Interview: Catching Up With Charles Shaughnessy, Part 2

Charles Shaughnessy hasn’t been resting on his laurels since leaving his popular roles on “Days of Our Lives” (as Shane Donovan) and “The Nanny” (as Maxwell Sheffield). He is just as busy as ever, and he took the time to talk with me about his life in show business so far, along with all the surprising journeys and side roads he has taken along the way.

Many of Charles’ fans were thrilled when he popped up in the Season Two finale of AMC’s hit drama “Mad Men” as Saint John Powell (he stuck around for much of Season Three as well). Charles was thrilled to have the opportunity to work on the award-winning show. He tells me: “When I got cast in the second season of ‘Mad Men’ as Saint John Powell, an English businessman who ends up buying the ad agency, it was not a lot of air time for me, but it was a really interesting character.

“The first scene I had was in a restaurant with one of the guys from the agency. Behind the lines, you got a whole sense of who this guy is, this kind of steely predator behind this charming, bon vivant exterior. It was really fun going in and doing very short scenes while painting an interesting character. It was fantastic to act on the very cream of TV drama, working with the most incredible people in the most creative environment.”

And to think, Charles didn’t even start out with the goal of becoming an actor. “My goal when I was a kid in college was to be a lawyer — I was studying law — and I think I probably would have been miserable. So I’m glad I didn’t pursue that goal as hard as I could. Then the goal of acting popped up, and it’s been really good to me. Sure, one can say that one wants to be a big, successful movie star, but if that were the case, I wonder if I’d have the family that I have.”

How does Charles pick his projects? Well, he’s a smart cookie, this one. He explains: “I like to do any sort of work that keeps me engaged. Someone said to me recently, ‘You seem to have had a diverse career and have done a lot of different things.’ And I haven’t really. I’ve done just one thing my entire career, which is to entertain. Doing ‘The Nanny’ was a great job. I really get a kick out of it that to this day people from all over the world loved it. I met a man in New York from New Delhi, India, who told me he and his wife loved the show, and it made them laugh every week. That feels good.”

With all of his different show-biz exploits, Charles doesn’t see himself settling into any single genre — he plans to mix it up a bit. “I’ve had fantastic experiences from the most unlikely of places. Out of the blue, having never been trained in musical-theater comedy, I was doing a triple Tony Award winning Broadway musical called ‘Urinetown: The Musical.’ I had a fantastic experience living in New York for those six months. My family, who were dreading my move to NYC, had the best time. They came out to visit for Thanksgiving and for the holidays, and they still say that was the favorite time of their life so far.

“If you keep yourself open to it, amazing stuff happens. I just got done doing this bizarre show in Northern California for a friend, and it was completely crazy, but I met some great people and got to spend four weeks in Carmel in a beautiful house by the beach. You try to say yes to as much as you can and suck as much experience out of it as you can. I don’t understand anyone saying, ‘I don’t do TV’ or ‘I don’t do theater’ or ‘I don’t do animation.’ I think you have to do as much as you possibly can.”

OLTL Stars on Good Morning America

Don't miss tomorrow's Good Morning America, as One Life to Live stars Eddie Alderson (“Matthew Buchanan”), Kelley Missal (“Dani Rayburn”) and Shenell Edmonds (“Destiny Evans”) appear  to participate in GMA's "Warm Coats & Warm Hearts" coat drive.

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Interview: Catching Up With Charles Shaughnessy

Charles Shaughnessy (photo credit Suzanne Allison) charmed Days of Our Lives fans during his eight-year tenure as Shane Donovan, and he also co-starred with Fran Drescher as Maxwell Sheffield on The Nanny. Lately, Charles has been popping up everywhere — from a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical to Mad Men to voicing Dennis the Goldfish on the Disney Channel’s cartoon series Stanley, for which he won an Emmy.

This time around, he plays Mr. Bosley, the owner of a magazine company who sends one of his journalists, Cynthia Tamerline (who is played by Jordan Ladd), on a mundane small-town assignment where she discovers her true passion in life. Wishing Well also co-stars Ernest Borgnine, Jason London and Sally Kellerman, and airs on the Hallmark Channel on Saturday, Jan. 9 at 9 p.m. ET/PT and 8 p.m. Central. (Check your local listings for encore presentations.)

So, what was the experience of filming Wishing Well like for the ever-busy Charles Shaughnessy? Charles explains: “These kinds of movies are always very fun things to do, playing different kinds of roles. I came in for a couple of days in the office set with Jordan Ladd. There’s sort of a mentor relationship between Mr. Bosley and Cynthia that is slightly antagonistic, but in a paternal way. He sends her to a small, Midwest town to kind of shake her up a bit.”

Charles had fun playing the head honcho and enjoyed finding different facets of his character. “If there is a chance to paint a character into someone who goes just beyond the lines, it’s always fun to do. It’s having that extra dimension that gives you a sense of who this guy is when the cameras stop rolling. Mr. Bosley has a few more dimensions than just a boss: He has a sense of humor, he knows the business, and he has a certain charm and flair.”

Working with Jordan — daughter of actress Cheryl Ladd and a dead ringer for her gorgeous mom — was also a wonderful experience. Charles raves: “Jordan is a delight. We had a lot of fun. She is just fantastic — I have nothing but good things to say about her.”

A main message of the movie is that sometimes you just have to follow your heart, which is something Charles understands, but doesn’t completely subscribe to. “My philosophy in life is to keep tap dancing, keep surfing. You can try to follow your heart, but sometimes it is not always the right thing to do. You’ve got to balance it with your head.

