A Martinez:  "I've Been Blessed with Two Beautiful Ladies in My Life"

1987

by Alice Koenigsberg

Over the past few years A has developed a marvelous rapport with his SB leading lady, Marcy Walker (Eden).  "We're friends, good friends," confides A.  "I love Marcy.  She's a marvelous actress, and I admire her."

    When A Martinez talked with us, his Santa Barbara contract was due to expire in three days.  But he was confident that everything would work out for the best.  Indeed it did, because A is staying on as one of daytime's most popular heroes, Cruz Castillo.  In this candid interview A talked about Cruz's magical relationship with Eden, and the two special women in his own life -- his wife, Leslie, and his leading lady, Marcy Walker.

Did you and Marcy have an instant rapport?

A:  No.  I dug her a lot, but like any relationship we had to find our way.

Have you any Marcy worked to make Cruz and Eden such a unique couple?

A:  We try to find moments where we surprise people, do things that are dangerous, things that might stop viewers in their tracks who were keeping the TV on as background entertainment.  We think consciously about getting people's attention.  We really feed off each other.  Marcy's a workhorse.  She works till she drops.  She's much more consistent than I am.  She challenges me.

Was it difficult working without Marcy earlier this year, during the time when Cruz thought Eden was dead?

A:  Marcy did a wonderful thing for me.  The very first day that Cruz thought Eden was gone, Marcy came into the makeup room and engaged me in conversation.  I was really hurting and just spaced out.  But from that moment on, Marcy hardly spoke to me for the next six weeks.  We have an amazing sense of each other, but she avoided me completely.  I'd walk into a room and she'd leave.  She made it so much easier for me to feel what Cruz was going through.

How do you feel about the upcoming wedding for Cruz and Eden?

A:  They have to get married or else everything that came  before becomes a lie.  Already the credibility of what came before has been damaged.  There was a point in time when it became obvious something special was going on between these characters.  Now you must respect the wisdom of your audience, who has invested so much in caring about this storyline.

Do you believe Cruz and Eden can still be interesting after marriage?

A:  It's certainly possible, but it's much harder to write for a couple after their grand problem has been solved.  It's harder to find what's interesting, dramatic and compelling about the problems inside a stable relationship.  A piece of me hopes viewers will tell each other that there's this marvelous couple on TV that you should look at, because you can learn things from the trials they go through.  Maybe it's a bit arrogant for me to feel that what we've done is a notch above what other  couples have done, but I do.  That's why I fell we should be treated differently, that the normal rules of soap opera dynamics should be thrown out the window so we can explore some new territory.

Tell us a bit about your relationships with Leslie (your wife) and Marcy (your leading lady).

A:  The relationships are completely different.  I do love Marcy.  It's not friendship.  There's no doubt that I love her, but one of the blessings of being a grown-up is that it's easy to know the difference between different kinds of love.  There are a lot of people I love, a lot of people I feel comfortable hugging and kissing.

Are Leslie and Marcy very different?

A:  Oh yes.  I wouldn't know where to begin.  I'm pretty much blindly in love with Leslie.  She's got the best heart in the world.  There's a glow coming off her.  She has great compassion and ease in identifying with other people's feelings.  She's appointed herself the family fun monitor.  I always have so much to do that I rarely set something up for fun.  Goodness gracious, do I need it!  The other day Leslie said, 'OK, we're going to take our son Cody, (who's 1) to this person's house and we're going to an early show of The Untouchables, have fun and eat popcorn.'  I showed up at work the next day feeling more like a human.

How has Cody changed your life?

A:  Having the baby deepened our relationship.  The single most spiritual thing in my life is the connection we have as a family.  Watching the bond develop between Leslie and Cody and playing my own part, but especially watching them.  I see a lot of myself in this little boy and a lot of her.  I see him learning how to do things for himself from watching us.  It's been utterly magical.  We're learning how to be a family now, which can be stressful at times.  But the hassles are easily dealt with when you feel basically happy.

Are you still romantic?

A:  It's a bit more of a strain, but we don't have much trouble finding that kind of giggly space.  The romance is alive and well, but the dynamics have shifted.  Things are more serious.  We don't have as much time as we used to, but we had as much time as anyone ever gets.  When we were first together (seven years ago), neither of us was working much, so we spent an unprecedented amount of time together.  It if wasn't going to work, we'd have found out real quick.  We have partied up a storm, but it's a different season now.

Do you plan on having more children?

A:  Three days after Cody was born, Leslie was talking about having another baby.  Recently she's mentioned it again.  I've heard a few men say that they regret not being able to experience childbirth.  Having seen it as close as I did, it's something I never want to experience.  It's the hardest thing I've ever seen anyone do.  But the gift is so profound that three days later my wife wants another.  My fantasy is that we'll wind up having three children, God willing.  We've learned you can't just snap your fingers and assume it's all going to fall into place.  We tried for a long time before it finally happened, which is why I'm hesitant about planning too carefully.  (He laughs.)  We figured out that when Leslie supposedly conceived, I was in L.A. and she was in Cincinnati.

A Martinez is very proud of this real-life family.  His wife, Leslie, and son, Cody, are the most important people in his life.  "The single most spiritual thing in my life is the connection we have as a family," says A.  "There's a strong bond between all of us."

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