Watkins doesn’t waste much time trying to find the redeeming qualities (if there are any) of his heinous creations, ONE LIFE TO LIVE’s cagey con artist David Vickers and GH’s dastardly doctor Pierce Dorman. In fact, when it comes to his latest villainous alter ego, he’s the first to concede, “Pierce is just your general, all-around bad guy.”

That’s putting it mildly. In recent weeks, the not-so-good doctor has torn Port Charles apart with his drug-dealing, lying under oath and general aura of nastiness. “They’re both pretty bad news,” Watkins says of Vickers and Dorman. “But David was never really a genuine threat to anyone. Pierce, on the other hand, is a much darker character.”

What is Watkins like beneath the bad-guy veneer? Is he as sweet as Dorman is sour? “I’m as evil and nasty as Dorman is!” he jokes, flashing a smile that’s so disarming that Judas could have used it. “Just ask any of my friends and relatives!”

Watkins gets back to his hometown of Mission, Kansas, to visit those same kith and kin “at least a couple of times a year,” he says, adding that growing up in a small town was idyllic. “My sister and I had an amazing childhood — big open spaces, big backyard, everything your American childhood is supposed to be. It was like all the good parts of To Kill A Mockingbird.”

During junior high, Watkins moved to St. Louis, Mo., then moved again to attend Indiana University, where he majored in telecommunications and minored in theater.

“I really always figured I would work somewhere in the entertainment business,” he recalls. “I would have had a double major had I not been so afraid of the sewing machine that they had in the costuming class.”

Now that Watkins has gotten past his wardrobe phobia and established himself as an actor, he has begun participating in projects that allow him to practice his art in areas outside of the daytime arena. For instance, last year, he appeared in an Off-Broadway production of Fortune’s Fools, and he acted in the independent film I Think I Do, due in movie theaters this fall. “Since then," he says, “I’ve been reading a few other scripts because I’d like to do a couple more independent movies in the next year or two.”

Watkins’ interest in the autonomous and the offbeat extends beyond his screen work. He’s one of four founding members of the Los Angeles-based All-You-Can-Eat Players theater company. No ordinary ensemble, the members of this troupe specialize in a type of entertainment not often seen on the L.A. stage: “We do European political satire,” says Watkins. “No one else seemed to want to do it, so there was a niche.”

The dozen All-You-Can-Eat Players focus on producing both theater and short films, repertory-style. Currently, they are in production on their third film, Welcome, about a young couple who are misidentified when they wander into an unfamiliar neighborhood.

Once production on this latest venture wraps, the ensemble will move on to their next project, with the hope of doing two productions a year — plays, films or a combination.

Most actors would feel a little stretched, working in three media at once. Not Watkins. “Each medium is fulfilling in a different way,” says the multi-talented performer. “When you do a play, you get immediate feedback from an audience…kind of an adrenaline thrill that you feel while you’re on-stage.

“With film,” he continues, “you get to start a project, work your way through it, see its conclusion. “In television, you don’t really know what’s going to happen next, then it continues in a series,” he concludes. “I don’t think I’ll ever just stay in one medium.”

As talented as Watkins is, he won’t have to. He’s a long way from Kansas, Toto, and that’s just fine with him. “Up until now, my career has been just about what I wanted it to be,” he says, sounding satisfied. “I’m pretty happy with the path I’m on.”