CHARACTER STUDY:

Actors offer Insight Into Their Alter Egos

- Devin Owens

What do you like most about Michael?

“That he wasn’t written as a single-dimension character. [The writers] layered history so beautifully. When I started playing this kind of off-color character, I played him as a human being who does the right things for the wrong reasons and the wrong things for the right reasons. I loved that people noticed enough for Bill [Bell, then-head writer] to keep me because Michael was not supposed to be a long-term character. And I’ve never played that kind of violent person before or the one with a mental disorder who attacked Christine. I have sisters, so to be violent toward a woman was not the easiest thing for me. I’m the least like my character of anyone.”

What do you like least about your character?

“He can be very cruel. It still kind of exists in Michael’s head that he considers himself the smartest person in a stupid town because intellectually, people do not listen to him. Sometimes he has JA trouble convincing people he’s representing to follow his advice and he’s like, ‘They are just sheep being led to the slaughter.’ He’s not beyond saying, ‘I told you so,’ the last time being the four women [Nikki, Victoria, Phyllis and Sharon] brought up for the murder of J.T. I had a scene where I said, ‘I’m not interested. I was trying to help you and you were doing everything to wreck this.’ ”

What do you consider to be your character’s strength?