Bryan R. Dattilo will look a tad different when he resurfaces as the incarcerated Lucas Horton this week on DAYS. “It was fun to grow my hair out and grow a goatee,” notes the actor. “I got to do that for the prison run. I let go, and whatever hair came out the face, came out the face. Lucas doesn’t look very manicured at all. He’s very hippie.”
Dattilo believes the timing was right for a change. “It was a different look, a different vibe,” he says. “It suits the character, and it marks a new beginning for me. It’s a transition from who Lucas used to be to who he is now, because you can’t go through [a stint in] prison and be the same person.”
Lucas’s look wasn’t the only thing Dattilo was looking to change. “My choice as an actor was to play the character with a different pace and delivery, because he’s been through so much and is kind of gutted,” Dattilo explains. “He has nothing to lose, but has nowhere to go. So it’s kind of a fun change. It’s not the same character anymore. I don’t know, maybe it’s not a good thing, because I haven’t been back [to DAYS] since. I tried to do things I haven’t done before acting wise. Hopefully, it was justified by the circumstances Lucas was going through.”
Although Dattilo’s only back for a short stint — “It’s just a week or two,” he adds — it was filled with “fun new opportunities. When I was there, I loved it. I was like, ‘Sweet.’ It’s a good couple of weeks.”
And Dattilo got to mix it up with some DAYS co-stars he rarely, if ever, got to share the screen with before. “I got to [explore] the whole angle of being in prison with Orpheus,” says Dattilo, who’d never worked with George DelHoyo before. I got to work with a few people I’ve always wanted to work with, like Drake Hogestyn [John] and Stephen Nichols [Steve]. I’d worked with Drake, but not in the same storyline where we’re both kind of on the same [mission]. I hadn’t done that with Stephen either. We became the comedy team of Drake, Stephen and Bryan. I got to be part of the leather jacket crew. That was fun. It was fun cahooting with them and getting back to Lucas being on the inside with information. I loved the new angle on the character and working with different people was awesome.”
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