STEPHEN NICHOLS' INTREVIEW WITH SOAP OPERA DIGEST ONLINE

ROLE: Stefan Cassadine, GENERAL HOSPITAL
BIRTHDAY: February 19
HOMETOWN:  Cincinnati, Ohio
FAMILY TIES: Wife Lisa.  Children: Vanessa,  Aaron, Dylan.  "I have a
beautiful 19-year-old daughter who is going off to college, my 17-year-old is
in junior college, and my little girl is wonderful.  They're all great kids.
 I have a great life, I'm blessed.  Especially with my family."
OTHER SOAP CREDITS: Steve ("Patch") Johnson, DAYS OF OUR LIVES; Skylar Gates,
SANTA BARBARA
JUST SPOOFING OFF: Nichols had a bit part in the 1991 soap spoof "Soap Dish,"
and recently filmed a soap satire vignette titled "Dutch Elm Palm Heights"
for the USA Network, which will air in October.  It was a change of pace from
his GH character.  "Yes, [my] dark and dreary existence at Wyndemere.... Wind
and beer!" Nichols joked.  "Yes, it's quite different.  It's nice to break
out and do something a little crazy.  I always enjoy doing that.  Stefan is
certainly a very serious person, and not the kind of person who would be a
laugh a minute, you know.  So this is good to be able to do this."

THE COMPLEX CASSADINE
When the Cassadine family invaded Port Charles the last time around, they 
were an evil bunch who tried to turn the world into a popsicle.  The recent 
influx of Cassadines are three brooding, complex and attractive characters -- 
with their own megalomaniacal fantasies.  Soap Opera Digest Online chatted 
with STEPHEN NICHOLS about his character of Stefan and what the future holds 
in that happenin' town in upstate New York.

DIGEST ONLINE: What's it like playing Stefan Cassadine everyday? 

NICHOLS: It's a great challenge for me, because the character is so 
specific in terms of motivation and speech patterns and all that kind 
of stuff.  It's a real challenge because I can't just walk in and kind 
of play myself, and paraphrase.  I have to be so damn prepared.  It's 
good work, good hard work.
 

DIGEST ONLINE: Do you put any of yourself into Stefan? NICHOLS: Well, I 
have to.  You know, I think every actor has to put himself into the 
people -- because you're playing real people.  The word 'character' 
kind of irritates me, as a matter of fact, because I really think 
they're people.  I have to look at them as people and I have to 
speak from that point of view.  But, yes, absolutely, I have to 
put my life experiences in every person I portray.

DIGEST ONLINE: So what of Stephen is in Stefan?
NICHOLS: Fierce determination and a very soft spot for children.  
I think Stefan feels the same way in that children should not suffer 
the indignities of the world.  I think [it's] a great device to have 
a child in my life on GENERAL HOSPITAL because it gives me that 
chance to show the vulnerable side.

DIGEST ONLINE: So when do you think Nikolas' paternity issue will 
come to light? 
NICHOLS: I have no idea.  That is a real big card that they can 
hold onto for as long as they want to and use it whenever.  
So, I don't have any idea. There are no immediate plans to reveal
anything about that.

DIGEST ONLINE: You reached daytime stardom as Patch Johnson, who 
was such a great character on DAYS, and now you've come onto GH, 
as another, totally different and yet, incredibly rich, complex 
character. 
NICHOLS: Well, I have Bob Guza to thank for that because he actually 
created the concept for the Stefan character.  And yes, it was a 
very hard thing, coming in like that and having to recreate that 
kind of success, and trying to come up to that level, that I 
couldn't think of it in terms of that, really.  I had to just 
think of it as another job, and there was work to do, and I 
have to discover who Stefan is as I go.  It was a great 
challenge, and I'm real happy about it.  I'm just grateful for 
the opportunity.

DIGEST ONLINE: Will we see Bob Guza back on GH? 
NICHOLS: Well, gee, I don't know.  I don't think anything is official.  
I don't know anything about that.  I think everybody would like to
 see him back.  I know I certainly would because he really did 
create Stefan, it's his idea, and he's just a great writer.  
[He's] very energetic, he has a lot of passion for his work, 
and you don't see that a lot in the realm that we work in.  
You don't see that kind of passion.

