SID Interview: Tyler Christopher - Decision Time

[JaneAusten]

From SID: Decision Time

Honesty, they say, is the best policy....and GH's Tyler Christopher is certainly living by that motto. With 6 months left on his contract, he's laying all of his cards on the table in an assertive attempt to honor his character's place in GH history. "I'm keeping my options open for life after GH," he says candidly. "My participation on GH has gradually decreased in the past couple of years, so, therefore, I have no choice but to look at other options."

His words may sound fatalistic or absolute, but all hope is not lost. In fact, he's not saying anything now that he hasn't said directly to TPTB in hopes that something might change. Everybody gets it. Everybody understands. Now, it's a waiting game to see if what's broken can be fixed. "All I've said [to them] is that if there's another opportunity for me to go off and do something else, that's what I'll go off and do," TC says. "I've been doing this for my entire life. [Acting] is the only thing I know how to do. It's not like I can say, 'Thanks for the memories. I'm going to go off and be a banker now,.' I don't know how to do anything else. I have to stack my chips and say, 'If I can go off somewhere else and make a decent living doing this, that's what I'll have to do.."

"Creatively--and most actors will tell you this---if you're not being stimulated in your craft, you're going to go crazy. You can take the financial aspect right out of that. That's why Ronnie Marmo (Ronnie) and I do theater. We don't make money off of that. The plays that I put my own money into, I lose money every time. I know that going into it. But I do it because I enjoy it so much. At some point, I have to say to myself, "What is this giving me financially vs. what is it giving me creatively and how much do those 2 things need each other for me and my family to survive?"

One thing TC is hoping for is just an explanation of why his presence on the show has diminished so drastically. "I don't feel like I'm whining by any stretch of the imagination. Having served this show for the greater part of 12 years, I feel as if I deserve some explanation," he says. "I understand there's a bigger picture here. We're trying to get ratings at a time when daytime is struggling. Therefore, I understand that there's an agenda to take the necessary steps to secure a future for GH. It's unfortunate that the criteria and the plan to do that, or the means to the end, doesn't include this character or the Cassadine family.

For many, many years, Nikolas was painted as a guy who did no wrong. He was honest. He didn't lie. He didn't buy into the Cassadine mantra of "take first and ask questions later." Like his fans, TC liked that Nik. But all that changed as a result of him sleeping with Liz and that's fine with TC, too. It's his character's lack of a storyline with substance at this point that has him feeling empty. "I feel like Nikolas is talking and not doing," he explains. "However, it goes back to to the agenda at hand. The show needs to do what is in its best interest to survive. I completely understand that. I just wish the Cassadines could be part of the solution instead a result of the problem. "I enjoy playing Nikolas," he continues. "He's unique, and he adds personality and sensibility to the show. You have this family that has been around off and on for 30 years, if you want to count it up. the one thing that has been the maintstya of daytime television is history. I'm sad to see that [history] hasn't been there for the past few years. And the Cassadines have been around since the early '80s. To be a part of that is humbling."

Let there be no mistake....TC does not want to move on....unless the situation forces him to. "I absolutely would like to stay. Absolutely," he declares. "But under the current circumstances, it was very difficult to say what I will do. I've witnessed myself over the years on GH grow into a man both personally and in my career. I've also grown very close to a lot of people in front of and behind the camera, and it would be unfortunate, not to mention incredibly sad, not to be there someday."

[DRW50]

I'm glad he was honest. I don't share the high opinion he has of Nik's morality, but then, I don't play the character.

I don't think he would speak out this way if he didn't already have a foot and a half out the door.

[Cheap21]

Bye. The character of Nikolas is not needed and feels out of place on GH. He's outlived his outlived his usefulness and its time to retire the character

[OLTL_fan]

I can name 10 characters that should be gone before Nikolas. GH is full of useless characters who are only used as props.

[JaneAusten]

I don't agree with his opinion on his character or the Cassadines. They haven't been a presence as a family on GH in years, since the Stefan days. And he's a pretty useless character as it stands. But I posted this because I have to think a lot of the others there who are vets probably including Nancy Grahn who are underused feel the same.

[Ann_SS]

TC was Guza's pet for years. Got tons of airtime in stupid stories like couch sex with Ghost Emily. Someone has to lose out on airtime if Dante is to be on everyday. Now TC knows what it is like to be Greg Vaughan (ex-Lucky).

