James DePaiva Joining 'General Hospital'

Former One Life to Live actor James DePaiva is joining the cast of General Hospital, according to a new video released on Facebook featuring executive producer Frank Valentini.

"Hey, GH fans, just when you thought it was safe to go back to the hospital," Valentini says in the video as the camera pans to DePaiva.

No details about his role or first air date have been disclosed.

DePaiva played OLTL's Max Holden on and off from 1987 to 2007.

Ilene Kristen, James DePaiva & Tonja Walker Join TAINTED DREAMS

Three of ONE LIFE TO LIVE's most beloved fan favorites - Ilene Kristen, James DePaiva and Tonja Walker - have signed on for TAINTED DREAMS, an upcoming dramedy providing a rare, realistic view behind the scenes of producing a daily scripted drama.

Ilene Kristen, best known for her role as Delia Reid Ryan in RYAN'S HOPE and, most recently, her twice Emmy-nominated role as the outrageous Roxy Balsom on ONE LIFE TO LIVE, will play Vivian Park, the estranged mother of soap star, Liza Park (Natalia Livingston). Kristen is also no stranger to the Broadway stage appearing in the original Broadway cast of "Grease." She is credited on the original 1972 Broadway cast album (along with Adrienne Barbeau as Rizzo and Barry Bostwick as Danny). A talented singer and songwriter, Kristen frequently performs her own original music on the New York City cabaret scene, and she has made numerous guest appearances in primetime and independent films.

Interview Archive: James DePaiva

In September 2009, Damon L. Jacobs published an interview with longtime soap opera star James DePaiva, best known for his role as Max Holden on the ABC daytime drama One Life to Live. You can revisit the three part interview below.

Part One - DePaiva shared his thoughts on the musical he was starring in, "Under Fire."

Part Two - DePaiva shared insights about his ego, reflections on Max Holden, and suggestions for surviving the loss of Guiding Light.


Part Three - DePaiva discussed more behind the scenes history at ABC, finding peace in his life, and where exactly he stashed the life-size cardboard cutouts of Max and Luna.

Under Fire with James DePaiva, Part Three

In Part One of our interview with former ONE LIFE TO LIVE star James DePaiva, the actor shared his thoughts on the new musical he's starring in, "Under Fire." As we continued in Part Two, DePaiva shared insights about his ego, reflections on Max Holden, and suggestions for surviving the loss of GUIDING LIGHT. In the final part of our interview, DePaiva discussed more behind the scenes history at ABC, finding peace in his life, and where exactly he stashed the life-size cardboard cutouts of Max and Luna.

We Love Soaps: Here at WeLoveSoaps.net, we are hoping that the internet will serve as that medium that will allow writers to tell good stories again. Would you ever consider appearing on an internet soap?
James DePaiva: Yeah, why not? No reason not to. I think the worst thing that ever happened to soaps was they became so big. They became so popular and hit mainstream, and were on the cover of every magazine. Up until that point, if you watched most soaps, the production values were horrible! They were cheap, they had three sets, they were dimly set so you couldn't see how bad they were, and the people talked and had relationships. Then the ABC soaps, with Luke and Laura spearheading the charge, became about bigger production values, more action.

Production costs went up exponentially. They became big and expensive, and they were making a ton of money, so the networks were throwing money at them, and they stopped worrying about telling that story of a family. They stopped telling the stories of a teenager’s unrequited love. I’ve heard Beth Maitland is back on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, and didn’t she have that story where she was the chubby girl? That’s the real personal stuff. There were no aliens or anything. It was a real life story. And that’s why THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS held on to it's fans for such a long long time, they didn’t say to their audience, “You’re idiots.” They stay close to the formula of: these are the families, these are the relationships, and this is how life passes. They don’t do anything so whacked out that you can’t bring back characters to where they used to be.

So keep you eyes and ears open, and something else will come back. There’s no way you can replace a show with which you’ve had a thirty year relationship. You can’t. I saw on CBS today a woman who said, “I don’t have another 72 years to invest in another soap.” They were talking about GUIDING LIGHT going away, and that’s true. You lost an old friend. You lost characters you love. And I think you’re going to see a lot more characters you loved lost in the next couple of years. I don’t think this is the end of the bleeding.

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We Love Soaps: For me the bleeding started with losing ANOTHER WORLD has been slowly going on ever since.
James DePaiva: When I started, there were seven shows being shot in New York. I don’t know where AS THE WORLD TURNS sits, but it’s the same company as GUIDING LIGHT, and I don’t know what their numbers are, but I imagine they’re not that different. And I can’t imagine AS THE WORLD TURNS lasting for a much longer period, and then we’ll have just one soap left in New York. Just one. And Disney will turn around and ship that one out just as soon as they can. Or, just kill it. [Pause] What a wonderful high note to end on!

