Asked and Answered: Nathaniel Takes Questions From His Fan Club Members

 

~When you were playing Al Holden, before Marcie came on the scene, Al and Natalie shared a lot of screen time. Can you settle a debate that's been going on for some time on the message boards? Everyone remembers Natalie kissing Al when he was taunting her about her feelings for Cristian just to shut Al up. Some fans claim that there was another occasion where Al backed Natalie up against the wall and kissed her, but I only remember him getting in her face and it looking like he was going in for the kiss, then pulling away. Did Al and Natalie ever kiss a second time? - JS

No. No we didn't. You are right, I just pushed her up against the wall and pulled away. They used to have me doing a lot of that, being aggressive with Natalie. Why? No idea. Who knows where they were going with that stuff.

~What are the biggest challenges you’ve found working in daytime? – PC

Getting there in the morning. I have a hard time waking up.

~In an SOW article once, you mentioned that you were a big fan of Tool. In the same article you also mentioned that you had just purchased a copy of Miles Davis’ “Witches Brew”. Big variation in music type there…..what other types of music do you enjoy & who are some of your favorite artists? – ME

I listen to all music. If the music is good, if it’s complex, if it’s well thought out, if there’s a creative spark to it then I’ll enjoy it. Rap, Classical, Jazz, Blues, Reggae… it really doesn’t matter the genre, as long as the artist has put some work into it.

~What is your idea of a perfect day? – JP

My idea of a perfect day is waking up around 9:30-10. Sunshine, light breeze. 78-82 degrees. Large breakfast followed by a leisurely walk down to the beach. Some swimming, a little surfing action and we’ll follow that up with lunch and a nap. That’s perfect. I’m pretty easy to please.

~If your life were made into a movie, who would you cast in the starring role? – HG

I don’t think he’s been born yet. (laughing)

~Which co-star would you like to share a scene with that you have not shared one with yet? – JP/AM

I think I’ve worked with everyone. I’d like to have more scenes with Robin Strasser, I think she’s great to work with. She’s a lot of fun. She’s something else to watch. She’s classically trained, Yale Drama School on a scholarship. She’s pretty heavy.

~If the writers were to pair Michael up with a character other than Marcie, who would you choose to work with? - ME

Robin Strasser. Robin has definitely “got it”. With Robin, you can take a little more time with things, you can play with them a bit, work it out. (KN: Romantically? You could see Michael and Dorian?) Yeah. I think it would be neat. I’ve already done that storyline once on As The World Turns. And she’s done it on One Life To Live with Joe Buchanan. It’s something that people like.

~What was your favorite scene as “Al Holden”? What is your favorite scene as “Michael Mc Bain” (so far)? – AM

My favorite scene with Kathy [as Michael] was the one where we were up on the roof and we had just “done it” and we were sitting there talking and it starts to rain… it starts pouring and I ask her to marry me. That was a fun scene. And as Al, a fun scene was when I set Jessica’s… I mean, Jennifer’s room… when I burned Jen’s house down. I did all my own stunts on that one and I got my fire stunt badge. They don’t usually let people do it, but the guy that they had didn’t look anything like me so they put me in the flame retardant clothes and I had to jump through the fire. It was very cool.

~How did you first learn about the campaign to save your job? What was your initial reaction upon hearing about the campaign? – SP

I think I was told about it at the fan club luncheon. People were asking what they could do and we said “You should write letters.” One of the fans told me about Marcal, the paper towel thing. And I just thought that that was great. I was really touched. It was really a beautiful thing. It was really nice to hear that people had responded so well to my work. You guys turned the tide.

 

~Do you think there’s still a lot of good story left for Michael and Marcie and what kind of story would you like to play? - DB

There’s always good story. When they give you this line that we just sort of wrote ourselves into a corner and we couldn’t figure out what to do, that’s just nonsense. I mean, honestly, a little bit of creativity and you can make anything happen. Look what they did, they made me come back from the dead in someone else’s body. At the same time, if you can’t write your way out of it, steal your way out of it! There’s always more story.

And what would I like to play? I think that… I have a really great storyline actually. Maybe after everything that happens with myself and John and Spencer, after the truth about my father’s death comes out, maybe Michael, who’s a very together person, maybe what starts to happen is he starts to remember things that he and Marcie did, you know, “Hey, remember the time we did such and such…” and she stops him and says “That wasn’t us. That was Al and me..”

Because that’s something that you could go with. Having him think he’s starting to lose it. With all the trauma and the stress, things just start to pop in.

You can’t do this huge thing and then never have anything about it again. Because working through that, and her fear and they’re already married so she can’t just divorce him like that. There obviously you have the conflict, she’s ready to divorce him because she thinks he’s a lunatic. Maybe this guy just played me from the beginning and he’s really crazy? You have the gamut of her emotions to work through. And then it gives us something real to work our way past. And she helps me.

I know we’ve already got all these split personality stories that we’re doing, but the one guy who really has two spirits in his body, it actually makes sense that all this stuff is happening to him. I mean, think about it… yeah, I would go there and we could go there really well, because it would be specific.

When it was the drugs, when Marcie was helping Al get off the drugs , she wasn’t into it, she didn’t know what to do at first and that scared her. And this would be something that would, on a whole other level, tie the Al thing back together and at the end, they would know. For them not to know, to just be in love is just ridiculous. IF they went through this whole thing again and got the understanding of Oh, my God. We really are a special love. We have to be together. This marriage is real. And maybe you could even do something silly like have them get married again.

You know what? I didn’t know you. I didn’t know who I was really marrying. Let’s do this again now that I know who I’m really giving myself to. That would be rich. It may seem a little silly to go back to it, but it was never really dealt with properly. So that gives them a whole Hey, there really is Al in there somewhere. And it starts with little things but then it gets worse and worse until I start to break down and who pulls me through? Marcie does. With our really special history. There’s so much that brought us together, don’t lose that in that way.

So there you go. That’s the story that I’d like to play. Something that brings it back and makes it understandable why they are where they are and why they need to be together, that would tie it all together, for the fans and for us.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

Ask Nathaniel a question and you just never know what he's going to say! These are a sample of the questions Nathaniel's fan club members have had answered exclusively in the club newsletter. It's one of the benefits of joining the Official Nathaniel Marston Fan Club, along with the opportunity to attend the annual "members only" fan club event where we have great food, great fun and the chance to sit and chat with the man himself. For more information check out the fan club link: Fan Club