Exactly. If he hadn't gotten that role on some show, he wouldn't have said a thing. He thinks he has a landing place. He better hope that show works out for him.

[Money]

Eh. TC has fared better than plenty other characters who deserve airtime and have nothing outside of GH to fall back on. The Quatermaines have been completely gutted. If he gets another gig outside of GH all the best; with this regime, GH is a sinking ship anyway.

[quartermainefan]

Nik sort of lost his mission statement when they wrote out Stefan, Helena, and lastly the revived Stavros. Now he and Alexis are useless Cassadines (as are all their kids) because they are basically playing Marilyn Munster without the benefit of Herman and Lily to contrast with. So what's the point? What good is a Cassadine who sees the Cassadines as a freak show, if the freak show in question was all written off? All the "normal" Cassadines are good for is to contrast with the Helenas to better show how nuts the Helenas are.

Sometimes characters run their course, unfortunately. If they kept Helena around and brought on the new Cassadine, Valentine, that was mentioned but never seen, then there would have been a point for Nik. Also, a critical absence for all these people is Laura Spencer. Without her none of them have a reason to exist, because Laura is why the Cassadines hate Luke and scheme, so if they were going to turn up anywhere it would be off-camera with Genie Francis on some Hallmark network TV movie.

And all that leaves for Nik is Nik as yet another romantic lead, the 13th out of 18--collect them all. If you have Lucky, Jason, Sonny, Michael, Dante and Patrick all pulling romance duty, is this really where Nik is needed?

[DCY]

I agree.

[Vee]

TC is a little disingenuous here. He was brought back - rightly at the time - to recreate the dark mystique of the Cassadines after several years of weepy boyband-esque, jukebox-in-Wyndemere, saxophone-on-the-docks-while-cryin' Coltin Scott Martines Conchita Alonso playing Nikolas. TC's first scenes back in 2003 had him behaving very brooding, dark, and mysterious; he also was immediately set up in several storylines which had Nikolas being exactly what he above says Nikolas was not - a scheming, manipulative Cassadine who was playing Luke and Lucky with Summer the call girl. This behavior pre-dates the Liz story - it goes all the way back to '03, and includes stuff like what I've mentioned as well as the affair with Courtney.

TC is just whining now because it's far too blatant in the last couple years that the show has absolutely no use for him or Nikolas anymore. They're just marking time and are afraid to drop him because of his fanbase. It's been this way since at least 2006 or so. You can always tell when GH loses interest because the characters in question generally become real schlubs or tools, at the whim of the plot.

[J.W.S]

Like I said else TC Is Bored. It seems They Are Not Telling Story He Wants

But Since He Came Back

Stefan Came Back & Died

He romanced Emily

Got amneisa Became conor With Mary

Married Emily

Divorced

Got With Courtney She Died Became a father when Spencer was Born

Got spencer Back From helena

Got Convicted Of Murder

Had His Love Die, Grieved Her

Laura Came Back

Got Together With Nadine

Opened His Own Clinic

Laura Came Home Again

Had an affair with Liz

Thinks Hes a new dad

Had A Story With Brooklyn

Is In The Hospital story with Lisa & Scrubs

But He Thinks He Doesnt Have story. I Know Of actors On all The Soaps That Would Kill For His Airtime

Stop acting like a baby and quit if ur bored

[tylerbo20]

he's a good actor i would like to see him come to Days of Our Lives as Nicholas Alamane

[Sindacco]

He's one of the most boring actors I've ever seen.

[DRW50]

As a character Nikolas was always more about what he was supposed to be than what he ever actually was. Generally that was true for everything with the Cassadines post their 1996 return. Guza has rarely managed to actually tell a story or work on interesting relationships or characterizations. The Stefan/Nik relationship floundered, the Laura/Stefan relationship floundered, the show lost interest in what could have been a complex relationship with Laura/Nik, and Nik/Lucky was just a lot of JJ squeaking and TC being low-key. And Nik's romantic relationships, when he had them, were pretty bad -- Tyler Christopher was very attractive during his first run as Nik but the show seemed very reluctant to ever exploit this.

[juniorz1]

No way! I will accept nobody but the delicious Victor Webster in that part. Why DAYS hasn't brought him back yet is beyond me. He could have all sorts of conflict with Vivian, Carly, and Kate on the canvas. Not to mention Bo & Victor.