Van Hansis: 'The Cake Is What I Get To Do Every Day'

We Love Soaps chatted with three time Emmy nominee Van Hansis from AS THE WORLD TURNS at the recent Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction. Hansis spoke about the Daytime Emmys, his co-star Jake Silbermann and why Broadway Cares is an important cause for him.

We Love Soaps: How have you been?
Van Hansis: Look at you guys. You’re everywhere! You guys are the one of the most powerful people in daytime, right?

We Love Soaps: We’re #21 now, but that’s a lucky number. How have you been lately?
Van Hansis: I’ve been great.

We Love Soaps: Luke, however, has been called a bit lately on some of his hypocrisy. He’s judged Lily’s response to grief, yet Lily and Noah have pointed out that Luke himself has made some poor judgments at times.
Van Hansis: Yes, Luke has been called out, but I think Luke was pretty level headed with what happened with Damian and Lily. He immediately admitted he had strong feelings about their recent union, but I think he came around. Even though he’s upset with what his mother did, he’s not being the bratty kid who screams and yells. He did come to accept her and forgive her.

We Love Soaps: Do you think he’s reacting differently now than how he would have a few years ago?
Van Hansis: Yeah, he still doesn’t really think things through, but he’s getting a little better.

We Love Soaps: So far he seems he’s not too jealous of this whole Mason / Noah thing.
Van Hansis: Not yet at least. That will come to a head in the next month or so and it segues into what our next storyline is which is very, very interesting.

We Love Soaps: Anything you can tell us about that?
Van Hansis: I think Jake is amazingly talented, but this is the best work I’ve seen him do.

We Love Soaps: What brings you here today? Do you have a personal attachment to helping out this cause?
Van Hansis: Broadway Cares/ Equity Fights AIDS is an awesome organization. I was the head of AIDS action in high school and so I’ve known about this cause for a very long time. I have lots of friends in the Broadway community, and it’s a great cause. Especially with AIDS awareness in this day and age. It’s not quite swept under the rug, but it’s not the way it was when it first came out, and there’s not the attention to it. People talk about H1N1 and all these new disasters, and all these new terrible plagues that are happening, but this has been a plague for almost 30 years now. It’s been killing people, and it’s not in the news the way it should be. Anything that helps fight it is very important.

We Love Soaps: It seems like you do a lot to support charities and help the world.
Van Hansis: That’s very nice of you to say. This is important stuff.

We Love Soaps: On another note, we were all recently at the Emmys. We were disappointed with your loss [for Oustanding Supporting Actor]. How are you doing with that?
Van Hansis: Well, the uncontrollable shaking stopped last week. I still wake up in panics and night sweats, but aside from that I’m okay.

We Love Soaps: [Laughs] I know it’s silly to ask if you were disappointed, but...
Van Hansis: Of course I would love to win. But also, you know, it’s an award. It’s a fantastic little icing on the cake. But as I say, very lamely, the cake is what I get to do every day.

Photo Credit: Robin Platzer / Twin Images