Soap Shrink Talks With James DePaiva

The "Soap Shrink," Damon L Jacobs, has become known for his provocative and insightful interviews. In part one, of a two part interview, James DePaiva (ex-Max OLTL), talks to Jacobs about how he got into acting, the part on ANOTHER WORLD that got away, his audition for the role of Max Holden, and how he has dealt with fame.

On losing out on the role of Jamie Frame on ANOTHER WORLD and auditioning to play Max Holden:

D: Jamie on ANOTHER WORLD?
J: Yes, Jamie Frame. I called my agent and said, “I don’t think I got it.” So ONE LIFE TO LIVE was screen-testing. And at this point I just decided that I’m going to do what I want to do. By then I was still doing what I thought they wanted to see. I had just given up hope so I said, “I’m just here for me, I’m just here for my entertainment, so I’m gonna do whatever I want. “ I said this guy (Max) is a wild kind of cowboy, he’s like Starbuck from “The Rainmaker.” His opening line was, “Tina you just won’t believe what happened.” And she says, “Max, I’ve never seen you so wound up.” Now, this guy is crazy is to begin with, and she’s never seen him this wound up? So I just ran in, whooped her up, spun her around three times. There was a monitor where we could watch each other audition for this role. This one kid comes in and he’s just so excited and happy, and I’m just this grumpy old curmudgeon. He said to me, “We do this and then one of us gets the part?” I said, “Sit down and shut up. This doesn’t mean anything. What’s gonna happen is maybe one or two of us are going to fly to New York, we’re gonna go test against everybody else they found throughout the whole country, and then they’re gonna hire an actor that used to be on another show that just got out of rehab anyway!” (laughs) No offense, Larry.

Read part one of the interview here and look for part two to be posted tomorrow!