NEWS

Hello everyone, I'm excited to share something very special with you. I'm going to be published as a writer for the first time in an upcoming edition of Gladys Magazine! I've written an article, autobiographical in nature, about an event that happened to me as an 8 year-old-boy living in NYC during the week of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This event had such a profound effect on me, so much so, that after more than 40 years I had decided to put it to ink and paper. Would love to share it with all of you. Gladys is a beautiful and inspiring magazine, one which I'm proud to have my piece published in. Please read below to learn how you can obtain a copy of the magazine for yourself to enjoy.

Blessings to you all... Vincent
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The magazine is available at Barnes & Noble, B-Dalton, Joseph Beth Bookstores, Walgreens, Target, Marriott Gift Shops and many independent stores nationwide and the Summer Issue will hit the stands July 1st. You can pre-order our Summer International Issue today by ordering directly from our web site. To learn more about Gladys Magazine, please visit the website, www.gladysmagazine.com.

Interview with Vincent Irizarry (Dr. David Hayward/AMC)

Vincent Irizarry plays (the sometimes evil) Dr. David Hayward on ABC’s All My Children.

He originated the role in 1997 and played Hayward for almost 10 years, before being let go by AMC. He then moved to The Young and the Restless as David Chow.

When David Chow was killed off Y&R in August, Vincent was tapped by AMC to reprise Hayward, who re-entered Pine Valley in October.

Although he plays a not-so-good doctor on TV, Vincent is doing a nice thing for a very worthy charity.

He’s doing a meet-and-greet from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, March 14 in Largo, FL for the benefit of the local Ronald McDonald House in St. Petersburg, FL. If you live in Florida or you can get there for the day, it’s definitely worth the trip.

“I’m very much looking forward to it because it gives me a chance to meet fans,” he said. “I work in a dark studio all day so it’s nice to see them and it gives me a chance to pick their brains about what they’re enjoying.”

Click here to read all the details of how you can meet Vincent in person. (see above event)

You can see Vincent up close and personal, ask him questions, get his autograph and have your photo taken with him.

When I caught up with him by phone a few days ago, the Daytime Emmy Prenomination list had just come out and he had made the first cut toward a final-five nomination in the Supporting Actor category.

“It’s very nice considering that I just came back to the show and, certainly, it’s an honor,” he said.

Vincent explained the next step in the process: each actor chooses one episode to submit to the judges’ panel and the disc must include every scene the actor is in during that particular episode. From that, the Pre-nom list is whittled down to the top five in each category.

Vincent said he hasn’t decided which episode to submit yet, but is considering the show where Krystal walks in on David holding a gun in his hand and considering suicide.

“I have to look at it from an overall perspective of which shows really stand out,” he said.

I talked to Vincent while he was on the “All My Children” set (I could hear the intercom in the background calling actors to their scenes, which was pretty interesting in itself). He took a lot of time answering each question and even offered to call me back if I needed additional info. How nice is that?

Michele: If you go on to the final five, what would it mean to you to win the Emmy?

Vincent: “I’ve been in this business more than 25 years and I’ve been nominated before and of course it would be an honor. I’m grateful for having been able to work in this business for as long as I have. To win would be exciting. But it really comes from a contribution from everyone who I have ever worked with and I feel like I would have to share a piece of it with everybody.”

Michele: What can you tell me about yourself that maybe your fans don’t know about you?

Vincent: “The majority of my free time I like to spend with my family. My 7-year-old son is a Cub Scout and we’ve been doing a lot of wonderful trips with the Cub Scouts. I slept on the Battleship New Jersey with my son and the Cub Scouts a couple of weeks ago.”

Vincent: “He’s loyal to a fault. Everything he does is because he’s loyal to those he loves - whether it’s for Babe, Krystal or Little Adam - he does it because he’s loyal to them, devoted to them. Sometimes he’s misguided and takes it too far and hurts other people out of loyalty to those he loves.

“Even now with Krystal, he’s not fully explaining everything to her right now….The reason he’s doing it is because he truly believes that what he’s doing is in her best interest and that she wouldn’t fully understand it at this moment. And that when the smoke is cleared, she will understand it and appreciate it. So the end justifies the means.

“I would say that’s David’s best quality is his loyalty to the people who he really loves and cares about, but he takes it too far where it becomes even dangerous.”

Vincent: “I particularly enjoyed playing him in the latter months on that show, because they finally found something for that character. In the earlier part, it looked like the character had some potential. But because they brought on the character for me to play so quickly, they really didn’t flesh him out yet and who he was really going to be.

“It was really different from when I came on (AMC) as David. The character was fleshed out immediately. They knew who he was. I knew what they wanted from him. I didn’t have to worry about the choices that I was making for him.

“Once (Y&R) gave David Chow the issue of having a gambling addiction, I loved playing him because I found him one of the more truly tragic figures on daytime at the time. Every choice that he was making, every aspect of his life was governed by that addiction…His relationships, his business, his financial life….

“The choices he was forced to make where he killed someone to pay off a debt…All of these choices came down to he couldn’t get control over this addiction. It was exciting to play that, because it was tragic to watch. I think he had genuine feelings for Nikki and he did want to have a good life with her, but because of these choices it was destroying him - and ultimately did destroy him.

“Where David Hayward is concerned, he’s also, in his own way, a tragic figure. He can’t let go of the past. A lot of things that happen with David come from his early years as a young boy growing up with the mother that he had, Vanessa. And watching his father commit suicide before his very eyes bleeding out. And, as an 11-year-old boy, watching his mother encourage him to do it.

“This is a man who has been greatly damaged and that’s why it’s interesting that Krystal sees him as a much more complex person than other people give him credit for or are willing to tolerate. She’s sees something special in him and I think that’s great, because if it wasn’t for her, who would there be?

Vincent laughs as he describes David’s wedding to Krystal: “He’s such a pariah that nobody’s there except the pastor and his attorney, who I’m sure he had to pay to be there to witness. That’s pretty sad. He’s a loner, but he’s obviously in great need of love. That’s something that he, at least, has the potential of with Krystal if he doesn’t shoot himself in both feet while running to the finish line.

“Even with him giving Krystal the pills, once she called him on it, he didn’t deny it at all. He said, ‘Well, yeah. You needed it. You needed some ability to sleep.’”

Vincent: On Playing a Villain “Even some of the most despicable people out there will justify what they do. Even if it’s some warped sense within them, that what they’re doing is the right thing to do for whatever reason. They don’t do it and think it’s a terrible thing. Even to the point of killing people, they do it and they feel justified while they’re doing it.

“As an actor, I have to buy into the reason that I’m doing it. I don’t do it because I think I’m being a villain. I do it because I have a purpose, something that I’m trying to accomplish. The way that I treat people in the process is not very nice at times, but it’s because of my background.

“I find them (villains) very draining. To be in that mindset on a regular basis sometimes can wear you down. I think they’re much more challenging than playing straight-laced people. On these shows, they write them pretty well. But as an actor it can wear you down on a day-to-day basis. It seems like those are the roles I get called in to play, so I guess I must be doing something right with them.”

Vincent was interviewed on February 19, 2009 by Steve Malzberg on WOR NEWS TALK RADIO 710 AM.