We Love Soaps: On our website we are trying to help our readers and listeners cope with some of the grief issues they’re experiencing from the loss of their beloved shows and characters. We want to help.
James DePaiva: Ellen Wheeler, who I met, cares about soaps. Chris Goutman cares about soaps. Paul Rauch, and I can speak personally about Paul and Gary [Tomlin], love soaps. They love the format, love the genre. But when I came on board at ABC, all the people above them loved soaps. Now they’re just part of the corporate food chain. Now it’s, “How am I going to leverage this job to go on to a different part of the corporation?” It’s an executive gig. We had Jackie Smith and a group of women running ABC Daytime. A group of women. And every one of them watched every ABC soap. They knew what was going on on all of them. And they were intimately involved with the characters. That’s why I was fortunate to come in when I did, that's what made Max a big star. I had these people promoting me and pushing me and they said, “This is what we like as women, this is what we want to see.”

ABC had a promotion department that went all out. I have life-sized cut outs of myself and Susan Batten in my barn! They were in Barnes & Nobles all around the country. ABC had a brand, and it was protecting that brand. Cap City deluded it a bit [EDITOR'S NOTE: Capital Cities acquired ABC in 1986]. And when Disney came around [in 1996] it was numbers on a page. The president of ABC Daytime was the end job, there was no other place to go unless you became president of the network...which wasn’t likely. If you were president of ABC Sports then you were king, or queen.

We Love Soaps: Now, I see you have a guitar with you.
James DePaiva: Yeah, and I’m not doing a song now.

We Love Soaps: Okay. But are you playing in your musical, “Under Fire?”
James DePaiva: Yes, I’m going to play a little bit. It’s a very bittersweet, tender moment. I’m not going to tell you why, but, I think I might cry during it [laughs]. The whole feel of the show is very Latin. If you like The Gypsy Kings or Buena Vista Social Club or anything like that, there’s a lot of that. I think we have three guitars in the [orchestra] pit, a bass drum and piano, and that’s it. It’s a lot of guitars, including them strolling around and strumming them. It makes you want to get up and dance.

We Love Soaps: You look peaceful and happy as you talk about this show. Do you want to do more theater after this?
James DePaiva: God, yes!

We Love Soaps: Is this your first step back in that door?
James DePaiva: Well, that was the intent. The reason for doing a soap opera and coming to New York was to do theater. And then it just fell by the wayside because that damn Max did too well. My life got in the way of my plans. But I’m also at a point now where J.Q., my son, is old enough to handle himself. I’ve been Mr. Mom for the last five years and I would not solicit work or accept work because I was watching my son. Kassie’s working her butt off and I don’t want to make her life tougher. So I took care of J.Q. Now he’s at the age where he wants less and less supervision. He goes to school on his own, comes home on his own, cooks his own dinner and everything. He’s twelve, he wants a little freedom. That allows me to go and do this.

We Love Soaps: So for people that are coming to New York over the next few weeks, how are they going to get tickets?
James DePaiva: Well, it opens September 30th, it closes October 12. There are only six performances unless they add them on.

For tickets or more information on "Under Fire," visit nymf.org.

Damon L. Jacobs is a Marriage Family Therapist practicing in New York City, and the author of "Absolutely Should-less: The Secret to Living the Stress-Free Life You Deserve." He blogs regularly at www.shouldless.com.

Under Fire With James DePaiva, Part Two

In Part One of our interview with former ONE LIFE TO LIVE star James DePaiva, the actor shared his thoughts on the new musical he's starring in, "Under Fire." As we continued, DePaiva shared insights about his ego, reflections on Max Holden, and suggestions for surviving the loss of GUIDING LIGHT.

We Love Soaps: Where has your ego been in the process of this show ("Under Fire")?
James DePaiva: Somewhere in the safe deposit box I have at Chase Bank. My ego is very destructive. I really try to do anything that will allow it to come out. I really don’t think it has come out in the last few years, and I’ve been a happier man for it. But it was necessary for survival. In my years as Max, it was necessary for survival. I’m pretty anonymous now, I don’t have to put anything on when people see me. I just play the doting husband when fans come up to Kassie [Depaiva, who plays Blair on ONE LIFE TO LIVE].

