MICHAEL ZASLOW'S MISSING YEARS
By Meredith Brown

"Dear Readers, For nine years, Michael Zaslow played Roger Thorpe on "Guiding Light", a character who terrorized Springfield, and captivated the audience.   One of the most popular actors in daytime's history, Zaslow is now back, as David Reynolds on "One Life To Live." Soap Opera Digest is proud to run Zaslow's exclusive interview with us, where he talks about those missing years, his marriage, child, and the projects now consuming him.   I urge you to read our cover story."   ... Meredith Brown, Executive Editor, August 2, 1983.

Many years ago, twelve to be precise, I had a rather debilitating disease that left me bedridden for more months than I care to remember. Since I couldn't walk at the time, there wasn't a whole lot I could do except be tutored, read and watch television. Soap operas had always seemed grey to me. They weren't funny, they weren't interesting, they were actually...well...I thought, kind of scary.

But if you're home every afternoon, in bed day and night as I was, you're bound to tune in. What I remember from those days are two men: David Birney, who was playing Mark Elliot on "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing," and Michael Zaslow as Roger Thorpe on "Guiding Light". Understand that I was only 15 at the time, just starting to enjoy what goes on between men and women. (Though I have to admit, I was a pretty savvy kid.) Michael Zaslow did something to me. I watched him and he seemed real. While every one else on those shows seemed to be living in a land that had nothing to do with life - -- particularly my life --- Roger Thorpe, even with his dastardly ways, was someone I could know. I began to have a mild crush on him. More importantly, he intrigued me. It was with that sense of intrigue that I chose to interview Zaslow...

Most interviews take place in the course of a few hours; this one took place over three days filled with talking, Japanese food, a softball game, a cover photo session, exercises and swimming. During that time I saw Michael joyful, witty, flirty, filled with enthusiasm about the screenplay he was writing with his wife; joy about his new daughter, and at other times, I felt his annoyance and flashes of dissatisfaction.

When we first met, I was in a terrific mood, having just come from almost finding an apartment. (In Manhattan this is cause to celebrate.) Michael caught my mood and didn't let go. For hours we sat in a dismal ABC conference room, covering his life, and parts of mine. That was important to both of us: Michael had been burned in the press before and was suspect of journalists. I wanted to make a good impression. We ended the day, watching the Broadway League play softball in Central Park. I think we trusted each other.

Problems arose later. After I took the cassette recording of our conversations back to my office, I learned it hadn't recorded properly. I dreaded having to tell Michael that we would have to do the interview again, convinced he would lose faith in me. When I explained the situation on the phone, Zaslow was silent for a few seconds, them amicably agreed to meet me for a swim and luncheon.

Fiascos had occurred in my own life in the interim. A friend and her child had died, which spun me into a circle of depression. When I met Michael I was not the same cheerful person he'd encountered just a few short weeks ago. Still, after a long swim and lunch, I found myself drawn in and interested in Zaslow again. We caught the spark which marked our earlier conversations, and Michael left me with a wonderful gift that day: hours where I did not once think about the pain I was feeling.

The first time Michael and I meet he is wearing jeans and a shirt. His black hair is speckled with grey in front and there are those dark, intense eyes. They change from frightening to friendly, sexy to cool. Although he is grinning, Zaslow has decided to take this conversation quite seriously. He is the only person I've ever interviewed who brings his own notes to the discussion. "There are just some things I 'd like to get into in terms of what's important to me," Michael says politely. I laugh and we begin to chat endlessly.

In 1971, Michael Zaslow was appearing in the Broadway production of "Fiddler on the Roof," when he was called up for the role of Roger Thorpe on "Guiding Light." On and off for the next nine years he would breathe life into one of daytime's most incredible characters. Zaslow made Roger a man few people could resist.

"I think what jelled me to Roger in the beginning was that he was a rather uncompromising guy and unhappy. He was very, very sensitive, and very alone. Roger was an angry person, and he was the kind of guy," says Michael, "who could never take responsibility for his actions or for the trouble he found himself in." Zaslow pauses for a few seconds, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Here was a man with loads of talent, loads of ability, lots of love to give; but somewhere along the line, all that had been stifled and aborted."

"I became very fond of that character, and I'm sure, worked out some problems of my own through him." The audience may have also, for Roger Thorpe was one of those handful of daytime villains people are fascinated by. And he was sexy. Very sexy. Since this obviously means Zaslow is no slouch, he smiles brightly at the remark. "but what is sexy? I think sexy is vulnerability, and there's no way you can act vulnerable. It just has to be there."

Despite his enormous popularity, Michael itched to leave GL many times, and did. ("One role, an actor does not make.") More importantly, Michael says the money was becoming very seductive for him and the danger signs started flashing. Because of his significant income, Zaslow was buying heavily into the American Dream. By the late 1970's, he was questioning it. "That situation can be very enchanting," Michael admits, then confesses that keeping up with that kind of lifestyle was very frightening to him. "I really wanted to avoid it with every fiber of my being. Even if necessary, embrace poverty. At the very least, pull in my belt a bit," he emphasizes. "Money can only buy so so much and I really wanted to do things that would fulfill and sustain me in other ways. Doing any job for too long limits your possibilities."

