On October 3, he is looking forward to being a part of the Star Image Entertainment event, which raises funds for the Cedars CanSupport, which helps cancer patients and their families. “Cancer is one of those things that affects everybody. In every family, everybody knows of a cancer story. We are happy to chip in any way we can to raise awareness. It is definitely worth it,” he said. “My father has leukemia and he has been battling it for 20 years now. He keeps going through all these treatments. To be a part of this cause is really special.”
At this Days of Our Lives fan event in Montreal, he will be joined by such fellow actors as Kyle Lowder and Jay Kenneth Johnson.
He is drawn to his character Lucas especially since “he usually gets the funny lines that the audience is thinking.” “Lucas tends to be the audience’s voice and the voice of reason. Also, Lucas asks a lot of questions, and it is fun doing that. Once I had 23 questions in a span of four to five scenes,” he said.
“I never thought I would be playing Lucas for this long,” he added.
When he first started on the show, in 1993, he acknowledged that being dialogue-heavy was quite a challenge for him. “I grew up in special education classes so school was very challenging. Then, when I got into acting, I didn’t realize how much you had to study and prepare,” he said. “When I worked with Deborah Adair, who played my mom, for a couple of months, she taught me some tricks and transitions and I just got good at it. My short-term memory improved.”
“It’s all about what’s under the lines, not the lines themselves. The more I concentrated on the motivation for the lines, and then the lines fell into place. Then, I also got really good at it. Now, I can memorize 80 pages in one day if I had to. I’ve done that before,” he explained.
On being an actor in the digital age, Dattilo said, “Although the digital age is tough, I can self-tape my auditions at home.”
For young and aspiring actors, he said, “Get used to being rejected. You are going to fail nine out of 10 times. You need to be strong in who you are because nobody else can be who you are. If you stick to your true personality, you realize that people will come to you. Don’t change who you are when you are acting. Just plug parts of yourself into different characters.”
Regarding the title of the current chapter of his life, he said, “The gray is coming in.”
If he weren’t in acting and entertainment, he shared that he would be a “construction worker” as his alternate career choice.
For his dedicated fans and followers, he concluded, “Quite honestly, the fans have been the best part of my job. Although it’s a great job to have, the fans make it truly rewarding. Their loyalty to me makes me feel loyal to them. I will always be a fan of the show as well.”
To learn more about actor Bryan Dattilo, follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.
