How do you think Brando is handling the situation he finds himself in, pretending to be estranged from the Corinthoses and faking loyalty to his new boss, Cyrus? “I think he’s kind of a bad bodyguard right now! I’m like, ‘Man, how has Cyrus not fired me yet?’ But not being an undercover cop by trade, even though he’s got military training and he’s a bright guy and he cares about the Corinthos family, I think he’s doing okay. He’s kind of learning on the fly, though, and it shows. He’s made some mistakes but I think Cyrus has been more forgiving of Brando than he has been of any of his previous henchmen who’ve made mistakes. He’s doing a good job of staying in there and making himself indispensible enough that eventually, he’ll be able to help take Cyrus down or turn on him in some way, which would be unfortunate because I hope we don’t kill Cyrus! I love [portrayer] Jeff Kober. Brando’s doing okay so far, but it’s dicey. Especially when you throw Sasha in there, because it’s like, ‘Uh-oh, Brando’s liking Sasha now! Come on, dude, you can’t do that! That was the boss’s girl. You’re going to get shot, dude!’ ”
Why do you think Sasha has caught Brando’s eye? “Well, she’s gorgeous, for one. And then also, you know, he’s got a history with substance abuse and he sees that in Sasha; whether it’s as full-blown as Brando’s was or not, he sees that she’s put herself into some hairy predicaments where if she wasn’t doing drugs, she probably wouldn’t be in those predicaments! So, it’s a blend of, ‘Oh, man, I’m attracted to her,’ and, ‘It’s kind of taboo because it’s my drug-lord boss’s love interest,’ and then also him feeling obligated to help this person because he knows how hard it is when you start abusing a substance and you start going down that road. Plus, there’s the fact that Carly is asking him to help her. So there is a lot of incentive and a deep-level obligation to help Sasha out of this situation.”
You’ve had a couple of scenes so far with Kirsten Storms (Maxie), and I’ve noticed that whenever you interact with each other, people on Twitter seem very interested in something possibly brewing between Brando and Maxie. What’s your take on that? “I think that we’ve got chemistry, and I think with her relationship with Peter, I think there’s a lot of, ‘Ah, Peter is a bad guy!’ And everybody loves Maxie and they want to protect Maxie and perhaps they view Brando as a safe option for her, like, ‘If it doesn’t work out for her and Peter, then maybe Brando would be a good option for her. He seems like a good dude and would be a protector, wouldn’t do her wrong.’ I think that’s the natural inclination of people; they’re like, ‘Who can we pair Maxie up with?’ because they love her and want to protect her. Kirsten is awesome. She is super-fun and vibrant and bubbly and she definitely makes Maxie her own character, you know? She owns it. She’s a super-giving actress, always willing to run lines beforehand and really think the characters through before our scenes. Someone said one time, ‘You can either be a sayer or a player,’ and Kirsten is a player. She doesn’t just say the words. She owns the words and makes them her own. She’s got that sass and spunk and charm to her. She rocks it!”
