Santa Barbara's A Martinez Talks About His Co-Stars!

by Lillian Smith

    A Martinez is one of those rare people who likes to talk about fellow actors as much as himself.  He'll even talk about his shortcomings as easily as he will about his strong points.  He's been on Santa Barbara since it started and has seen many actors come and go and many a newcomer has told me how helpful he is especially to actors who are just starting out and are nervous.

    A, himself, has told me many times what a wonderful actress he thinks Marcy Walker is and how much he likes working with her, so much so that they hope to make a movie together someday soon.

    So the other day he and I got to discussing Santa Barbara and people on it and A said some very interesting things about Justin Deas, Robert Thaler and Jed Allan, among others.  Acting is his life and he looks at things from that viewpoint always.  The day before, A had been a little disturbed when I met him in the hallway at the show because the powers that be had not liked a scene he had just done.  This fascinated me because I have never seen A lose his cool.

    "I can't believe that too many days like yesterday would happen to you, where somebody didn't like the way you did the scene.  I can't believe that," I told him.

    "Yeah, I suppose it doesn't happen too often.  If it did, I probably wouldn't be on the show," he said laughing.

    He thought for a moment, "But it's one of my pet peeves and I understand why it comes across.  It's an imperfect world and we all do the best we can and making a soap opera is ridiculously difficult for everybody concerned.  My basic stance is, let's cut each other as much slack as we can because we do the best we can."

    "And you don't have time for all kinds of different interpretations of a sentence or a paragraph," I put in.

    "In the best possible world, in the perfect world, all actors would have to do would just be truthful.  If you could just be truthful, you would have done your job.  And all the excitement and the wit and the irony and the intrigue and the romance and stuff would all be just on the page.  It would all be worked out.

    "When you get a scene that is about preoccupation, lack of connection and low energy, I want to be able to play it that way.  Lord, knows, most of the scenes are about the opposite.  It's like in baseball, the pitcher is most effective if he changes speeds once in a while and that was the perfect opportunity for me to do that.  The scene was about two people who were completely interested in different things and happened to stumble on one another and spoke briefly but didn't connect.  And I thought we nailed it and then to have the booth be like making jokes about how they're being bored and falling asleep and booming sarcastic remarks, you know, it just calls my pet peeves into focus.  You know, if you don't want me to be boring then cut this particular scene out of the show because the scene was designed to be about something boring.  I thought it was a great scene.  It was my favorite scene of the day quite frankly."

    "Yes, but it's also conceivable that the person looking at the larger picture is not analyzing what Cruz would be doing at that precise moment."

    "You bet.  It's a trade off all the time and real important, and one of the things that sets out show in such a good light, I think, is that by and large we all do pull in the same direction and we do have a sense of there being a center somewhere that we're facing as a group rather than just being a bunch of actors trying to make the most out of these opportunities.  Jill Phelps, our executive producer, has a real strong sense of how the rhythm and tone of the show has to hold from beginning to end.  She's real good at keeping her finger on that.  So basically, a lot of times even though my instinct or some other actor's instinct might be to take something out to like the Martian level of reality or to really run and blow it out, you have to be aware of what scene preceded you and what scene is going to follow and will the rest of the show be somehow damaged by you taking giant liberties with what might be a real juicy moment."

    "Does Justin Deas take giant liberties?  I won't put this in," I told him.

    "Oh, well..."

    "But I just wondered because it approaches borderline insanity."

    "I think Justin, and you could definitely put this in as far as I'm concerned, I think Just is like the rock that hits the pond.  I mean, the ripples are felt in every nook and cranny.  When Justin showed up, I can only speak for myself although I think it's true of other actors as well, Justin reminded me of how important it is to take chances.

