Post by caitlyn on Oct 18, 2007 16:09:44 GMT -5
Received in Email:
SOW: After John's deadly 'accident' the heat has really turned up on Stefano.
JM: They always do that. I don't even have to see the script. I knew by the minute John got hit by a car, 'A-ha, Stefano did it!' But for John Black to be hit by a car is almost silly, because he's been hit by cannons, bullets, rocks - he drowned - and he's survived all that. Now, somebody hits him with a car and he doesn't survive?
SOW: But he's not the Phoenix.
JM: [laughs] It's funny how that 'nickname' started. Every year I would do a play in order for me to leave and come back, [then head writer Pat Falken Smith] came up with the idea of the Phoenix, with Stefano always rising out of the ashes.
SOW: Have you enjoyed playing the back story of the vendetta?
JM: It's been quite beautiful, and a bit of a surprise, because when I was first talking to them about coming back, I thought we'd get a couple of beautiful, older actors doing a few scenes of mom and dad in Europe. But they came up with this whole thing of Colleen and Santo, which is interesting. It helps explain things. As an actor, I had made up my own history about Stefano so I could work on the character. [This story] was different.
SOW: The DiMera's have enjoyed quite a resurgence on the show.
JM: I think it's something that was needed, in the terms of the story and the [future of] the show. It gives a different kind of strength to this battle between the DiMeras and the Bradys. In Salem you always have Mama Brady and her nice family on one hill, and then on the other hill you had the DiMeras and the dark side. In the middle you had cops; these three pockets of power. They are trying to give equal strength to all sides. Some of it is a little foolish. You want to give the cops a few more b***s, maybe. You want to give them some intelligence. It's a funny thing. I've done an awful lot of charity work for the police all over the country. For whatever reason, they get a kick out of Stefano. In real life you have strong people in the police force, but [on soaps] they can't even catch somebody stealing licorice.
The bottom line is always, "Does it make sense? Could this be possible?" My fight has always been the same; the audience is much more intelligent than [the show] gives them credit for most of the time. They know when you're being a doofus and when you're not. Like Stefano -- he's had enough tunnels in Salem. One more tunnel and the whole place will sink.
SOW: What about Stefano's sinking health status? John Black bit the dust. Is this going to be it for Stefano, too?
JM: I am personally going to put a stick of dynamite in his wheelchair and blow that f***ker up.
SOW: So the Phoenix is really going to turn to ashes?
JM: [laughs] I'll tell you, this has been a source of a lot of talk between myself and Hogan [Sheffer, head writer] and Ed Scott [executive producer], about just how sick he is. Stefano can be quite manipulative and duplicitous. So you really don't know how sick he is. Of course, there is the reality of him having that operation, because now he's got so many other people's body parts in him it's like a joke. But I don't believe this illness is something that will put him down.
SOW: After John's deadly 'accident' the heat has really turned up on Stefano.
JM: They always do that. I don't even have to see the script. I knew by the minute John got hit by a car, 'A-ha, Stefano did it!' But for John Black to be hit by a car is almost silly, because he's been hit by cannons, bullets, rocks - he drowned - and he's survived all that. Now, somebody hits him with a car and he doesn't survive?
SOW: But he's not the Phoenix.
JM: [laughs] It's funny how that 'nickname' started. Every year I would do a play in order for me to leave and come back, [then head writer Pat Falken Smith] came up with the idea of the Phoenix, with Stefano always rising out of the ashes.
SOW: Have you enjoyed playing the back story of the vendetta?
JM: It's been quite beautiful, and a bit of a surprise, because when I was first talking to them about coming back, I thought we'd get a couple of beautiful, older actors doing a few scenes of mom and dad in Europe. But they came up with this whole thing of Colleen and Santo, which is interesting. It helps explain things. As an actor, I had made up my own history about Stefano so I could work on the character. [This story] was different.
SOW: The DiMera's have enjoyed quite a resurgence on the show.
JM: I think it's something that was needed, in the terms of the story and the [future of] the show. It gives a different kind of strength to this battle between the DiMeras and the Bradys. In Salem you always have Mama Brady and her nice family on one hill, and then on the other hill you had the DiMeras and the dark side. In the middle you had cops; these three pockets of power. They are trying to give equal strength to all sides. Some of it is a little foolish. You want to give the cops a few more b***s, maybe. You want to give them some intelligence. It's a funny thing. I've done an awful lot of charity work for the police all over the country. For whatever reason, they get a kick out of Stefano. In real life you have strong people in the police force, but [on soaps] they can't even catch somebody stealing licorice.
The bottom line is always, "Does it make sense? Could this be possible?" My fight has always been the same; the audience is much more intelligent than [the show] gives them credit for most of the time. They know when you're being a doofus and when you're not. Like Stefano -- he's had enough tunnels in Salem. One more tunnel and the whole place will sink.
SOW: What about Stefano's sinking health status? John Black bit the dust. Is this going to be it for Stefano, too?
JM: I am personally going to put a stick of dynamite in his wheelchair and blow that f***ker up.
SOW: So the Phoenix is really going to turn to ashes?
JM: [laughs] I'll tell you, this has been a source of a lot of talk between myself and Hogan [Sheffer, head writer] and Ed Scott [executive producer], about just how sick he is. Stefano can be quite manipulative and duplicitous. So you really don't know how sick he is. Of course, there is the reality of him having that operation, because now he's got so many other people's body parts in him it's like a joke. But I don't believe this illness is something that will put him down.