DIGEST ONLINE:  How do you like working with TYLER CHRISTOPHER [Nikolas],
 who was pretty much just starting out when you began working together? 
NICHOLS: Well, you know, he's such a brand new actor, a lot of great, 
raw energy.  He just has that thing, you know?  He has that presence, 
he has the talent.  It was a lot of fun working with him because there
was nothing in the way.  You could just be there with him in the 
scene and he would respond.   He gave me a lot of stuff to 
respond to.  It was fabulous, and it still is.
We love working with each other.  It's a real great match.  

DIGEST ONLINE: What's it like working with MARY BETH EVANS [Katherine] again? 
NICHOLS: It's a joy.  I love Mary Beth.  I'm hoping that the angle
 that they come up with for the story between us -- the romance -- 
is believable and really in character for Stefan and Katherine
 because we're two very complex people now, not like Patch and Kayla -- 
 they were very simple people.  You know it's hard to come up with
 story, and to do it right.

DIGEST ONLINE: How do you feel about their romance thus far? 

NICHOLS: I think there have been some very good things about it, and 
there have been some things that [have been] questionable.  But all 
in all, I think that we've done our jobs.

DIGEST ONLINE: Do you know that there's an online group called the Crystal Tree? 

NICHOLS: Yes!  They send me a lot of letters, sort of love letters 
to us.  I really appreciate that a lot.  A lot of [the letters] 
were very astute.  You could tell that people were watching 
the show and forming their own opinions about their 
relationship and the way Stefan feels, the way Katherine
feels.  A lot of the stuff was very smart, right on.  I really 
appreciate letters like that.

DIGEST ONLINE:  Where would you like to see the romance go? 
NICHOLS: Well, you know, I'm not a writer.  That's why I can 
never criticize these people who have to write an hour show a 
day.  Because it's got to be just such a brutal job.  So, I 
don't know exactly.  I just know that whatever we do has to 
be motivated from a very clear point of view, because Stefan
 is a very clear, very awake person, and so is Katherine. 
 Nobody's ditzy, and goofy here, these people don't do things 
impulsively.  She might, I don't know, but Stefan does not.  
So, it just has to be very specific and well-thought out. 
 You can't just say, "Oh, why don't we have them be stranded
 on an island somewhere and then, you know, a boa constructor 
slithers up between them and gets in the way."  I don't know,
 you just can't throw any old thing out there for these two 
people, it has to be specific. It can't be anybody else's scene. 
 They can't write us scenes that they write for other people. 
 It cannot be, because we're just too well-defined. Especially,
 I think, Stefan.  I'm not a Quartermaine, so don't write me 
dialogue that sounds like Quartermaine dialogue.  I'm a little 
different ilk.  I'm slightly European, probably more educated,
not sarcastic.  Sarcastic humor to Stefan is cheap. 
Whenever that stuff comes up I just go, wait, that's not me.

DIGEST ONLINE: There was a recent episode where Stefan was picking
up on the differences.  Nikolas had said something that sounded
very American.  It must be so difficult for you to maintain the
speech pattern of Stefan. 

NICHOLS: It's not difficult if it's in the script, because I can 
learn those words.  And I notice things.  Because I am American, 
I can kill those Americanisms when they come up.  I can say, 
whoa, that's not it, or that's an Americanism.  We've made a 
big point of it now, and the writers know about it and it's 
an issue.  We have a writer named Elizabeth Korte, she writes 
an occasional script -- she should be writing more, but -- 
she wrote that script where I met Katherine at the poolside 
and talked about the Americanisms and I appreciated that.  She 
really tuned into what I was doing.  You know, if they write it, 
I can say it, and I can make it my own, but if they don't 
write it, then it becomes something else, and it's not 
character specific.

DIGEST ONLINE: Where would you like to see Stefan go? 

NICHOLS: Go? Straight to hell!  [laughs]  Oh, God, I can't say, 
because I'm walking such a fine line with that whole Stefan 
thing.  Is he a villain?  Can an evil man love?  All those 
questions, I don't know, I mean, I'm not a writer.  I just 
want them to write good stuff, and I'm there for it, I'll
show up for it.  It's hard to say, because it's very 
convoluted with this Katherine thing, and getting rid of 
Bobbie... it seems like, sometimes there's a tendency, when 
they know a story is not going to go anywhere, they kind of 
cut it off at the knees before it's really finished, and the 
thing with Bobbie and I was sort of cut off at the knees 
because they decided -- well, they knew from the beginning, 
really, that it wasn't going to be a real soap romance, 
you know, that something else was going to happen.  So, 
instead of really finishing the story out as it would be 
naturally, in terms of what character, what they would 
do, they sort of chopped it off.  I have complete confidence 
in the writers and I know that they'll work things out.  

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