    "When he arrived, I felt that I was, in retrospect, starting to be somewhat too predictable and I'm sure I would have noticed had he not come.  Maybe something else would have happened that would have triggered it but he was the thing that did it for me.  He kept it close to the vest for a few days and I know the expectations.  I mean, he had been brought in because of his ability to be such a catalyst and ignite things.  I mean, he was so big and powerful and overwhelming in his previous soaps, it was my understanding they were expecting him to like jump all over.  He kept it close to the vest for a while and people kind of wondered, but then he started letting it out.  By the second week he was letting it out and it immediately reminded me of the potential for whacking the stuff out a bit, you know, slamming it up against the wall.  After all, when you stop to look at it, it's a soap opera, not the latest thing from Bertolucci or not something that's going to survive the test of time.  It's something we're all running by and it makes perfect sense to send it up a bit.  It's not such a terrible thing if you remind the audience once in a while that we're just putting on a show.  I think that one of the worst things about soaps is the degree to which they take themselves seriously and you've got to some degree to sell a story."

   "Yes, you do," I agreed.

   "You do to some degree, but we get away with having fun too sometimes at the expense at the edges of credibility, but I'm for that and I think the reason we do that these days is because Justin showed up.  Robert Thaler (Pearl) does that too.  Robert works out on a limb.  I have such respect for him.  I regret he has not been included more gracefully and positioned more strongly."

   "Well, lately for the last weeks I think his role is better."

   "Yes.  They're giving him some stuff now again."

   "With Loanne Bishop who is good," I added.

   "Yes, She's wonderful.  She's wonderful," A nodded.

A with co-star Robert Thaler (Pearl)

   "Suddenly they have a little something going there."

   "Exactly.  One actor came on the show recently who played my Uncle Jim, a wonderful actor named Abel Frame and he said, 'I just watched an actor work with a complete absence of fear,' and he was watching Robert Thaler.

   "Now I know for a fact that that's not true.  I know Bobby feels fear, but he doesn't give in to it.  Even if he's like in trouble and he's going up or can't get through a certain space in a scene, rather than retreat, which is my instinct and a lot of actors' instinct, well, you know, I'll pull back and give a shrunken version of what I originally intended, just so I can get through this and keep my face on.  Thaler won't give in.  He keeps reaching out there on the end of a limb and you know, I think it was ridiculous that he wasn't nominated for an Emmy.  Really ridiculous," A said emphatically.

At a recent party A posed with Todd McKee (Ted) and Jed Allan (C.C.).

   "I asked Jed Allan about some of his and Marj Dusay's scenes with Justin, the D.A. going berserk.  I wondered if it damaged C.C.'s part.  All he'd say is C.C. would never let the D.A. get away with it."

   "I think it's important to remember that we're not doing a realistic show there."

   "Yes, but C.C. was the big gun when the show started and the early actors that played the part were more business man types.  Jed is more flexible than some of the early ones, I think.  He handles it all well," I said.

   "Yes and when Jed showed up for whatever reasons, everything took its shape.  I mean, the basic shape of the show occurred then and it had not happened until then and it has altered since then but not unrecognizably."

   "When Jed showed up?" I asked.

   "When he showed up everything snapped into place.  I mean, I'd been there then about eighteen months," A said.

   "Through the other C.C. Capwells," I suggested.

   "Right, through all kinds of turmoil and it was just obvious.  Jed just stepped into that center position and everything just started to rotate.  It was just remarkable how he was the key link."

   "So you and Eden are getting married finally," I said, dragging out the last word.

   "Do you believe it," he grinned at me.

   We speculated on what could happen now and A says he hopes their troubles will come from outside the marriage and not have it be between them, breaking them up.  As for adventures, he disagreed with me that there was too much luff-making between them.

   "Seeing all those lip-locks," he says grinning happily.

   "You keep smooching all the time."

   "I don't think it's gone far enough.  I want more - I want more kissing and less violence.  I want more love.  That's my own point of view, what can you say, you know?"

   Meantime A and his wife Leslie and baby Cody are living in a rented house waiting to buy some land and build out near the ocean.  He's sold their first house and can't wait to get started.  Baby Cody, who is the center of their universe, was ill over the holidays but has come out of it like a trouper so life is really beautiful for the Martinez family and looks like it's going to be even better.  Couldn't happen to a nicer guy!

A in a scene from his movie PowWow Highway

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