes for an interesting story as an actor. It’s, ‘Okay, cool. Now we get to play devastated, breakup, etc.’ That’s always a fun challenge. I certainly like working with Ari [Zucker, Nicole]. So [the breakup is] kind of a drag in that sense.”
What were the actual breakup scenes like to play? “They were very powerful. They were some of the best scenes I’ve done in a while, the scenes where Rafe was telling Nicole to go. He didn’t want to see it, but this is exactly the person that she is. He gave her the benefit of the doubt all these years. Then he started to cite all the awful things that she’s done and totally let her have it while she was trying to apologize. Those scenes were totally fun for me. Not so much for her [laughs].”
Rafe told Nicole not to come crawling back to him after Jada turned up pregnant. Were you happy to see him have a real, human reaction as opposed to a nice, good guy one? “Oh, yeah, 100 percent. Enough is enough. It’s great to not be walked all over. Even when Nicole said she didn’t want to be with him, Rafe was like, ‘Fine. I’m not going to drag this out. I’m moving on. I’m not going to beg to be with you.’ It’s nice as an actor to get those opportunities. Even though you’re breaking up with this person, you’re going to go out on your own terms. That was a saving grace, for sure. I mean, Rafe hates this. But what is he going to do?”
Rafe’s always been an unlucky-in-love guy. He finds women, but the relationships tend to end quickly. What are your thoughts on that? “It sucks for him. I don’t know that it always ends quickly, but I will say that this relationship sure did. It was very awkward. I hope that he can find someone that he can hang out with for a minute. But in this genre if you’re happy, you don’t have a story. So it’s a, ‘Be careful what you wish for’ kind of thing.”
