Soap Opera Digest: When you found out that Diego was the PCU stalker, were you worried that it would be the end of the character?
Ignacio Serricchio: They did tell me I'd be back at some point. But my mother wasn't happy. She was actually [angry] at me. She genuinely asked me, "Why did you do that?” and I'm like, "Because they wrote it!”

Digest: Did you keep up with the show while you were gone?
Serricchio: I did try to keep up. Every once in a while I would tune in. I couldn't believe it about Tony Jones. I tuned in one day and Tony Jones was dying and I was like, "Okay....” Then I saw a chimp and I was like, "Oh, so that's why I'm not working.” That made me feel special. The chimp had his own space in the parking lot. I've got to get a parking sticker every time I come in.

Digest: What did you miss?
Serricchio: Being surrounded by so many actors with such a great sense of humor.

Digest: What's changed since you've come back?
Serricchio: Adrianne [Leon, ex-Brook Lynn; Colleen, Y&R] left. Alicia [Leigh Willis, ex-Courtney] is gone. Scott [Clifton, Dillon] got nominated for an Emmy. I got nominated. For COPS.”

Digest: What did you do during your time off?
Serricchio: I did a movie called Keith with Jesse McCartney [ex-JR, AMC], who played the title role. Jennifer Grey was also in it. That was great for me because I have a list of goals that I need to accomplish and one of them was to dirty dance with Jennifer Grey, and I got to do that on set. She signed my copy of Dirty Dancing — the tape, not the DVD. And my cousins were here from Argentina for three weeks, and I was able to tune out from the world and just spend time with them and speak Spanish for three weeks.

Digest: Was it tough getting back into the swing of things?
Serricchio: There was a difference in my English when my cousins left. It was a little more broken up because their English is very broken up, some of them don't understand it at all, so I was constantly having to watch that.