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Follow the links to our archive of Thorsten's print interviews and articles about the characters he's portrayed.
Above: On the cover of the June 26, 2007 issue of Soap Opera Digest.
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Toast of the Town
Thorsten Kaye - "Toast" to his pals - returns to daytime to woo Erica Kane on All My Children
Soap Opera Weekly
by Carolyn Hinsey, Published June 1, 2004
Thorsten Kaye created the role of brooding Irish poet Patrick Thornhart
on One Life to Live in 1995. He was soon
paired with Susan Haskell, who played Marty Saybrooke, and the two
became one of those couples spoken of in one breath, PatrickandMarty.
Kaye left OLTL in 1997, but did not leave Haskell,
whom he had begun quietly dating. They moved to L.A., where
he joined Port Charles as Patrick's no-so-brooding
brother Ian Thornhart in 2000. Kaye and Haskell welcomed
daughter McKenna last year, and now they are all headed back to New
York where he will join his third ABC show, All My Children,
which is helmed by his close pal, former PC executive
producer Julie Carruthers.
SOAP
OPERA WEEKLY: Welcome back! What mad you move back to New York to take
this job?
THORSTEN KAYE: I've known Julie for three years. She is a
business person with a keen sense for drama and she's very secure in
who she is. I always felt that we were on the same team. Like, when I
change lines or don't understand something, I can go in and say, "I
think maybe he needs to this." Sometimes in daytime there are pockets:
the writer writes, the producer produces, the actors act. With the time
constraints that we have, that doesn't really work. You have to do all
of it and you have to understand all of it. The writer has to
understand the actor and the actor has to understand the writer. So if
I get a script that doesn't make sense to me but I understand that it
helps Erica get to where she needs to go, that's cool. But we need to
talk about it and we need a give and take, and that's why Julie is
great. She doesn't say "Do what I tell you," because it doesn't help
the project.
WEEKLY: You and Julie kept in touch when PC was canceled and then she
just called you up?
KAYE: No, we talked about it before. She said, "Would you ever consider
doing this?" and [ABC Daytime President] Brian Frons mentioned
something about it. I was into it, but I wanted to give something else
a hot, too. It wasn't about being on a soap opera, I love being on a
soap opera. You get a shot at doing good work five times a week and
you're home early. But what I like about being an actor is playing
different things.
WEEKLY: Are you happy to be back in New York?
KAYE: Yeah, I like New York a lot but it's a tough city.
WEEKLY: You'd rather be in the suburbs and have to worry about plumbing
and a gardener and a driveway?
KAYE: Let me tell you something. I tried to open a bank account today.
I went to Citibank on 86th Street or wherever it is. I waited 20
minutes while this woman was making a personal phone call - customer
service? Right. I said "I would like to open a bank account," and she
said "Someone will be with you when they have time." So they're all
talking and I went up to one and I said, "Excuse me, are you free?" and
the woman goes, "Is my light on?" and I'm thinking, "That would not
happen in California and it would not happen in Connecticut."
WEEKLY: And maybe it would not happen at the Bank of New York. You
didn't open an account there, right?
KAYE: No. I cursed at them.
WEEKLY: So tell me about your AMC character.
KAYE: His name is Zach Slater and he is a casino owner in Vegas. He
helps Erica through some problems.
WEEKLY: Will you have your accent as Zach?
KAYE: This it it.
WEEKLY: So you're talking like Patrick and Ian Thornhart?
KAYE: And I'm not from Ireland so I don't know where this whole thing
came from.
WEEKLY: Why do you talk funny then?
KAYE: Well, I am from England and and I went to American schools, but I
lived all over the world.
WEEKLY: So Zach meets Erica but he thinks she is
Desiree?Click to enlarge
KAYE: No, he knows she's Erica. There is a fan that recognizes her and
I decide to take care of the fan because I like her and want to help.
So I make sure the fan won't tell anybody that Erica is in Vegas.
WEEKLY: Are Erica and Zach a love story?
KAYE: I think it's possible because how could any man not want to be
with Susan Lucci?
WEEKLY: Good one. Does he have money?
KAYE: Yeah, he's got Armani suits.
WEEKLY: Does he write poetry?
KAYE: No, he's straight.