We Love Soaps: Did you go into the play with the conscious intention not to let your ego interfere with the process?
James DePaiva: No. And I would honestly say that the only reason I could have any ego doing this show would be out of gross insecurity. I am working with four people that have starred in Broadway shows, musicals. I don’t think I can come to them with an ego. I’m like, "Am I holding on my own? I’ll work harder, I’ll work harder. I swear I’ll be better tomorrow." These are all people who make their living on the Broadway stage. For me to come in with an ego would just be pathetic. It would be so sad.

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We Love Soaps: People are always wanting to know if there are any plans for Max to return to Llanview?
James DePaiva: If there is I don’t know about it. Maybe they contacted somebody else. [laughs] It’s possible. But there have been no rumblings, nor would I expect there to be. There’s really no need for Max at this point, other than to come back and make Roxy’s life wonderful. I would love to do that just for Ilene [Kristen], just to work with her would be phenomenal. I don’t have any reason to go back, do I? Like Blair is ever going to leave Todd for me? Geez, you couldn’t pay me enough to play that again. God, that was painful.

We Love Soaps: Well, there is Roxy. And unfortunately, with Phil Carey’s passing, many feel that leaves a hole as the rough tough cowboy that Max can play so well.
James DePaiva: Max would have to change a lot because they certainly took him away from that Max. Someone said, what’s the character you played? And I said, “Let’s see. His wife died so he was raising twins on his own. That’s what he did. And then when he went out and had a date everyone at home got pissed off. ‘Why isn’t he home taking care of his kids, why is trying to sleep with that girl?’” Okay, you make him a risk taker, then you make him a gambing-aholic. Can’t take any more risks, sorry, it might feed my addiction!

James DePaiva: The character was painted into a corner. I always saw him being a Brad Vernon kind of character, and eventually being an Asa type character. But then I saw Blair as becoming the next Dorian, and Nora being the next Viki. I always saw soaps as you had your generations and every ten years it would kind of move up a notch. Like I’m ten years younger than Bob Woods (Bo) and so I was kind of in the Bob Woods spot for awhile. And then when I got ten years older than Roger Howarth (ex-Todd) moved into that spot. Everyone was moving up that chain and then the chain just blew all to hell and made no sense. But there’s been so much turnover in soaps between head writers and executive producers. I’m so excited that Gary Tomlin and Paul Rauch, my two favorite producers, are producing shows in L.A. because they both love soap operas. And they both have very very different perspectives on them. My greatest years as Max were in the Paul years [1984-1991]. Paul got the character. Paul always said, “Let’s not make the sinner a saint.” After Paul went, they tried to turn me into Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing and I became the saint. Once I became the saint, who cares?

We Love Soaps: Max was portrayed with a heart of gold in the '90s.
James DePaiva: I remember when I started the character. I’d say what he did, and people would say, “That’s so evil, that’s so bad.” I’d say, “Well, no.” I always saw myself as the good guy but the writers had to give me bad stuff to play. But I had to believe I was the hero in it, which is what made it work. Then they started writing me as the good guy and all boredom broke loose. [laughs] All ennui hit the fan. There were wonderful stories though. The gambling story was great. And there was wonderful stuff with Susan Batten [Luna] who is joyous. I couldn’t have had a better actress to work with. Then the stuff with Ilene was working so great and they killed it. I had the good fortune to work with a lot of phenomenal actresses and have a lot of fun stuff to play as an actor and as Jim. But for Max, it was so wrong. So wrong. So I said, “Okay, do I celebrate that I have this wonderful stuff to play with this wonderful performer, or do I piss and moan that it’s destroying this wonderful character that I have so much invested in?

James DePaiva: When I worked with Paul in the early days, I would come to him and say, “Paul, I have this wonderful idea.” He’d say, “Great, show it to me.” He’d either go, “That’s terrible,” or “Great, let’s do it.” We had a remote and I said, “This script doesn’t work. It doesn’t build right. The peak happens in the wrong place for this relationship with Gabrielle.” And he’d go, “You're right.” And then I’d hear, “Paul came up with these great rewrites for the scene.” I’d say, “Thank you, Paul. Congratulations.” It was his show, God love him. He gave Max a career. I am always appreciative of that.

