Soap operas have their fair share of talented actors. Many have split their time between movie appearances and guest-stars on other television shows. Michael Lowry is an excellent example of a well-rounded actor capable of doing any part given to him, whether it's comedy, action, or drama.

Interestingly enough, Michael was born into a strong medical family and intended on making the medical profession his career before ending up playing a doctor on 'All My Children' for a four year stint.

Graciously agreeing to an interview, I was able to chat with Michael about his acting career and other interesting tidbits. The openness and friendliness of this gifted actor made it easy to just let my hair down and chat friend to friend, something not seen as much today in Hollywood, so the first thing I did was sing Happy Birthday to him, as he is a March baby. After exchanging some laughs and filling me in on a birthday party coming up, he went on to tell me a little bit about his background.

“I went to school originally to be a doctor; I had taken so many animal science classes that I got my biology degree as well as my zoology degree. I was very involved in college, studying constantly. I never got my nose out of the book. I finally decided to take a breather, well, more like a sabbatical, chill out for a year. I came to LA to live for a year, and you know LA is Show Business Town; you just can't help being sucked into the glamour of acting. I did a few jobs here and there, commercials and small parts, working odd jobs to take care of myself, and I just fell in love with acting.”

You know the old saying, if you love what you're doing, you always excel at it. And excel, Michael does. With several movie appearances to his credit including “Ironheart” in 1992, Michael has also guest-starred in noted prime-time television series such as “Diagnosis Murder” and “The Drew Carey Show”. His most noted role, however, was on “All My Children” as 'Dr. Jake Martin' from 1996-2000.

Michael's newest appearances are on “As the World Turns” as Les Sweeney, Julia Larrabee's abusive ex-husband, and a prime-time comedy by UPN coming out soon called “Bad Girl's Guide', starring Jenny McCartney. Asking him about his preferences for soap or theater, Michael had no difficulty stating his favorite.  “It is much more difficult to do a soap, you have a small amount of time to get across tons of information and an even smaller amount of time to rehearse and prepare. In theater, on the other hand, you have to spend quite a lot of time in rehearsals and preparation, but you're in front of a live audience and you can't mess up. It's either 'do or die'. When I started on All My Children, I said I couldn't do it. The fear was there, and I thought, 'no way, I can't do this!'. But you adapt, though. You learn what you need to do and what's expected of you, and you learn quickly. It takes a very talented person to be able to do soaps today, with all the fast paced taping and learning pages and pages of lines in a short amount of time. Some people have it, some people don't. But it is something you can learn to do; it's an acquired skill, one that I'm glad I picked up on. When you start taping, it's your own fault if you're not prepared, and as fast as soaps move, it's either keep up or move on.”

Amazing, I thought, how talented soap actors/actresses truly are. Asking Michael to describe for us the inner circles of what goes on behind the sets, he went on to detail a day in the life of a soap star.  “Well, with this soap in particular, I have quite a long commute to work. With 'All My Children', I lived literally next door to the studios, but now, I tape in Brooklyn and I live in Manhattan, so my day starts A LOT earlier. I have my usual 10 cups of coffee so hopefully I can memorize my lines really fast, and if I have the time, I sit in the car and try to memorize anything I'm not too sure of yet. Once I get to the set, we knock it out really fast.” Michael goes on to say, “It's a very efficient operation, like a refined machine. I love doing soaps, you have to show up knowing your stuff or you're in trouble, so it gives me a motivation to get my lines memorized quickly. Usually, we break the day up into two halves, and take a break in-between. Everybody likes to say we're there 12 hours a day, but thanks to such a talented crew, we're pretty efficient and can get the episodes knocked out quickly. It's a tough, quick pace, but it is very enjoyable. By the weekend, I'm ready to catch up on sleep and get motivated for Mondays.”

Wanting to tease Mr. Lowry just a little, I asked him to fill us in on behind the scenes action. Fill us in on what you do for fun, I asked.  “Oh, you're going to get me in trouble!” Michael laughed. “Actually, we do kid around on the set, but when you consider the amount of dedicated time we put into making the scenes just right, the stress levels of repeating dialogue to get it correct, and the fast pace of shooting, we need to kid around once in a while to relieve that stress. The best part of the year, for me, is Christmas and we all get to see the out-takes, you know, the stuff that doesn't make it on tape and isn't for public viewing? We all get a kick out of watching it; we play around with the characters and enjoy kidding with each other. I’m new to this show, but it's a real tight group and there is quite a lot of humor I'm missing because I'm not part of the boat yet, but we all laugh at ourselves from time to time. You have to have a good time, or you end up fretting too much.”

Considering Michael's new part is that of Les Sweeney with his first appearances in April, I asked him to tell us a little about that role and what to expect.  “Ah, LES. Les and Julia's relationship and background was never really played out, just talked about. He's been referred to now that she's gone. Julia and Les were a troublesome couple, Les an angry guy who blamed everyone but himself for his problems and Julia the typically abused woman who takes it and blames herself. Les comes to town trying to get his son back after Julia's murder, but they don't want to give him the boy. He comes to town fighting to get his boy back.”  

So what can we look to see from Les, I questioned Michael. “The problem here is that nothing is clean cut with Les. He's coming back to get his boy, but he's a bit of a weasel. He's always on the defense even though he's a reformed alcoholic and former drug addict. He's got some serious issues with anger and some addictive personalities even though he does love his boy. He takes it extremely personal and wants to inflict as much pain as possible on anyone trying to get in his way. Of course, most everyone in Oakdale is like that!” Michael says as he laughs. He goes on to explain that Les comes to town and gets put in jail for beating someone up for a few days. “A lot of my anger on 'As The World Turns' comes from being repressed on 'All My Children', Michael chuckles. “I didn't get too get angry with that part; I was basically a nice person!”

Questioning Michael about how long he was going to be on this part, he basically said it was up to the viewers and the writers, and hoped that viewers would write in and support keeping a 'bad guy' on the show and support him. Turning to another project of his, I asked Michael about his upcoming appearances in UPN's “Bad Girl's Guide”, starring Jenny McCartney.  “This role was pure enjoyment for me. It was very exciting, that's for sure. It's basically about women being primadonnas and it's a comedy. It starts in April, they shot 6 shows and I was in 1. I wasn't available for many more as of yet, I was still shooting 'As The World Turns'. It's supposed to be a great show, very funny, I hope it does well. I had the distinction of being able to suck on Jenny McCartney's toes. Talk about a fantasy!”

Now why could I just see Michael beaming clear through the phone lines? And why did my left foot suddenly look up at me and whine “you never take us ANYWHERE!” with a very jealous look?

At least Mr. Lowry does enjoy his work. Judging from his talent, he has every right to.

Looking forward to seeing more, Michael!

SoaptownUSA would sincerely like to thank Michael Lowry

for taking the time to chat with us.