When Michael left "Guiding Light" for the second to last time -- "I left so many times, they ran out of champagne," he quips --- he was starring in "The Petrified Forest" at the Berkshire Theater Festival in Massachusetts. The powers-that- be begged him to come back to the soap for just six more months, promising to kill him off in style. It was an offer Zaslow couldn't refuse.

"Those last six months were very very exciting," Michael admits. "It was a great experience, and I think those death scenes (shot in the Caribbean) were successful. It was a good storyline, and something poor Roger deserved."

"You felt good when he was killed off?" I ask, as he sips my Bloody Mary. "I felt like we had done a good piece of work."

"Do you still feel affection for the character?"

Michael nods, "Oh sure, he became a part of me and when he went off the deep end and became a mad snake, I felt sorry for him."

Still, Zaslow is adamant about not playing Roger, or another Roger Thorpe character again. "I particularly don't want to play unmotivated behavior," he explains. As he muses, I ask Michael what kind of perception he thinks the public has of him.

"I have no idea, you tell me."

"Maybe that you're like Roger. Very precise, perhaps not a villain, but maybe cold."

Zaslow's eyes widen. He's truly surprised. "Really? Cold?"

"Maybe a little frightening."

He thinks for a few seconds, then shrugs. "Well that's a good reason to get a away from the character. Getting typecast is a dangerous thing to do."

It's also a thing Michael Zaslow has studiously avoided in his career. After leaving "Guiding Light," he immediately took on the title role in an Atlanta production of "Macbeth." More theater followed, then Zaslow left for Hollywood where he quickly picked up a major role on the short-lived ABC primetime series "Kings Crossing." Zaslow was fond of the show, and believes its time slot, more than anything else, killed it. "I played a happily married man in his mid- thirties, getting romantically involved with a 19-year-old girl. As I recall, the series was cancelled before we actually consummated the affair, but therein lay part of the problem; that kind of storyline was not in the cards for an 8:00 P.M. time slot." Though he has respect for daytime, Zaslow feels prime-time television has one advantage: billing. "In nighttime series, the actor gets billing up front on every episode," Michael explains. If audiences have trouble identifying soap characters as the actors they really are, it may have to do with the perfunctory crawl at the end of the show, which the soap is required to run only once a week. Network executives don't encourage actors to be known as anything but their characters on daytime: why else would that crawl go by so quickly? It's a tradition Michael feels should be changed.

After career successes in Hollywood, appearing in movies-of- the week, episodic television, and the motion picture, "You Light Up My Life," Zaslow decided to return to his hometown, Manhattan, where he appeared in his friend Elizabeth Perry's musical. "Bags," about the plight of the homeless.

Once back in the city, he became involved in a series of projects: writing and recording his own songs; signing on to "One Life to Live," and penning with his wife, writer Susan Hufford, "Allison," a screenplay that has consumed them for two years.

Michael and I are ambling through Central Park and get caught up in a softball game being played. It is a perfect day for doing this, and we contemplate the possibility of just hanging out all afternoon. At one game, Zaslow notes a team from the Broadway show, "Merlin." Since his godson, Christian Slater, is in the show," he checks to see if he's playing today. Nope. "That kid works more than any actor I know," Zaslow cracks.

Two years ago, Michael and Susan decided to write a screenplay, using the disappearance of Etan Patz, a Manhattan six-year-old, who was never found, as their takeoff point.

"'Allison' is about a detective in the 20th precinct on Manhattan's Upper West Side," Michael explains. "Sam is working class, smart, but with no college education. He's in his mid-thirties, and already a sixteen-year veteran, with only four years to go till his pension. He's at the crossroads of his life.

"He and his wife have a basically happy marriage, but it's grown increasingly tense because of their inability to conceive a child. So here's this guy," Michael emphasizes, "who, when we first meet him, is tense, unsure in all areas of his life. All the promise of his early years seems to be evaporating. He's taut, ready to self-destruct, when a 9-year-old girl, Allison, disappears off the streets of Manhattan. Sam is unwillingly assigned to the case and becomes increasingly drawn in, preoccupied to the exclusion of everything with Allison. "

"The growing intensity of his quest to find Allison represents, perhaps, a deeper search -- a search for that core of himself that he discarded bit by bit, imperceptively, throughout his life. He is retrieving the child within him. So the mystery itself evolves in this dual sense --- with more than one life hanging in the balance."

"How much of Sam is you?" I wonder. Michael frowns for a moment. It is now a few weeks later and he has just finished off some intricate Yoga moves at his health club, followed by a thirty-odd lap swim. Presently, we are relaxing in a rather posh dining area. "That's hard to say," he admits slowly. "I certainly know Sam's experience. Anyone who goes through the process of trying to conceive a child can feel very isolated. It's easy to get into a 'why me?' mode of thought. I would say that Sam is not entirely like me because I came through that experience, not handicapped by as many ideas of what I should be, what a man is, and so on. But I'd gone through that earlier."

