It's a sunny and pleasant day in Southern California. James Hyde is all set to do what any other man would do when presented with this situation: Play golf! He's ready to take on Richard Steinmetz (Martin) and Galen Gering (Luis) on the course after this interview was conducted and miraculously, the chat concluded just before tee-time. Meanwhile, enjoy this one on one conversation as the Gorgeous One speaks!

I ask the proud papa how little James Moses is doing these days. Baby James was born to Hyde and wife Sue-Ling a year ago and the change has been profound for the actor. "It's a life changing moment, I'll tell you that," he gushes, "My wife and I have been together for about sixteen years and I've been trying to get my wife pregnant for a while. And when my son came along, it became 'baby changes everything' and it certainly does. And it's all for the better, trust me!" Being a new dad has taught Hyde, "patience! And it taught me what real love is. There are a couple of things right there, but I think that is the biggest."

The parenting skills Hyde is learning as he goes gives him a different perspective of how fatherhood should be. Sam has made mistakes, and Hyde admits, "I think he is a great father. I think that he feels guilty about what has been going on. The only thing he's guilty of is working too hard and not connecting with his children like he thinks he should have. But he thinks if Grace would've been there, things would've been different. He's just trying to make amends with what's going on and things just spun out of control. He just really doesn't know what to do anymore."

One thing that spun out of control for the character of Sam is daughter Jessica's plunge into the wild side. As a father himself, I ask Hyde how hard it was to watch Jessica's mental disintegration. "It's one of those things that you never want to see happen in real life, " he says candidly, "I look at my son every day and he's only a year old. What I'm going through, I can build a foundation for him and really guide him and just hope and pray that he doesn't get involved with drugs and stuff like that. You do the best you can as a parent but sometimes things happen. And that's when real love steps in, I think. How much do you love this son or daughter of yours? How far do you want to go if they've reached a certain point in their life? I mean, do you let them go or do you fight to hold on? That's something that I really hope I never have to go through, I mean in that sort of decision. But you never know."

What the future holds, and what part of the future you can control are two different things. If Hyde had a wish for Sam's future, it would be the return of Grace. "I would like to see Grace come back knowing the information, finding out the information, coming back from Italy or Europe or wherever they are, and telling me that Ivy had planned all this. Have the truth come out and then have Sam make that decision whether he believes her or not. But then, all the compounding information because Dr. Eve Russell knows a lot of stuff. She's the one who kind of helped Ivy with the DNA tests and stuff like that. So I would like to have all that come out." What would he like to see Sam do when faced with the truth? "Would I go back with my wife? If it were my scenario I would say no, and I wouldn't have my wife or Ivy," Hyde says, "Sam would find another woman in town!"

That's not to say the Lancaster, Ohio native doesn't thoroughly enjoy working with his leading ladies. "I've said this many times: I'm blessed," Hyde admits, "I go in every day and the first five years I was working with Dana (Sparks, ex-Grace) and Kim (Johnston Ulrich, Ivy) and it was always fun! Dana is always open for ideas and Kim is 'been there, done that, seen it all.' She's the same way." The actor hints at the possible return of Grace and confesses, "I'm pretty sure you're going to see the character. I don't know if it's going to be Dana. I couldn't clarify that for sure." In the meantime, Hyde is conjuring up images of what it would be like to share scenes with cast favorite Juliet Mills (Tabitha). "With Juliet, I'm just thinking storyline and how it would work. She's a great woman to work with anyway. I'm thinking if I worked with her what would the storyline be? You know, would she put a curse on me?" Hyde laughs, "Anything can happen, that's why it would be so fun to work with Juliet because the sky's the limit. Many many things could happen while being in that house and being around her. It would be fun!"

The actor doesn't find too many things in common with his character, however. "Sam was married for a long time, that's one similarity," Hyde shares, "I'm definitely not a cop in real life and Sam is much more reserved than I am. Especially when he listens to the same music I listen to..." What does Sam tune in to? "The song they play for Sam and Ivy, I think, is a Billy Joel song. As a matter of fact, I do like Billy Joel. Stuff like that, you know, very kind of '70's music. All the music that has been played when Sam and Ivy have a scene has been that kind of stuff."

Hyde, who got his acting start doing promos for the defunct soap Sunset Beach, still manages to find the time for other acting projects, and of course, golf. His previous daytime credits include Another World (Neil) and as Liam on As the World Turns. On tap is a John Anton film entitled "Guns, Drugs and Dirty Money," which is currently wrapping up. "There are projects I'm waiting for constantly, so if there's anything that's going to come up solid, I'll let you know," Hyde promises.

But Hyde also treasures that elusive spare time as well. "Before my son came along, I was golfing, playing tennis and just being active. I'm still very active but those hours have just been cut down tremendously." As was mentioned before, Hyde is joining cast mates Steinmetz and Gering for eighteen holes later in the day. "We like to get out there and do that once in a while," he states, "I like to be very active, like go to the mountains in the wintertime and go snowboarding, and in the summertime I just like to be as active as possible. But the main priority is to spend time with my family."

Before I can suggest a set of clubs as a Christmas present for little James, it's time to wrap things up.

I would like to thank James Hyde for taking the time to talk with Soaptown and to Scott for setting it up. Happy golfing gentlemen!

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Photos courtesy of James Hyde Online, JPI and NBC.
"Sam" screen captures courtesy of the author.