When I was getting a photo of the guest star this week, David Dean Bottrell (Al), I noticed that an interview had been posted with him. He's doing 6 episodes as Al. And with Al listed in the 4/18/11 sneak peek script, that means it looks like they will only be featuring the real Rafe around once a week for the next 6 weeks.
Here's the "Days"-related portion of the interview from
www.edgeftlauderdale.com/index.php?ch=entertainment&sc=television&sc2=features&sc3=&id=117659To hear actor/writer/acting coach David Dean Bottrell tell it, he is generally known for either playing funny characters or psychotics. But fans can currently see our actor channeling a heavily dramatic monologue by none other than Meryl Streep in the latest run of Streep Tease, which is back and currently selling out to crowds at the Bang Theater in Los Angeles. While Bottrell continues his phenomenal rendition of Streep’s heartfelt monologue from Out Of Africa (truly one of the highlights from the show), there are changes this time around with some new performers and monologues for audiences to enjoy repeatedly.
If you missed last year’s hugely successful first run of the show, which was created by stand-up comedian/actor Roy Cruz, the blend of comedic and dramatic scenes from Meryl Streep movies like The River Wild and Mamma Mia are all performed by men. However, as Bottrell points out, these monologues are not making fun of but, instead, paying tribute to arguably the greatest actress of our time.
Besides Streep Tease, Bottrell is also beginning a stint this week (March 23rd is his first airdate) on NBC’s daytime serial Days Of Our Lives as Al, an evil nurse in a mental hospital. For fans of Bottrell, who are well aware of his recurring role on the hit prime time series Boston Legal, seeing him tackle the wacky world of the fictional town of Salem (and hunky Days star Galen Gering), the episodes are sure to be must-see!
EDGE: How did the Days Of Our Lives role come about?
David Dean Bottrell:: I got a call from the casting director, Marnie Saitta, and she asked me to come in and read for this relatively small role, which I did, and she said ’I want to save you for something better,’ which I thought was very flattering but sometimes casting directors say that to you and you’ll never hear from them again but luckily Marnie was a woman of her word and probably 2 weeks later I was brought back to read for a bigger role.
The beauty of it is the role wasn’t written for someone like me. It was written for a tough guy and it was Marnie who championed me to the producers and said ’What if we went in a different way. We went with someone who was very character-y and could be sinister?’ So, I came back in, I tested for the role and I got it. So, I did six episodes of Days Of Our Lives playing Al, the evil psychiatric nurse. Sort of a male Nurse Ratchett, for sure.
EDGE: So what can you tell me about the story? I know you are involved with Rafe (Galen Gering), who has been imprisoned by the evil Stefano (Joseph Mascolo)
David Dean Bottrell:: Stefano essentially has hired my cohorts and me to keep Rafe prisoner in this secret mental institution. So that’s where I came into the plot. We’re keeping him under wraps but he, of course, has amnesia and doesn’t know who he is so that complicates things.
EDGE: When you go into a job like this and you’ve done a lot of prime time and stage and a lot of different things, how do you adjust your acting style? Days can be very melodramatic in the traditional soap genre but then also go off into the wacky, which it sounds like maybe this is.
David Dean Bottrell:: When I got the job, the casting director said ’You know this is a one-take show, right?’ I thought she couldn’t be serious but it’s really one-take, which was a little scary going into it. I came from theater where there was a lot of wonderful rehearsal and you had weeks and weeks to work things out. And then on Boston Legal where you have at least a few days to work things out but this was a lot like live TV. You had four cameras on you, you had one rehearsal, one shot and unless something fell over they were good with it. It’s super fast but I will say once I got used to it, I loved it!
EDGE: I know you’re on for six episodes, is the door open for you to come back?
David Dean Bottrell:: Every script that I shot, the door was always left open at the end of every scene. Anything could happen. So, I guess it’s possible if America demanded that Al the Evil Nurse came back, the door is open
Courtesy of Daytime Royalty
I guess that's an accurate description of this storyline. This IS Stefano after all.