We Love Soaps: Speaking of Paul’s work, as people are reading this it will be within the first week of losing GUIDING LIGHT off the air. We’ve been talking with our readers a lot about GUIDING LIGHT and grief/loss issues on WeLoveSoaps.net. Do you have any words of advice or comfort for those fans?
James DePaiva: Same thing the church would say - pray. Lots of prayer. Lots of meditation. Pick up a good book. I would say to look for your next long-term investment. Soaps will last in some form or another. They may not be on network TV. They might be on book, or tape, or something. We don’t know. But soaps go back to major novels. All the major great novels were soap operas. That’s why they’re 1000 pages long — so it takes you forever to get through it and you follow the nuances and you’ve got all the different families and everything. All the great epic novels were that way and soaps are just an extension of that. It’s a chance to tell a long term story as opposed to, “I have one hour, this is the story.”

James DePaiva: Unfortunately, a lot of soaps got in the habit of saying, “I have two weeks for a story.” When I came on ONE LIFE TO LIVE, our headwriter was Peggy O’ Shea, and she said, “I don’t want a new character unless I have him for at least two years.” She had a long-term arc. And that’s why a lot of the characters get bashed around. All the characters. Any character you are invested in. You will see them completely humiliated and destroyed because someone did not have a long term view of what the character was and no one was there protecting the integrity of the character. They had someone sitting there who said, “Wouldn’t it be cute if we make this person look like an idiot? Then we can all laugh at the mean guy who has a heart of gold.” But I don’t know on network TV that it’s going to last much longer. It’s also become a very expensive medium and it doesn’t make the money it used to. So a cheaper way to do it will come along.

Damon L. Jacobs is a Marriage Family Therapist practicing in New York City, and the author of "Absolutely Should-less: The Secret to Living the Stress-Free Life You Deserve." He blogs regularly at www.shouldless.com.

Under Fire with James Depaiva, Part One

I had the wonderful opportunity to speak with James DePaiva last weekend about his new play, "Under Fire," opening in New York on September 30th. During the course of the conversation, DePaiva shared his insights, reflections on the past, and hopes for the future. For those who don't remember (could anyone not remember?), James portrayed the wild and fiery cowboy-gone-conman-gone-domesticated-single-dad Max Holden on ONE LIFE TO LIVE (1987-1990, 1992-2003). If you are in the New York area in the next few weeks, please check out "Under Fire" at nymf.org.

We Love Soaps: Tell me about this new play.
James Depaiva: It’s a new musical. It’s part of the NYMF festival (New York Musical Festival). We have the director, lyricist, playwright that created "Romance, Romance" - Barry Harmon. And we have Grant Sturiale doing the music and it’s absolutely gorgeous music. It’s the first musical I’ve done in 30 years. It’s busting my hump. All this singing and dancing, I actually have to take care of myself. Not like in the soap days when I would just stay out all night. It’s based on the film Under Fire, which had Nick Nolte, Gene Hackman, Joanna Cassidy. You think, 'okay, it’s about a rebel overthrow and the journalists covering it in Nicaragua, how can you make that into a musical?' Actually I think it works better than the film does. I think it has more impact. It certainly has very enjoyable moments in it and lighter moments which make the tragedy of it much more stark. We’re about two weeks into rehearsal, and loving every minute of it.

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We Love Soaps: The premise is that an American journalist comes to a South American country and gets drawn into it's charm?
James Depaiva: Without giving anything away, there are two stories going on. One is the love triangle I’m involved in. I’m a senior correspondent, kind of like a Dan Rather or something like that, and I’m in a love with another journalist, a woman, who at one point was my student. And my best friend is another student, a younger man, and they’ve been developing feelings for each other. Meanwhile this woman and I have been breaking up quite a bit. I want to go to New York, she doesn’t want to leave the field, and we go back and forth. So you’ve got this love triangle that’s bouncing back and forth through this thing. And Scott Bryce's [ex-Craig on AS THE WORLD TURNS] wife is the other leg of our triangle. Jodi Stevens is a beautiful singer and it’s great to work with her. So I think Scott for allowing us to use his wife, and for me to lust after her and not get her. [laughs]

James Depaiva: At the same time you have the story of America’s involvement in a Central American country and whether we support the correct side, whether it be the government or the rebels, and our involvement, and the way journalists would cover it. And also the fact America only really cares about something if it happens to an American, which is what happens in this case, in a very drastic way.

We Love Soaps: And you are playing one of the journalists.
James Depaiva: I’m in the Gene Hackman role. I’ve reached the Gene Hackman stage of my life.