Michael plays with the fettuccini on his plate, then says carefully, "I think a couple of years ago this is something I wouldn't want to discuss in an interview. But for the sake of preserving my privacy, I could be robbing myself of an opportunity to explore something that could maybe be of benefit to your readers. People with fertility problems are not alone," Michael explains gently. "It is a very very common problem for couples today. I mean I've seen statistics that are just staggering."

The Zaslows have decided to do something about their desire to have a child. After looking at different options, they chose to go through a reputable adoption agency and brought home a Korean baby girl, Marika. Just speaking about her brings a deliciously brimming-with-pride look to Michael's face. "I don't know how else to talk about her except that I'm going broke with Kodak. I'm going to have to work for the rest of my life just to pay for photographing and developing bills," he beams.

Quite simply, being a father has changed Zaslow's life. "I hope that it's enabling me to deal with another human being who's more important to me than I am." Michael pauses for a few seconds. "I've gotten kind of tired of concentrating on my career, my art, my successes, what I have and haven't achieved -- all that stuff you go through." He waves his hand through the air at the imaginary other "stuff."

Susan and I are both very absorbed in our work. And I was surprised by how much I like being a father; surprised at what a decent father I am, because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to dump my selfishness," Michael admits candidly.

Actually, he seems to be embracing his new feeling of putting a child's needs first quite deftly. Although Michael would cancel all appointments our first day so we could get to know each other better, a four o'clock meeting with Marika and the folks from the adoption agency was tops on his agenda. This also reflects on his marriage. Susan Hufford is home often, but not solely to take care of their daughter. Her work is as important to her as Michael's is to him. Zaslow respects that.

"Susan is a feminist," Michael says thoughtfully. I don't know how that ties in, except she's not a person to drop what's important to her in order to fulfill my needs." He's quiet for a bit. "I guess we're both very intense...maybe if we've ever had problems it's because we are too much the same," Michael reveals.

Zaslow met Susan when they played opposite each other in Fiddler on the Roof." He says he found her a terrific singer, beautiful, with a warm sense of humor. "I thought her very riveting," Michael sums up. Since abandoning acting, Hufford has become quite successful as a writer. Her novel, "Reflections," published by Seaview, was well received. Hufford also writes romance novels for Harlequin and Dell under different names. Michael says their marriage works because both have learned to change, adjust, and give each other the space they need. I ask him if he feels possessive of his wife.

Zaslow cocks his head to one side then says slowly, "I don't think so. No, I think we were possessive earlier on. We trust each other a lot now, actually, we don't give each other a whole lot of reasons not to. I don't think our behavior is prescribed by each other, it's more what we think of ourselves." Michael spreads his fingers out on the dining table and stares at them. "I remember when I was younger, many of my romantic escapades were just a means of simply avoiding being by myself. I was afraid of feeling lonely, afraid I wouldn't know what to say to myself. Now, I don't want to sell myself short. You hurt your spouse, not so much by the infidelity, but by the negative feelings about yourself that you bring home. Extramarital affairs are so easy in this business, Michael continues. It's so predictable, and ultimately, so unsatisfying."

What is satisfying these days is getting acquainted with his role on "One Life to Live," his involvement with Amnesty International -- "They are now actively working to stop those governments which murder their own civilians," he says strongly -- and making music. Michael's songs have a Billy Joel, Randy Newman-type appeal. They are surprising in both theme, and the vulnerability they expose about the songwriter. While most of daytime's audience may see him as Roger Thorpe -- a powerful, and frightening man -- one look at Zaslow's songs let's you know he has a different view of himself.

Boy do I feel old today,
My the world turned cold today
Gonna write my folks and say
Come and get your baby boy
Get him right away!*

As for "One Life," Michael is approaching the soap with the same zeal and determination which marked all his other roles. Excited about the prospect of playing a concert pianist (Michael is accomplished at that, too), he was meticulous about the pieces David (Renaldi) Reynolds would play. More importantly, he's trying to learn about his character. "I think David is a very directed fellow, and very single-minded about his art and what he wants. Above all, he cares about his work," Michael insists. "I think he's going to be a very interesting character, with lots of pits and valleys, which should be fun."

Since David has come on the show (possibly to steal Dorian's heart) as the father of a teenaged daughter, I wonder how Zaslow feels about playing the parent of a such a mature young woman. "Well, I'm sure there's a mistake," Michael says breezily. "Obviously, they've confused me with someone much, much older. I couldn't possibly be the father of a teenaged girl," he deadpans. I giggle. Michael says it's "just fine."

And so it ends there, sort of.

Michael Zaslow is a dichotomy. Directed, even passionate about his work, but unlike many driven people, unafraid to show his emotions, and frailties. When I think of Michael Zaslow, a particular image comes to mind. We were in photographer Harry Benson's studio, readying for a cover shoot. While Robin Strasser was being made up, Michael entertained us in Harry's old piano. I jumped next to him, and it wasn't a sonata this accomplished pianist performed. No, what I recall is Michael's hands racing across the keyboard as the two of us played a mean "Heart and Soul."
_______________________
* From "Baby Boy." Words and music by Michael Zaslow.

Copyright © 1999 by Michael Zaslow's ZazAngels. All rights reserved.
02/15/06 10:02:49 PM