“I think that one of the great dangers is investing too much in plans. I’ve set so many goals that have disappeared during the journey and have been replaced by much more interesting goals that suddenly popped up and put me in a new direction. I’m a believer in being as smart as you can in the moment.”

With Charles’ varied career, would he ever consider coming back to daytime? As he tells me, he wouldn’t rule anything out. “I loved doing Days of Our Lives. I thought that format was a fantastic way to work. You use all the muscles you have; it was exhausting at times and it never got boring. I made some really good friends, and we absolutely had a blast. I wouldn’t say no (if the chance presented itself again).”

Fans of Charles should not say no to catching his co-starring role this weekend and next on the Hallmark Channel’s original movie Wishing Well.

Days: Such a Tease!

NEXT WEEK:

* Rafe urges Will to give Mia another chance.

* Bo walks in on Carly (Crystal Chappell, pictured) and Hope arguing.

* Vivian suspects she knows who Carly’s daughter is.

* Melanie and Nathan deny they still have feelings for each other.

* Philip and Melanie set a date for the wedding.

Thursday – Brady comes to Arianna’s rescue.

Friday – Victor learns Carly and Bo slept together.

Y&R: Such a Tease!

* A discovery by Patty could mean trouble for Emily and Jack.

* Malcolm’s stay in Genoa City could be short-lived when Neil (Kristoff St. John, pictured) asks him to leave town.

* When Chance starts to investigate the man who stabbed him, could his questions land him in dangerous waters?

* Kay prepares herself to meet her daughter for the first time.

* Billy and Mac come together when Delia has a health scare.

B&B: Such a Tease!

· A suspicious relationship is questioned.

· An addition to a family is made.

· A betrayal is unmasked.

· True feelings are revealed between rivals.

· Overwhelming guilt leads to a confession.

Days: Such a Tease!

THIS WEEK:
* Nicole (Arianne Zuker, pictured) throws herself upon the mercy of the court.

* Troy hires an operative to take Arianna out.

* Nathan urges Melanie to reconsider marrying Philip.

* Vivian tells Bo about Hope and Justin’s kiss.

* Sami and EJ receive a call from the kidnapper.

Thursday – Nicole is sentenced for her crimes.

Friday – Carly admits to Vivian that she killed Lawrence.

Happy New Year!!

Wishing everyone a happy, happy New Year! Here's to a great 2010!

Interview: Life After the Light for Robert Newman

When “Guiding Light” ended its historic 72-year run this past fall, fans were devastated. Robert Newman, who played Joshua Lewis for almost 25 years, is still in New York and is currently starring in the musical “Sessions,” which he began performing in prior to “GL’s” demise. I had the chance to chat with Robert to discuss the end of the “GL” era.

Daytime Dial: What were those last few weeks of filming like on the “GL” set? It must have been a pretty bittersweet time.
Robert Newman: Part of my doing “Sessions” was to give me a distraction from the fact that “Guiding Light” was ending, and it really worked well. My experience of those last few weeks might be different from some of the others, because I was already on this other journey. I almost didn’t have time to digest how heavy this thing was: the ending of a 72-year, 15,672-episode show, of which I spent many years of my life. I did around 3,500-4,000 episodes. The last couple of days, it started to become a bigger thing for me to realize and understand that this really was going to end.


We shot the last scene a few days earlier than the last day of shooting, with Josh and Reva meeting at the lighthouse and riding off in the truck together. That had its own feel to it, because we knew it was going to be the final scene of the show, with “always” being the last word spoken on the show. So that was an emotional day.


The last day we actually shot, a lot of the people who worked on the show came out (on location) to Peapack, N.J., that day. We also had about 200 fans who watched us filming, following us from location to location. As each scene ended, there would be an announcement made that this actor had shot his last scene, and he had been on the show for five years, or 12 years, or 13 years, or whatever it was, and there was a toast and applause, and then we’d shoot the next scene. And, of course, there was a big bash that night.

DD: How has it been since the show ended? What do you miss about it?
RN: Since then, it’s been a bit of an emotional roller coaster, something I didn’t expect or anticipate. I miss the people, I really do. I wasn’t particularly the most social guy on the show, but when you work that intimately and that closely with people, you kind of take it for granted. I will say that I don’t really miss the show — I’m not sure what that’s about, but I don’t. I’ve moved on. It was time to say goodbye to Josh, and I’m OK with that. It was about the people — it was about working with Kim Zimmer, it was about Josh and Reva, it was about being with people on both sides of the camera who are just a hoot to work with.

DD: Are you happy with the ending?
RN: The writers had a wicked task ahead of them. I mean, how do you wrap up 72 years of storytelling? Their sort of bailout of going to a one-year-later scenario worked fine. I think if they had tried to wrap everything up into tidy little packages on the couple of months that we had, I think it would have been sloppy. It was appropriate that the last scenes are with Josh and Reva, and driving off in the truck at the lighthouse. I joked that the truck should all of a sudden explode and then go to a black screen, sort of a “Sopranos”-like ending, but they didn’t go for that. They wanted the happy ending.

DD: What are your plans for the future?
RN: I will probably stay on stage for a while. It feels good to me, and it’s where I want to be. That might mean doing some traveling (to various region theaters), but I’ll probably stay on stage for a bit. That’s my way of taking a break — it gives me a break from the hectic television shooting schedule. Then I’ll figure out some things after that.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from Cindy and Dana at Daytime Dial!