| Pierce's revenge consists of a sexual harrassment suit he just waged and won against the usually beleaguered Monica (not exactly what she needs after recently battling breast cancer). The exact sexual nature of their relationship aroused enough speculation in Port Charles to reduce the flinty Monica to breathy sentence fragments. "Pierce likes control," was about all she could say to attorney Alexis Davis. Watkins, with his penchant for wry understatement, refrains from further description. "I wouldn't call them unusual sexual practices," he says. "I would just call Dorman adventurous."
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| Watkins claims he has no idea why he gets cast in these nasty roles, since he comes across as a genial sort and good friend, the kind who will drop over at a friend's house and paint his dining room. "I don't think I'm so much cast in these kind of roles as this just happens to be the second role like this that I've done that I've gotten the most publicity for," he says. "But I guess everyone in the soap kingdom sees me as a toad. I'm supposed to be this prince, but I come across as a real toad." But he'd rather be a toad than a dull prince. "We become actors because we want to play these fun parts that aren't really like us. "I was always bored playing the nice guy or the boyfriend or the frat guy, because those were always stock, ordinary, uninteresting characters. But when you get to play a neurosurgeon who's suing a woman for sexual harrassment, that's fun."
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| His time on "OLTL" may have given him the edge he needed to win the role. "I drew from a lot of people I worked with in New York," he chuckles. |
| Watkins lives in the Hollywood Hills with his dog, a Border collie named Blue, but travels often to visit his family in Kansas City, or his sister...in New York. In Los Angeles, he maintains a "core group of friends" who seem to "congregate" at his house. For fun, they play games like "charades and stuff," he explains. "Board games get a little boring. What I really want is to have a big back yard and have all my friends over to play capture the flag." For those unfamiliar with capture the flag, Watkins says, "It's basically hide-and-seek, but you can capture people. It's basically a friendly war game. I'm attempting to never leave my childhood as an adult. As an actor you can get away with that. As a lawyer, you might say, 'I don't want that guy representing me.'"
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| Despite all this socializing, Watkins remains single. "Flying solo" is how he puts it, pronouncing the adjective as two words, "so low." People who use the Internet to follow the activities of soap actors were apparently fascinated by Watkins' social life when he lived in New York, something he finds disturbing. "I've got a feeling they don't say nice things, so I don't want to hear about it," he says. "We have tabloid TV shows that encourage that but I don't know anything about it, and I don't pay attention to it. I don't think people sit in judgment. If they like your acting, like what you do, then they watch you."
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| When he's flying solo, Tuc says that's a good time for him "to get some ambition and put together a project." He's written part of a play and retains a fascination with the independent film market, responsible for four out of five of this year's Academy Award nominees for Best Picture. One of his favorite actors is indy favorite Steve Buscemi, of "Fargo" fame. Soap fans may say, "Steve who?" but Watkins thinks that Buscemi has the perfect career. He's one of those actors I always thought was great because he's had a long, prolific career but he isn't necessarily a star," he says. "Because you don't get pigeonholed; you don't get typecast. It takes real management, and what I'd like to be doing is to be sure to take the right projects. Because you could get cast on 'Gilligan's Island,' and all of a sudden you're the Professor for the rest of your life. I'm not in any hurry to be on the next Aaron Spelling show."
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| Followers of "Melrose Place" and "Sunset Beach" may be shocked, since Watkins has the right genetic equipment to step into one of those pre-fab casts, however, right now he has other goals. "I didn't become an actor to become rich and famous, but if that comes along with it, so be it. At this point, I am still more interested in taking on interesting projects. I try not to look at the dollar amount that comes with the project."
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| Even with his cheerful, independent outlook, there are things Watkins worries about. "My greatest fear is getting to the end of my life and looking back and wishing that I had taken a turn in the road that I didn't take," he says. "So far, I've done a pretty good job of taking the turns where I should have made the turns. Rather than flipping out at age 30, what's important just became a little clearer. Basically, be happy, be at peace, and be nice to people. Pet your dog and the people you love."
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