WEEKLY: So explain this to me. How come Thorsten Kaye was Patrick
Thornhart on One Life, Ian Thornhart on Port Charles, and now Zach
Slater on All My Children when all the other characters crossing over
on the same shows play the same people?
KAYE: Maybe they think I can stretch as an actor. They're in for a big
surprise.
WEEKLY: When Dorian crosses over to AMC again, why wouldn't she say,
"Hey Patrick! What are you doing in Pine Valley calling yourself Zach?"
KAYE: Because Patrick Thornhart was a much better looking guy than
Zach. He was younger. He was a poet....
WEEKLY: Is he alive or dead?
KAYE: He's alive. I think he lives in Ireland.
WEEKLY: What's he doing there?
KAYE: I don't know. Probably something different with his
hair.
WEEKLY: Are you looking forward to working on AMC?
KAYE: Yes. I know it's going to be hard because of the move and because
on soap operas you're coming into a family that has been there a long
time. Look - I don't look like Cameron Mathison with my shirt off, and
I'm not as good an actor as Michael Knight [Tad]. But I think I'll find
a place. I'm sure I'll have sex somewhere with somebody.
WEEKLY: What do you think of the women on this show?
KAYE: Hot. Greenlee [(Rebecca Budig], she's 4-foot-nothing but she's
hot.
WEEKLY: How about Eva La Rue, Maria?
KAYE: I've always liked her.
WEEKLY: So if Zach hooked up with Maria that would be cool?
KAYE: Yeah. If you talk to her, tell her I started working out.
WEEKLY: Let's talk about your personal life, which you hate.
When you and Susan started dating you kept it very quiet and people
didn't really know about it. How did you do it?
KAYE: Well, she likes when I put my leg....
WEEKLY: (laughs) Why did you keep it a secret?
KAYE: I didn't keep it a secret. Keeping a secret means not telling
somebody who should know something. Susan knew, I knew....
WEEKLY: Bob Woods [Bo, OLTL] knew....
KAYE: Woods knew.
WEEKLY: Even though both of you were single, it seemed
important that it be a private romance.
KAYE: It is private, because we're actors. We're not porn stars. Who
cares what you do when you're naked? That's nobody's business.
WEEKLY: And now you have a child....
KAYE: So we did get naked once. I miss that.
WEEKLY: (laughs) You've been together for 10 years?
KAYE: No, eight. She's a good woman, a good actor and she's a
good mother, which is even more important than being a good actor.
WEEKLY: What kind of kid is McKenna?
KAYE: Fat! She's a great little kid. Funny.
WEEKLY: What does she say?
KAYE: "Go Red Wings." Susan obviously spends more time with
McKenna than I do, and she'll say something that doesn't sound like
anything in particular to me and Susan will say, "She said teacup!" So
you need to ask Susan all the words she says. She's smart. She's alert.
I take her in the Jacuzzi at night and we hang out.
WEEKLY: Did you always want to be a dad?
KAYE: I didn't think I had to be one. There are probably a
lot of guys that say, "I need to be a father. I need to raise a
family." I wouldn't trade it for the world but it wasn't anything I
thought I needed to fulfill in my life. Now I think I might have been
wrong.
WEEKLY: Are y ou going to have more kids?
KAYE: I don't know. I like this one. She's healthy and happy
and thank God, looks like her mother.
WEEKLY: So, you're pursuing a Ph.D.?
KAYE: Yeah, I hope to [at Wayne State] because it's much
easier to get to Detroit from here. And chicks dig Ph.D. guys.
WEEKLY: Oh yeah, they score all the time.
KAYE: That's why people do it? I would love at the end of
this to have worked toward something else besides working on the soap,
because it goes quick. Port Charles is gone now, and apart from my name
on the door I have nothing. I made some friendships, obviously, but it
goes pretty quick.
WEEKLY: So Susan and McKenna are coming to live here and you're cool
with being back on a soap.
KAYE: I think some of the best actors in the world are on soap operas.
Yeah, we all want to be movie stars because we get huge recognition and
huge money and we get to play these cool characters. But how cool is it
to play one guy and be recognized as Tad or Bo or Luke? The body of
work is what's important. I have a chance to do good work 200-something
days a year and a movie actor has 60 if he's working a lot.
WEEKLY: So if a big movie producer came to y ou and said, "We want you
to be the next James Bond?"
KAYE: I'd rather be the next Bob Woods.