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TV Guide.Com 8/18/01: Michael Easton
"Interview With A Vampire" Michael Easton Sinks His Teeth Into A Juicy New Role On Port Charles
AND TELLS TV GUIDE MAGAZINE ABOUT THE PERKS OF BEING ALLY MCBEAL'S WELL-ENDOWED BOY-TOY
TV Guide By Michael Logan August 18, 2001
Small-screen vampire Michael Easton has breathed new life into the corpse-like ABC daytime drama Port Charles, and brought it unprecedented raves and buzz. In the August 18th issue (on newsstands Monday, August 13) Easton explains to TV Guide how "The days are gone when soaps can get away with that 'Ooh, you're from a rich family and I'm poor so we can't date'-type of crap." He says, "Today you really have to stir things up."
Stirring things up is not new for this soap star. Although he has starred in several prime-time shows (none of which have lasted past one season) he is most recognized for his appearances on Ally McBeal where he played Glenn, the generously endowed art-class model who posed for Ally and then bedded her. Easton says, "I can't tell you how many people come up to me and say, 'So...is it true?' But, hey, any recognition is good, especially when it gets me a free coffee at Starbucks."
But before becoming the actor he is today, Easton went through some hard times. He admits, "I went through a destructive phase where I did a lot of alcohol and drugs and was just a mess." He discusses his experiences of being a homeless wino in his book of poetry Eighteen Straight Whiskeys.
Now, after sinking his teeth into his new role as a bloodsucker on Port Charles, Easton reflects, "There was a time when I was a real a-hole, but now I look at life with a different perspective. I've learned to be thankful."
Interview With a Vampire
Once homeless, Michael Easton reinvented himself with an acting career and now sinks his teeth into a juicy new role on ABC's Port Charles. On the set of the ABC daytime drama Port Charles ,a dark, handsome lothario named Caleb is seducing the luscious Livvie, one of the show's most beloved heroines, his face is buried deep into her neck. "Yes,Caleb,yes!" Livvie sighs orgasmically, her breasts heaving, her eyelids fluttering. "I never dreamed it would feel this way." Just another cliche'-ridden soap opera love scene? Not quite: Caleb, played by Michael Easton, is a vampire, and Livvie, played by Kelly Monaco, is about to become his eternal bride. "The days are gone when soaps can get away with that "Ooh, you're from a rich family and I'm poor so we can't date-type crap," says the 34-year-old Easton, recalling the kinds of plots that drove Days of our Lives when he starred on that soap in the early 90's. "Today you really have to stir things up." That he has. His bloodsucker storyline -- initially set to run just this summer but now extended into fall -- has restored life to the corpselike Port Charles, bringing the soap rave reviews and a buzz it had never before enjoyed. Better yet, young viewership has tripled. Much of the credit, says PC executive producer Julie Hanan Carruthers, must go to Easton, who also plays Caleb's good twin, the meek, bespecticled town priest, Father Michael.
"He has brought such a level of believability and commitment to his roles that he has raised the bar for everyone," says Carruthers. "And I don't just mean other actors, but the boom operators, the camera crew, the make up people, everybody. "But what's in this daytime gig for Easton, who has starred in several prime-time shows of his own?" People think I'm doing this because I need the money," he says, "but I go where the work is interesting. I've never had a bias about mediums. "Nor, outside of his suds work, has he ever had a hit. None of Easton's four nighttime series -- Total Recall 2070 (1998) ,413 Hope St. (1997), Two (1996) and VR.5 (1995) -- lasted past one season.
"But I take solice in the fact that I keep getting hired, "he says. "There are actors far more talented than me who can't even get an agent. "Easton doesn't mind that he's best known for stripping naked on Ally Mcbeal, where he played Glenn, the generously endowed art-class model who posed for Ally and then bedded her. The recurring role has done wonders for his reputation. Says the single Easton: "I can't tell you how many people come up to me and say,' So...is it true?' But, hey, any recognition is good, especially when it gets me a free coffee at Starbucks. "Easton has come to appreciate such blessings because there was a time in his early twenties when he was -- to put it bluntly -- a homeless wino." I went through a really destructive phase where I did a lot of alcohol and drugs and was just a mess," admits Easton, who at one point was so desperate for cash that he took a job agitating dogs that were being trained to attack. Many of his experiences are detailed in his acclaimed book of poetry "Eighteen Straight Whiskeys" (The Bowery Press), now in its second printing.
He credits the Los Angeles Mission, a homeless shelter on the city's skid row, with putting him on the straight and narrow, and his late mom, Joan, with keeping him there. She died in 1994, after a two-year bout with cancer, during which Easton quit acting and moved back to the family home in New York State to help care for her. (His father, Stewart, is an engineer; his younger brother, Keith, is a Navy pilot.) "In some strange way I feel my mom can see me now and that I need to live my life in a better way," Easton says. "There was a time when I was a real a--hole, but now I look at life with a different perspective. I've learned to be thankful."
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