Torn Between Two Loves
Much like Ethan, Passions' Eric Martsolf grappled with a difficult decision.
By Robert Schork
After a few months on the job as Passions' new Ethan, Eric Martsolf has successfully adjusted to life in Harmony and adapted to the rigors of soap opera - save one thing. "I haven't been a morning person since I was born. That's the hardest part of the job for me actually," yawns the actor, interviewed mid-morning on one of the rare days he's had off since he replaced Travis Schuldt in the midst of a major arc. "The producers threw me a curveball when they made my first scene the execution of Theresa. That was interesting, to say the least! But after I got over that hurdle, everything else has been smooth sailing."
It wasn't long after he sobbed over Theresa's corpse that Martsolf had to peel off his clothes for another rite of passage for soap opera actors: his first love scene, with Natalie Zea (ex-Gwen). Although many an actor dreads the thought of baring all in front of cast, crew, and America, Martsolf would pick bed over dead. "I'd rather do a love scene than a death scene any day. Especially when you're dealing with actresses like Natalie and Lindsay (Korman, Theresa). These are beautiful women so it's not like it's a great hardship. It's much harder to watch them be put to death by lethal injection than to get under the covers with them."
But make no mistak about it: Martsolf has done far more for Ethan than flashing skin and flexing muscle for the camera. He's been retooling the character from the inside-out. "I have made a few choices. The scripts have allowed me lately to put some fire into his mannerisms and his behavior. Lindsay and I recently had a very emotional scene that we both just dove into. I took Ethan to a place where he hadn't been before, and that's rage, being enraged with Theresa's lise and her deceit. Ever since then, Ethan's been a little more willing to be open with himself and his emotions. Besides, Ethan needed a little bit of a backbone. He's been walked over and walked on for a long time. Everyone around him is constantly scheming. It's only a matter of time before... I'm waiting for him to go crazy!"
Martsolf admits to going crazy himself - in the wardrobe department. "Ethan's got a new sense of style," the actor proudly reports. "He's a little more GQ and Armani: he's coming into hs own. Wardrobe is wonderful. They bring in five different designers and say, 'Well, what do you like?' And, of course, I tend to go for the most expensive designers."
If Martsolf seems to have very distinct opinions on what Ethan is about, perhaps it's because his first look at the character was akin to glancing at himself in the mirror. "It blew me away when I initially got the breakdowns. We're the same height, have the same background, the same coloring, the same relationship issues." Time out. Does this mean that he was caught in a torrid triangle? "Maybeeeeeee," Martsolf coyly teases. "But family life is one significant difference between us. The Crane family and the Martsolf family are two different entities by far. I don't think there's another family in America like the Cranes!"
Martsolf hails from Pennsylvania, where Mom is a schoolteacher and Dad an attorney. A pre-law major in college, "I initially pursued law because there was that desire to follow in my father's footsteps," Martsolf says. "But ironically he was the one influence in my life that told me to do what I wanted to do and not what the family insisted that I do. He motivated me to make that journey into entertainment and go for it. And as a result, he's the happiest guy on earth. He's watching his son do what he wanted to do from the beginning. My father had never before watched a soap opera in his life. And now he watches and tapes it everyday. He knows more about the characters and relationships than I do. I go to him for advice: 'Should I dump Gwen? Should I go with Theresa?'"
Dad may be his biggest fan, but he's by no means the only one. "People keep streaming ouf the woodwork every day, 'Remember me from 16 years ago, when I extracted your wisdom teeth?' I'm like, 'What? My childhood dentist?!' But it's so welcome. It's been wonderful to see people generally happy for your success. Especially because everyone was fully aware of my conflict: Do I go with the 9 to 5 secure occupation, or do I follow this crazy path? All throughout college I battled. During the summers I entertained (Martsolf was a performer at Hershey Park), and during the academic years I studied. I always had these two loves, and I could not come up with a legitimate reason to follow one or the other. So when people from my past who have found me on the television look me up and say, 'Eric, we were expecting to see a law practice in Pa. with your name on it. Instead we see you on NBC. What's going on?!' I take great pride in telling them that sometimes you just take a U-turn in life. I went with what was in my heart as opposed to what was in my head."
Typed up by Karrie so please do not copy & paste to your site.
