Casey Deidrick on the Newest DiMera
When the character Chad first arrived on the scene in Salem, he was a troubled young rich boy, father to Mia's baby, son of the District Attorney. Then his mother became part of the story, and more about Chad's past came out, a lot more. Most of this information was thanks to Kate, who uncovered the fact that his father wasn't the D.A.; his father is, in fact, Stefano DiMera. Kate sent Chad his birth certificate – anonymously – and since then, the young man has slowly come to rather uncertain terms with his family.
Especially initially, Chad was none too happy to learn about his real parentage. He'd grown up, his whole life, with his mother telling him to stay away from the DiMeras, with her warning him about how bad they were. As for Casey, however, as he told us, "Honestly? I wouldn't have it any other way. From my end. I feel so blessed to be a part of this family. I get to work with phenomenal actors every day, along the lines of James Scott and Lauren Koslow and Joe Mascolo and Renee Jones. I get to go to work and be challenged every day by these individuals. It's amazing."
It's also good, for both actor and character, to expand that list of people in Salem with whom you interact. "I'm not just in one small circle anymore," Casey agreed. "I'm kind of branching out. I'm really happy to see my character doing that."
Chad is branching out and we're getting the benefit of seeing two distinctly different sides to his character. When he's working with Lauren Koslow's Kate, as Casey told us, "she brings out a different characteristic in my character that none of the other characters do." We wondered if this might be a more vulnerable side, and Casey told us that this was true, "especially after my character's mom died. I don't have that motherly love in my life that I so desperately need at the moment. Any time someone reaches out to me, I latch on to it, but then I get rid of it as fast as I can. I don't want to get too close to anyone who's going to hurt me in the end."
With Kate, then, Chad gets to be vulnerable. With his father Stefano, not so much. We asked him specifically about the scene when Chad first confronted Stefano to try to learn the truth. He showed up at the DiMera Mansion, dressed in black leather and out for blood. Literally. He wanted a sample of Stefano's blood to prove paternity. "When I read that," Casey enthused, "I was jumping for joy! I was really excited to be able to do that. And I'm really blessed that the writers trust me enough to be able to write something like that for me.
"Lately," he continued about his scenes with Joe Mascolo's Stefano, "it's getting very interesting. We have a few scenes coming up where we do the infamous chess playing, he and I play chess together. From what I've seen and known, he challenges everybody that's important in his life to a chess game. So I'm really looking forward to those scenes coming up. But every day is an interesting day working with Joe."
We can only imagine that it's interesting to work with Joe Mascolo, interesting and perhaps a little challenging. We asked Casey if he'd done anything specific to prepare. "Actually, I watched a few old, old scenes with Joe," Casey confirmed. "And, holy, wow! Those were some pretty epic moments back then! And I was trying to do some research on his past and the children that he does have. Anything, information-wise, I try to get, just to get a little bit more of a broader scope for this character."
Chad went from being pretty much a complete loner – dead mother, father who had abandoned him – to belonging to one of the core families of Salem. Was Casey happy about that? "Absolutely," he confirmed. "The DiMeras are the phoenix of the show. The family is. And especially, I'm really glad that I'm a DiMera and not a Horton, just because I like to play the edgy, misunderstood kind of a characters. I think being a part of this family will definitely provide that."
When Chad first learned his last name should really be DiMera, he was less than thrilled about it. Now, however, he's moving in to the family home. How did this change come about? "It seems like it's pretty much all thanks to Lexie," Casey told us. "She's kind of been my backbone in this whole storyline, kind of convincing Stefano and EJ to give me a chance and to have them open up around me, to make me feel comfortable enough to want to be a part of the family. And with my character not having a family, with my dad kind of abandoning me and my mother dying, I so desperately want to latch on to something and to be a part of something, even though I'm pushing it away. How much I'm pushing it away, deep down it's what I truly want and hope to get. It's fun to kind of go against the grain in a lot of these scenes to where you have to play the part where you don't want it, but you also have to have that underlying layer of actually deep down wanting to be a part of this family. It's been a really great experience, putting myself through that."
Hopefully, being a part of this family and showing the many sides of Chad in his scenes with these new family members will allow fans to see – and want to see – more of him. "Yeah, actually, fans are reacting in a very positive way," Casey told us. "In the beginning, people weren't as invested in me as I would have liked them to be, but it makes more sense now to be invested just because I am part of this family … I definitely am feeling blessed that I can be a part of this and work on the same stage as James and Joe and Lauren. I just kind of sit back sometimes and watch in the scene, just watch these actors work and it kind of blows my mind a little bit to be a part of it. But I really feel so blessed and happy that the fans are reacting in a positive way about this."
We're certainly reacting in a positive way. We're thrilled that Chad belongs somewhere in Salem, especially since that likely means we'll get to see this talented young actor even more.
;-)
Courtesy of
www.daysofourlives.com