We Love Soaps: Well, Gene Hackman has worked in more in these last ten years than most of his career.
James Depaiva: No kidding. But I think he’s retired, so there might be an opening for me. [laughs]

We Love Soaps: How did you decide to do a musical?
James Depaiva: To be honest with you, when I left the soaps, at first I didn’t know if I wanted to act again. But I started working on my voice again with someone who is absolutely wonderful who helped me understand what was wrong with my vocal instrument. And I’ve been working on it on and off for the last five years, and pretty much gearing myself to do a musical. And it’s only ready if I’m diligent and don’t muck up my voice. So I’m happy to turn into a little bit of a monk, which I’m not used to anymore. But it’s worth it. And I haven’t danced for 30 years. I used to dance in shows and now I can’t remember how to move. My hips didn’t work anymore. But they do now, they’ve loosened up. I’m not just the white guy who dances like a stick.

We Love Soaps: You are working with a choreographer?
James Depaiva: We have a wonderful [choreographer], Jonathan Cerullo. We have very limited time to work on these things, and he’s getting as extravagant as he can.

We Love Soaps: To prepare for the dancing have you followed a certain kind of regimen or exercise?
James Depaiva: I lost four pounds just in the first week from the dancing. But once I got comfortable, unfortunately, the weight came back. No, I just practice and practice. A lot of it is a samba going into tango and it’s music I don’t naturally dance to and never learned how to dance. So I’ll go home, crank up the stereo, and play the same song over and over for two hours straight and move and try to get stupid. Until you get stupid your body doesn’t move around much. If you think about it, it doesn’t work. So you have to embarrass yourself and that’s helped a lot.

We Love Soaps: We Love Soaps: How is this character similar to Max Holden?
James Depaiva: I’d say both of them are risk takers, and very bold people. Certainly where Max was toward the end, he was safe and wanting to settle down. And that’s where this character, Alex Grazier, is. He’s wanting to settle down and not have such a danger, risky, outrageous life. But the woman he loves isn’t ready to give it up. He’s torn between those two worlds.

We Love Soaps: You mentioned not having a lot of rehearsal time for this musical.
James Depaiva: It’s three weeks for a new musical! We’re not talking about putting on something people know and love. They make changes, they go, 'well that doesn’t work.' Then you have scene transitions and the limitations of working within a musical theater festival situation. We have a four foot by five foot area where we can store props.

We Love Soaps: Sounds you like you have to be pretty flexible and patient.
James Depaiva: The hours are longer, and you only give six performances so the payoff isn’t as good as doing a long range thing. But you’re on the ground floor of something that’s new and exciting. It’s an absolute joy. I look forward to it, other than the fact I’ve had to cut back on my cocktails because it messes up my voice. That’s the hard part.

We Love Soaps: Do you feel like your work on soaps has prepared you for this kind of theater?
James Depaiva: Oh yes. All the actors just look and me and go, 'Of course you know your lines.' It’s funny in that way. Usually in theater you hold your book for quite awhile, you’re feeling your way through it and now I pick up my lines and I know them after reading them a couple of times. So now it’s getting past that, 'Okay, I’ve read my lines, I know them, that’s my performance. Now that I’ve done that I have to try to forget everything.'

We Love Soaps: Forget everything?
James Depaiva: Forget my preconceived notions of what the part is about and what the scene should be about. On a soap, you have to create the performance right there and do it right there and that is what is going on camera. Right or wrong, that’s what’s going on camera. Here you put it up there and that’s my performance for the next three weeks. But the way rehearsals are being run, there’s a lot of sitting around talking about who these people are, their relationships, how do their relationships affect each other in this coming scene? How have the dynamics changed? It feels so indulgent to me. Here I’m saying the same lines, but they have to be new and different every time I do them.

We Love Soaps: Is that a challenge for you?
James Depaiva: It’s a different kind of challenge. When your perform a soap, the performance never really gets into your blood. You may have an emotional scene that you have a connection to and walk out feeling exhausted and just completely overwhelmed, but at the same time it’s just one quick moment and you don’t have to do it again. You can use little acting tricks that throw you into these emotional whirlpools that work if you do it right then. But they don’t work if you’re doing it in a long run play or anything like that. Those kinds of tricks wear out. Your body responds to emotional impulses, and if you keep hitting it with the same impulse, it starts to deaden. I believe in a play you have to get yourself so you are in a prepared state and open state. So that when something happens within the context of the play, that’s what triggers you and affects you. You’re not creating something false outside, as I would on television.

Stay tuned for Part Two where DePaiva reflects on struggles with his ego, and the demise of Max Holden.

Damon L. Jacobs is a Marriage Family Therapist practicing in New York City, and the author of "Absolutely Should-less: The Secret to Living the Stress-Free Life You Deserve." He blogs regularly at www.shouldless.com.