AS THE WORLD TURNS' Van Hansis (Luke) kicks off a five-month run in the off-Broadway production of offbeat play Die Mommie Die! this month in New York City, but the über-busy actor found some time to give a little introduction to Lance — and the lowdown on Luke.

Soap Opera Weekly: What's your role in Die Mommie Die! like?
Van Hansis: Lance is a guy who may have fetal alcohol syndrome. He's not the brightest person in the universe and has rage and OCD and is kind of a big slut. The genre is very different, but it's like a soap opera. There's this family that's trying to kill each other; they're this rich family in L.A. who have all these dark secrets. It's a raunchy comedy that takes place in 1968, so it's Old Hollywood versus the '60s revolution. It's fun. I honestly have no idea how to explain it. It's very out there and it's very campy.

Weekly: In other words, you're playing the polar opposite of Luke?
Hansis: Lance, my character, is a big hedonist; all he likes to do is have fun. Luke is always torturing himself about something.

Weekly: Luke's getting stronger, though, right?
Hansis: Yeah, I love playing Luke being strong, getting stronger. Luke's growing some b----, and it's about damn time, you know?

Weekly: Do you have to switch gears when you go from the show to the play?
Hansis: A little bit. It's a different vocabulary. We were blocking some scene and I was like, "Who will cue me on?" and they were like, "Nobody, you just have to listen." I'm so used to having somebody tell me when to enter a scene.

Weekly: Lance sounds like a wacky guy.
Hansis: Oh, yeah, he is. He's having a lot of fun. He gives his mom LSD. He's funny.

Weekly: Could Lily use a little acid?
Hansis: Well, I wouldn't want to see Lily on LSD (laughs).

Weekly: But people certainly want to see more of Luke and Noah.
Hansis: Honestly, I'm not going to say I'm surprised, because I'm not. If you tell a good story, good feedback will happen. The writing is really incredible. There's always these questions about whether the audience is ready for this [relationship] and yeah, I think they are. There's a big faction of people who have been waiting for this for years and years, and the story hasn't been told. Now that it's finally being told people are tuning in. I get so much fan mail from people who are like, “I started watching ATWT because of Luke and Noah.”

Weekly: It's not going to be an easy road for the two of them, is it?
Hansis: It will be a rocky road, I'm sure, but an easy road's a boring road!

You can catch Die Mommie Die! from Oct. 21 through Feb. 17, 2008, at New World Stages, 340 W. 50th St. New York, N.Y. Call (212)-239-6200, Visit www.telecharge.com or go to the New World Stages box office for ticket information.