Soap Opera Weekly: Would you say your first impression of Tuc was accurate?
Robin Strasser: I was thrilled. I said, "Now that's what acting is about." It's interesting, because actors see [in the script] "Well, he kisses her passionately; she resists." These guys were honestly trying to get the job by deep throating me. His choice was brilliant. I was so, "I hope it's that guy." And I now realize he was the wild card because he was a lot younger, handsomer, taller, and had a sense of humor.
Tuc Watkins: Then again, had I been the first guy in the room...and she didn't resist the kiss...?
Strasser: No, I swear I did it because you looked like you could handle it. I swear it wasn't "Ick, ick! Not another guy!"
Watkins: There are so many different variables that go into casting and making choices and pairing people together. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. I think that this happens to be a time when it did work out and it worked out in the long run.
Strasser: If we can go into that INSIDE THE ACTORS' STUDIO thing, I believe that you want to deliver the Domino's pizza in the required amount of time with the ingredients that were ordered but if you can somehow slip in a surprise ingredient, an element, that really makes them suddenly go, "This is beyond just quick take-out food, this is delivered, home delivery, this is...ahhh, who knew pizza could be this interesting?", this will often get you the job. So, with the encouragement of my acting teacher in L.A., I don't even go to an audition unless I've got one unexpected thing I'm tossing in.

Weekly: Is that what you do with your scenes? When you're rehearsing, you're trying to find that ingredient?
Watkins: Every day. I'd say every day.
Strasser: Every day is opening night as far as I'm concerned.

Weekly: Do you find this job creatively fulfilling?
Watkins: I find it very fulfilling because a lot of leeway is given to us to be creative. A question that's asked to us frequently is "Do you guys rewrite the things that you say?" It's not so much that we write. We look at it. I think I look at the script and think, "Can the same line be said with a different intention that takes it in a different way?" I think that is what has created our relationship, the David and Dorian relationship. I'm usually trying to find where I can surprise Robin and I think she's doing the same thing. The actors I like to watch — Cary Grant, Kevin Klein — the reason they are interesting is because you don't really know what they are going to do next. You know the type of parts that they play but you don't know what they are going to do scene to scene. I guess that's magnetism, that's what makes them the stars that you know them to be. That's what I try to do in a scene.
Strasser: How do we assist in the storytelling? What are the writers... what is their intention here? How does this advance the show? Then, take it and just put a little jet fuel into it. Yes, it is very creatively satisfying because we have been allowed some space, some very generous space, and trust to do that in. And that's cool. The work is nothing if not personal. Whether you yourself are as b-----y as the character you play is irrelevant. It's how much you identify and own and like this person and are totally prepared, with very little rehearsal time, to step into that character's shoes and go flying.
Watkins: Daytime is full of archetypes; it's a medium of archetypes. There's no getting around that, but it's how you deliver that archetype unexpectedly that creates a character as opposed to a cookie cutter.

PART II>>>