Shake and Blake
Soap Opera Digest: Where are you from?
Blake Gibbons (Coleman): I’m from Bakersfield, California.Digest: When did you move to Los Angeles?
Gibbons: I moved to L.A. in the late 1980s, and I’ve been here ever since.
Digest: Have you always wanted to act?
Gibbons: Yes, I knew growing up that I wanted to act.
Digest: Did you act as a child or star in school plays?
Gibbons: No, I didn’t. In high school, they had a drama department, but I played football. At that point, I felt that I was way too cool to be in theater [laughs]. So, acting was something that I harbored since I was a kid and something that I always knew that I was going to do, but I didn’t explore it in my youth.Digest: Once you arrived in L.A., was there a lot of pounding the pavement for work?
Gibbons: It was a slow start, but within three years I was in a short-lived television series about Elvis [called ELVIS].Digest: That sounds interesting.
Gibbons: It didn’t last, but it was one of the best, most incredible experiences I’ve ever had. It set the stage for the possibilities.Digest: Tell me a little about the show.
Gibbons: It was on ABC — I seem to have a kinship with ABC — it was produced by Priscilla Presley, it was shot in Memphis and I was a huge fan of Elvis. So, it couldn’t have been a more perfect, fated match.Digest: What happened after ELVIS was canceled?
Gibbons: We did, like, 13 episodes. After that didn’t go anywhere, a rude awakening came in the form of doing a lot of guest-starring on TV shows, low-budget movies … that kind of stuff. Like most actors, I had peaks and valleys. You just gotta roll with it. When it’s good, it’s great, but when it’s bad, it sucks [laughs].
Digest: How did you land the role of Coleman on GH?
Gibbons: The writers and producers of GENERAL HOSPITAL — they’ve all been very generous with me in terms of keeping me around being a non-contract player. It started out as a six-week gig two years ago! But we wouldn’t even be talking if it wasn’t for the willingness to roll the dice by [Casting Director] Mark Teschner. He called my manager out of the blue and offered me the role. You don’t hear of that too often in Hollywood. I owe him a great deal of gratitude. So, that’s how the part came about, and it just never ended. Before I knew it, after Coleman’s bar burned down, he had another bar [laughs]! He was still in business; Coleman keeps on lurking.Digest: Coleman is quite the character.
Gibbons: Yes, he is [laughs]. I love him, and I love playing him. I’ve been given a lot of latitude and freedom to create him in terms of the dress and the look — I’ve gotten to pepper his lingo, Colemanize it, so to speak — while bringing some levity to his badass side. It’s fun because I’m not locked into playing the same thing all the time with him.Digest: Had you done soaps before?
Gibbons: Actually, I did a very small part years ago on GENERAL HOSPITAL where I played Jack Wagner’s [Frisco] buddy. That was for, like, a day.Digest: Recently, you did an independent film called Wake.
Gibbons: It has a great cast, starring Gale Harold from QUEER AS FOLK and Martin Landau. It’s a small, dark indie movie that we filmed on location in Maine. It’s the story of four haunted brothers who go back to their childhood home unbeknownst to each other, and what happens during the course of one night. We got picked up by a distributor and won a few awards at the Queens Film Festival, and we got a two-week engagement at The Regency Theater on La Brea [in Hollywood]. They put us on the marquee, so that’s really cool.Digest: What are you working on?
Gibbons: It’s a very fertile time for me right now. I have some projects in the works. Last year, I did a two-hour movie of the week/pilot called THE LEGEND OF BUTCH AND SUNDANCE. It’s a western about the early days of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. My character’s name is Durango. It’s them robbin’ and stealin’ and thievin’, and it’s me chasing them. So, I’ll be on the right side of the law if it gets picked up [laughs].Digest: When will you know if it gets picked up?
Gibbons: I don’t know; it’s a mystery to everyone. It’s been ready since last year, so we’re just waiting for NBC to make a move. We’re hoping that with the success of DEADWOOD [on HBO], NBC will follow suit. There always needs to be someone to jump in the pool first.Digest: I have to ask you about the commercial you did for Pepsi Twist with Britney Spears and Mike Myers. How was it working with them?
Gibbons: They were both very, very nice. They were very professional people. Britney was as sweet as she could be, and Mike was as funny and cool as you’d want him to be. They were great, and that was a fun commercial.Digest: Do you prefer film over television?
Gibbons: They have differences, but both genres have positive things to offer. I prefer the freedom and the luxury of film because you’re really taking your time and developing a character. On the other hand, doing GENERAL HOSPITAL — and I mean even moreso than doing prime-time — has been a huge learning experience for me because of the speed, the lack of rehearsals … it’s the other end of the spectrum. There’s something to be said for being thrown into the fire without the luxury of time and rehearsals. I’ve learned more from GENERAL HOSPITAL than any other show I’ve worked on.
Conversation
All comments are subject to our Community Guidelines. Soap Opera Digest does not endorse the opinions and views shared by our readers in our comment sections. Our comments section is a place where readers can engage in healthy, productive, lively, and respectful discussions. Offensive language, hate speech, personal attacks, and/or defamatory statements are not permitted. Advertising or spam is also prohibited.