One-on-One with…DAYS OF OUR LIVES’ heroic Galen Gering

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DAYS OF OUR LIVES' Galen Gering

It was no surprise back in 2008 that upon the cancellation of daytime soap Passions that Days Of Our Lives would bring some of the more talented and popular actors and actresses over to inject some new blood into the fictional town of Salem. One of those actors was tall, dark and handsome actor Galen Gering, who plays Rafe Hernandez and has proven to be one of the most popular characters on the long-running daytime serial. While audiences immediately welcomed Gering into the DOOL fold, it was Gering’s immediate chemistry with Sami Brady (Alison Sweeney) that has cemented his presence on the NBC soap.

I had the chance to sit down with Gering on the NBC lot in Burbank and talk his pre-acting days, the differences between Passions and Days and whether he’d want his own kids to follow in his thespian footsteps.

Gering in his modeling days. Not bad, huh?

Jim Halterman: You started your career fairly young. Though you started modeling, was acting always the goal?

Galen Gering: When I was 17, I got discovered by this talent agent and he thought that I could potentially do certain things. I did some photo shoots and then I got what was called a direct booking for a big campaign in Italy, which shot in Africa. This was at the same time I was actually registered to go to UCLA and I was like “Oh my God, do I go to UCLA or am I going to go to Africa?’ I saw myself riding on this elephant but what turned out happening was it turned out to be North Africa and we had just bombed Tunisia and they hated me. They wanted to kill me and I got surrounded in this Indiana Jones village and I thought I was going to get torn limb by limb. The rest is history but I did end up graduating with a double major in producing and directing film as well as writing.

JH: So, with that writer’s instinct, when you’re reading your Days scripts do you think ‘I want to be on the other side?’

GG: To a certain degree, yeah. Obviously I have a knowledge of it since I studied it in school and when you’re an actor who has worked on a set you inherently get that to a certain degree.

Gering and co-star Alison Sweeney are what you call a Super Couple on DAYS

JH: We all know that soap fans can be very passionate times.

GG: Is that a euphemism for crazy? [laughs]

JH: Maybe a little but what is the strangest thing you’ve received or heard from a fan?

GG: Most of the fans are so cool and we live in the age of Twitter and TMZ, these instantaneous ways that the audience can interact with the actors so you really get exposed to people you normally wouldn’t get exposed to and for the most part I think that’s great. Certainly there are some people who don’t necessarily have a separation between reality and the show and they can be nasty. I’ve had my run-ins with these people and I speak my mind, which can be good and bad. But 99.99% of the fans are incredible. In fact, for my birthday I got a Laker jersey from these fans – a killer one, the full NBA one – and lo and behold a fan sent it to me. How nice and thoughtful! The letters and the sentiment that these people write like ‘You’ve touched my life in ways that nobody has.’ It makes you feel really good to have done so little.

JH: From when you were on Passions to what you’re doing now on Days, what are the differences as an actor?

GG: Some of the fantasy stuff I got to do [on Passions] was so much fun. We did a Hansel and Gretel thing. It was like a professional ice skater with an orangutan spinning around on a turntable. It was hilarious. There were other moments as an actor it was very challenging to try to figure out ‘What the hell am I doing?’ That problem doesn’t really exist here on Days, which is not to say that it’s not as exciting because I’m having a great time. I love my storyline and my character and what I get to do and the people I get to work with. It is very different. Change is good.

Gering's Rafe is one of the most popular characters on DAYS

JH:  When you first were paired with Alison, is that chemistry something you can work at or is it as simple as it’s either there or it’s not?

GG: Chemistry is a really hard thing for me to put a finger on and understand what it really means. Do you just see these two characters together and you think they’re great and there are sparks? I think Alison and I like to work in the same ways. It’s not always really what’s on the page but a lot of times it’s what’s not on the page. There’s a lot of work. I was just working with her on some stuff that we have coming up. That’s a really great thing – I think a lot of times, you get an actor in this business and you go in and your co-star could just give a shit. That’s really hard as an actor but Alison has been tremendous. I’m really happy with how things have gone but it does take a lot of work and she’s been great. I’m glad people have responded positively to a certain degree.

JH:  If you could change anything about your character, what would that be?

GG: I would like to solve more crimes in less amount of time. That would be one thing.

JH:  Soaps still have some taboos like gay storylines. Why do you think daytime is still a little leery about going there when it is a part of our world?

GG: I think for them it’s really all about where a character can go and I don’t know if that’s necessarily with a gay storyline or not. What’s going on right now in my storyline with regards with EJ (played by James Scott). This guy is so evil, how does he redeem himself? They go in one direction so as far as that goes it’s like a gay storyline. Is this character bisexual, homosexual, can you bring a person back? Certainly there are taboos. Is there less now than 10 yrs ago? Of course. Will there be less in 10 yrs? If this genre is around, I certainly hope so. I think if you look at today versus in the 1950s where there were no taboos explored, there are tremendous amounts of shows that focus on that or have that in addition to representing other races, diversity…hopefully it will be embraced more so as time goes on.

Gering with co-star McKenzie Westmore on PASSIONS

JH:  The business is changing and some of the biggest soaps are gone now. How has that effected how you do your job?

GG: The things that are in our control – and when I saw ‘our’ I mean my bosses, the studio, the producers, etc. – we’ve had to take pay cuts as actors. Across the board our show cut 40% and that’s a huge number and we have to do more for less. I think that’s indicative in so many realms whether you’re making cars or soap operas. Hopefully it will go on. The great thing is that our show’s numbers are the only ones in the genre that went up last year so that’s a good thing so we hope to keep that trend coming.

JH:  You’re a Dad. Would you want your kids to be in the business?

GG: It depends. I certainly would encourage them to follow their dreams. I think as a parent that’s an important thing. Some of my friends have grown up in households where they were discouraged to do anything except what they want to do and that’s not the kind of parent that I want to be. I would encourage them, certainly I would hope they get great educations in addition to that so they’re not just out there ‘I want to be an actor because it’s the funnest job ever and my Dad had a great time!’ I want them to be good people and if they want to be in the business, we’ll see.  I’ll hold auditions and see how good they are.

JH:  If you weren’t acting, what would you be doing?

GG: If I wasn’t acting, writing or producing, I love architecture. I love design. Landscape and design and I’ve done that when I was 20. I bought my first place in Miami Beach and started fixing up houses and flipping properties and I still do that. My wife loves it so we do it together. We have some rental properties so that’s what I am doing on the side.

Days Of Our Lives airs Monday through Friday on NBC daytime and repeats nightly on Soapnet. Check local listings for times in your area.

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Tagged as: Allison Sweeney, Days of Our Lives, Galen Gering, Jim Halterman, NBC, Passions