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Eric Martsolf joined the cast of “Days” as the new “Brady Black,” returning to Salem to repair relationships with family and friends.
Martsolf graduated from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Penn., with a B.A. in political science with honors, emphasizing in mass media politics and constitutional law. When he wasn’t studying, he was performing in unlimited capacities – in rock bands, choirs, operas, musicals, barbershop quartets, to mention a few. Putting his academic career temporarily on hold, Eric ventured to NYC where he began a long stretch of musical, acting, modeling, and performance endeavors.
Martsolf has since then had an exciting career in entertainment, including a starring role on the soap opera “Passions,” where played he played fan favorite “Ethan Winthrop.” Martsolf is also widely known for his critically-hailed comic portrayal of the “Pharaoh” in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” touring nationally with the show for four years.
Additionally, Martsolf has appeared in over 40 musicals and plays. Most recently, he has starred in the new musical “Knight Life” as “Sir Handsome Plotdevice/Dark Knight,” and the new musical adaptation of Garry Marshall’s Happy Days in the role of “Count Malachi.” Last year, he was also in a guest-starring role on “NCIS.”
Martsolf lives in Los Angeles with his wife and twin boys. –Bio Courtesy NBC.com
How is it working with Lindsay Hartley again?
What’s funny is the faces are the same, but the storyline, the direction, and the whole tone of the story are completely different.
How is Days different from Passions?
Say what you will about Passions, but we had a heck of a following and I thought there was a lot of ingenuity attached to it. It was a hard show to do. Making some of that stuff even slightly believable is a job. You know when you have great writing it’s easy for an actor. When the writing is bad and you can breathe some life into that, that’s a job. I salute everyone who is affiliated with Passions and I am proud to be a part of it.
The characters are completely different. Ethan and Theresa are no Brady and Arianna. Ethan wouldn’t have even looked at a sliver of cocaine let alone stuff it up his nose.
Brady is dating Arianna, but has a history with Nicole and a close friendship with Melanie. Fans seem split. What’s your take on his relationships?
Oh, I love that when they’re all torn up about that. Well, when you bring a new guy onto a show you kind of test him, your throw him in the water and see what happens. Arianna is a very secure choice because Linds and I worked together before. Arianne Zucker and I are incredible friends. We are cut from the same sense of humor and we gel very well together. And Molly is just this insanely breath of fresh air that I am always captivated by how happy and how good her spirit is. So speaking from me personally, I’d be happy to work with any of those girls.
As far as Brady is concerned I think he is very much into Nicole right now and making her realize how good of a person she is and [how she can] realize her potential but damn if he doesn’t have a crush on this Arianna chick! He can’t seem to get enough of her…. It’s hard to speculate because I’ll be honest with you, I don’t know. I’m just as anxious to see what happens after Christmas as the fans are.
On Brady’s role in the baby swap:
He didn’t know about the switch. He supported [Nicole] through many lies and it was to Melanie he admitted all of that — said “I shouldn’t have done it.” But you know when you’re in love… Love makes you blind, makes you kind of stupid.
Lindsay Hartley joined the cast of “Days of our Lives” as Arianna Hernandez in August. Hartley was a national pre-teen talent winner of the Young Miss America Beauty pageant. Singing since age 11, Hartley has starred in “Grease” on Broadway, as the lead vocalist in the Las Vegas Sands Hotel afternoon show “Viva Las Vegas” the role of The Bride in “Beetlejuice’s Rockin’ Graveyard Revue” at Universal Studios Hollywood, the lead role of Maria in the Civic Light Opera’s “West Side Story” in Austin, Texas and in “Pygmalion, The True Story” which toured the Greek Islands. Additionally, Hartley has won several national vocal competitions including the L.A. Philharmonic’s Award-Vocal/Opera, The National Date Festival and America’s Showcase Starlet. Lindsay broke into television by landing the role of Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald, the calculating temptress on NBC’s “Passions.” –Bio Courtesy NBC.com
A native of Palm Springs, CA, Hartley currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband and ex-co-star, Justin Hartley, and their daughter, Isabella.
Do you and Eric Martsolf try to approach your scenes differently?
We… That’s an interesting question. Well first of all the characters are different so that kind of naturally brings something different. We each, we are very comfortable with each other. We do talk sometime about “Oh, I’m gonna try something a little different. How do you feel about this?” Or he will say, “I am gonna do a little bit of this…” Or we surprise each other. We definitely add a lot more comedy to our work when we can. We can do that here. At Passions that was hard to add comedy because the circumstances were comedic. So we couldn’t play that because they were, so we had to play dead serious. So here, we can have a bit more fun.
Is there anybody you have not had the chance to work with yet that you would like too?
Yeah, Bo and Hope — Peter and Kristian. I have not gotten to work with them yet.
Your character on Days has a lot more edge than Theresa had. Is that fun to play?
Oh, yeah. Yeah, it’s fun. I’m having a good time. And the more I work – on air, the more you will see of what she’s going through and other sides.
You and Alison Sweeney have an interesting dynamic — it goes between enemies and friends. Do you two work on how to approach those scenes beforehand?
We are finding our way together as actors and as characters. We are trying to figure out, in the scene, we are cool, we know what we want and we go out there and play. And afterwards it’s like, “Did you like it? Yeah, it’s working, it’s good.” We are figuring it out. And now we are, now our characters are close…we got it. It’s more of an understanding more than she’s my best friend. Like, you love my brother, I understand that, and I will support you.
It’s interesting to watch you two together because on Passions your character was often compared to Sami.
That’s cool. Now I often look at Nicole’s character and I think, “Oh, I know you. I know where you have been. I know those tears.”
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