The 21st century has been a period of transition for Bryan R. Dattilo. In the span of three years, the actor married, had a baby, divorced, was fired after eight years as DAYS OF OUR LIVES's Lucas, then got rehired and was recently put back on-contract. During his time away from Salem, Dattilo took stock of his life and made adjustments that he feels ultimately paved his way back to the soap. But first, he had to deal with the reality of unemployment.

"It humbled me. It humbled me greatly,"he admits. "Not having money coming in does that to you. Going through the changes I've gone through, it's just like starting from scratch, starting with nothing. I dig that; it's a challenge. People are brought down to their lowest point a couple times in their life, and it's all about whether you can bounce back and improve yourself. I never wanted to be the victim in any of this, I just wanted to come back better. It's been tough, but you have to have a lot of faith, confidence and realistic goals about yourself."

Dattilo's goals? Get in shape and become a better actor. "I was very productive with my acting class, as well as going to the gym, eating right and trying to stay ahead of the game -- trying to get rehired, basically,"he says candidly. "A lot of the things that I heard about Lucas in the past were that he couldn't be a dominating figure who could wow the ladies and jump in and out of bed with girls and show his body. Granted, maybe I wasn't there a year or two ago, but now I am!"

An invitation to return to DAYS didn't take him entirely by surprise, but being offered a contract did. "When I left, there was so much left unsaid that I always thought in the back of my mind that maybe I'd come back,"he reveals. "I didn't think it would be on-contract; I thought it would be recurring."

The actor confesses that rumors of a recast were hard to swallow. "I created this role in '93, and it would kill me to see someone else play it,"he declares. "I'm glad they stuck with the role and with me. I plan on paying that back tenfold. The confidence that Ken [Corday, executive producer] put in to lobby to bring me back here is not going to go unappreciated. I'm much more intent on a bigger game plan for Lucas, for me as an actor."

One unemployment benefit was that Dattilo got to spend more time with son Gabe, 3. "That was the godsend of the whole thing because the first three years of his life, I didn't miss a day,"he says. "I really appreciate that. The money got tight for a while, but at least I spent good time with him. It's going to be hard not to spend as much time with him because now I'll be working a couple days a week here and there, but I'm always good about making sure he's a priority."