Greg’s Celebrity Encounters: Meeting Luke & Noah

Today is Daytime Emmy day and I’ll be at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles live blogging from the press room where the winners are brought. Will start posting at around 4 p.m, so check in./ The telecast begins at 5 p.m. on the CW.

In the spirit of the Daytime Emmys, I take you back a year ago to a pre-Emmy party I attended in Hollywood. Above is me with the sensational Van Hansis who plays Luke Snyder on As the World Turns and is an Emmy nominee tonight in the best supporting actor category. I sincerely hope he wins! He is a gifted actor who can make you believe even the wackiest of storyline twists and turns. Van always brings out the truth in the character of Luke, one of the few (but growing!) gay characters in daytime. I do wish the writers would serve him better because he is certainly up the the task!

Here I am with Van’s on-screen love Jake Silbermann. I’m not sure why he’s making the goofy face since it wasn’t a particulrly goofy moment. He plays Noah on the show and while he’s not near the actor Hansis is, the two do enjoy a very real chemistry on-screen and seem to be very close friends off-screen.

Had a chat with these two guys last year, here are some excerpts:

Greg: Sometimes, the storylines really annoy me. They are very far-fetched.
Van: It’s a soooaaap.”
Greg: But you guys pull it off, you make us still care. Tell me how you do it.
Jake: Any script we get, you try and find what resonates with you. It is a soap so there are outlandish things that happen but that’s the fun of it.
Van: Yeah, you just have to give yourself over to the genre. Even when outlandish things happen, you have to find the truth.
Greg: Are you guys having a good time with this storyline?
Van: Oh yeah. Yes. Definitely, without a doubt. It’s been really great.

Greg: Do you pay much attention to the fans? They have a lot of opinions.
Van: We know that fans kind of felt like she got in between Luke and Noah, i understand. But Luke and Noah can’t have it be peachy for them all the time or else fans wouldn’t like that other.
Greg: People were pissed when you guys didn’t kiss for so long.
Jake: We’re kissing now!
Greg: Thank God. Did you hear any of the uproar? Did it matter to you?
Van: We really were not involved in that really at all and I think that’s the way it needed to be and I think the fan campaign went the way it should have gone and they focused on the people they needed to focus on.”

Greg: Does it matter to you guys if your characters are together or is it more fun as actors for them to be having problems?
Jake: I think it’s situation by sitiuation. I think there’s so much further for them to go being together. I’m looking forward to what’s gonna happen.
Van: Yeah, I feel like when we have scenes where they’re fighting, we often have really good meaty scenes and those are great. We both like those. But we have a blast working together so we could both be wanting to kill each other, Luke and Noah could be wanting to kill each other like I guess Mr. and Mr. Smith type thing (laughs) or having a love in. It doesn’t matter.