Galen Gering on Rafe, and Rafe2
The DiMeras are always up to something … nasty? Underhanded? Illegal? You can count on them for that, but you can also count on them for always putting family first. EJ wants to put his family first and for him that means his children, Johnny and Sydney. And he wants Rafe out of their lives. So he and his father Stefano came up with an ingenious plan to get rid of Rafe: they created his doppelganger and replaced the real Rafe with someone we're calling "Rafe2." They were helped in their devious little plan by Sami herself. She raced angrily out of the house and sped away in her car; Rafe followed and was in an accident. He ended up in the hospital where, presto-change-o, those dastardly DiMeras replaced the real Rafe with their own little creation.
How did the DiMeras find this guy who became Rafe2? "He was just kind of a petty thief who responded to an ad for a reality show," Galen informed us. "It turned out it was the DiMeras and they cast him, but obviously it was a whole other thing.
"My back story is the guy had a really troubled childhood," Galen continued regarding where this petty thief came from. "His dad wasn't around, first of all, and his mom was always berating him. He doesn't have a lot of self- confidence. He just sort of berates everyone else to make himself feel better. And he doesn't deal with pressure situations very well."
Hm. He doesn't deal with pressure situations well. That doesn't sound like it would make him a good candidate for impersonating someone, but that's the situation 'Rafe2' finds himself in. But he's trying to get himself out, in a sense. "Also, he doesn't have a filter," Galen continued in reference to his new character. "In the beginning he sort of did, because he had to keep this character thing going. Now he just wants to get the hell out of there anyway. So he's really trying to be as offensive as possible, to everyone. And it's frigging hilarious right now! It's so fun!"
Fun, and a decidedly different character than ones Galen has played before. His characters are the ones "who stand up for everything that's right and morally upstanding and lovey-dovey and heroic and compassionate. And that's great, but it's so fun to be the total opposite in this huge departure… To see everyone else's face? Some of the time, doing scenes with Sami, I'll do stuff that I don't even know I'm going to do, and see her just freak out! She gets so pissed off. It's a gift!"
This is a great back story, and Galen is clearly having fun playing it, but where did he come up with it? Actors are often given direction in situations like this from writers and producers, and Galen went to meet with Days' producer, Gary Tomlin. "I went to meet with him, went to seek this infinite wisdom that I know he has, and he looked me in the eye and said 'it's a clean slate. You can do whatever you want, pretty much.' I was so terrified by that!" Galen finished with a laugh. "As an actor," he continued, "you want guidance, you want someone to tell you what to do and then you take it from there. I thought about all of these different things. I thought about doing an English accent because I thought that would piss off James and be hilarious. I thought about doing a real Midwestern guy. I thought about doing an East Coast thing. And my back story for this guy is that he was between New York/ Boston and New Mexico. So he's kind of like a hybrid of those three places. Certainly, he has been in cities and exposed to a lot bigger things than they have to offer to a certain degree in Salem. So he totally looks down on the town and the people because they're schm*cks and they don't really know anything. You know what I mean? It gives him this really cocky world view. It's so full of crap, but so fun!"
If actors don't receive direction from the producers, they often base their characters on someone else, perhaps someone from their own lives and Galen is no different. "There was a guy when I was in junior high school who was really a lot of fun and hung out with us," Galen told us. "I didn't really know him that well. He was just a fun guy. He then got into dealing acid and crystal meth, which just came out at that time. He got all jacked up on crystal meth and he ended up killing somebody. He was really good because I knew this guy was going to be this kind of light guy and a lot of fun, and then he went to this really dark place, what this guy had to do. It helped me ground him and make him real and make it acceptable that this guy could have a great time, and at the same time, have this really dark side. It would come cropping up when the sanctity of his world is threatened. It made sense. It totally helped me figure out the guy. He still grows with me. It's only been a few months and it was only like a week that I got to think about it and get scripts and figure it out. Certainly, he's become a little more dangerous than I originally anticipated but it all works with the original game plan."
'Rafe2' has a dark and a light side and other dualities, and "he does not think about the consequences of his actions," Galen added. "He just does his thing and then whenever he has to get a game plan he kind of figures it out. He's kind of crafty. He's done some stuff that's pretty smart and on the other hand he's done some stuff that's really stupid. But I really wanted that side of him. I really wanted the 'dumb' side to him, and then the dangerous side. I thought they kind of went hand-in-hand. And I wanted him to be really fun to play. And that really kind of comes with that light, dumb side."
It sounds like Galen is having a great time, and we're enjoying watching him, but is there any part of this situation that he doesn't like? "I feel that when I play him, for the most part I go to this other planet," Galen confessed. "Then I'm so in this different zone. Whereas with Rafe, I don't know, he's a little closer to me. It's just different in the way I feel when I play this guy. He's a bigger character, so it's a bigger step, so it's a bigger step out. It's often uncomfortable, but I don't know that because I'm this guy. It was really a shock to me to see it on TV because I picture him totally different. But he looks like me. Right? But I'd totally pictured him different. It shocked me. It was weird. If that makes sense. It was just a weird shock that I totally didn't anticipate, as an actor."
Of course, Galen might be loving playing this character, but, in the end, there will be some fall-out when the real Rafe returns. "I foresaw that Ali, for obvious reasons, was going to have a difficult time with this character because of what he's doing to her," Galen confirmed. "And who he is. And the fact that this whole time she doesn't know and has to basically be abused physically, emotionally … It's hard, as an actress or an actor, to be put in that position day in and day out. I apologized to her profusely in the beginning of the storyline. I'll honestly say that she's been a trooper. She's been great. There are times when I know she definitely wants to punch me in the throat, as she would say! But it's good. I think ultimately the audience really wants to see her character go through this struggle. That's one of the interesting things. There are some scenes when she just did this amazing job. That's when it all made sense to me. Of course! It's the struggle of her character and what her character is going through because of this a-hole that makes it so interesting.
"I think it's going to be very, very romantic and a really wonderful pay-off when Sami and Rafe ultimately reunite," Galen continued. "Obviously, there are going to be some troubles down the road with regards to how they deal with the horribleness of what's gone on. The undercarriage of this whole thing is really pretty nasty. They'll get into that and I think that's also going to make for compelling television. It's so personal and so intimate for these characters about how they'll deal with it. How does this guy not kill EJ? Or want to? When he gets back, mentally to where he puts everything together, I think it's going to be a trip. It'll be wild. And obviously them just dealing with what happened to her in this relationship with the other guy. You know? Did she like it? How did she not know? All of these questions that I think are a natural part of the mind, to come in there, to creep in there, that you don't necessarily want in there, but are a natural part of who we are. But before that happens, when they figure out that they're back together, it's going to be really special. Obviously those two have a special thing. And I look forward to that, also."
We may be enjoying 'Rafe2' but we're looking forward to that romantic reunion, too. We can't wait!
www.sonypictures.com/tv/shows/daysofourlives/specials/interviews_detail_5047.htmlCourtesy of Daytime Royalty
