«I remain faithful to Santa Barbara !»
By Isabelle Caron, Télé 7 Jours, 1990	Home   Cette page en Français

Do not believe that a role-star in Santa Barbara does not bring back money ! On the contrary. However A Martinez, the beautiful, the seductive Cruz, currently lives in a caravan with wife and children. Yes but, on the ground of Malibu, where it is installed, comes out of ground an immense villa of star. By modifying the plans and adding a room by here, a wall by there, the house does not finish to be finished. "We are impatient to move in, and we are a little cramped for room in the caravan, but that links us still more !"

A Martinez is certainly one of the happiest actors of Santa Barbara. He does not have states of mind like someones who regularly announce that they will leave the show : "I remain faithful to Santa Barbara. When it was announced that I was to leave Santa Barbara, I received many letters, even from France. That determined me to remain still a long time. It would not be honest from my part to suddenly disavow a role which brought so much to me. With my partners, we form a real family. One hears unceasingly speaking about quarrels, jealousies, the size of the names of the actors in the credits of TV shows and TV movies. Nothing of that in Santa Barbara. I arrive each day at the studio with the same enthusiasm. I deliver my opinion to the producers and to the writers, and they hold account of it. What can I ask moreover ?"

Three weeks of holidays, from time to time, without obstructing the good functioning of the shootings which allow Cruz to be devoted to other roles : "I had the luck to play in the film She-Devil with Meryl Streep and Roseanne Barr. One realized that I was a complete actor and that allowed me to be hired in several TV movies. The network NBC which airs Santa Barbara in the United States has just signed with me a contract for a pilot which could become a TV show of prime time - the hour of the big ratings after the TV news, therefore the most required, but this kind of test is very frequent here, and often without a future. I thus forget to be pretentious and I place Santa Barbara in priority."

Contrary to so much actors of soaps who shoot in bad harmony, A Martinez has the luck to be able to regard Marcy Walker as his best friend : "We are very close without any ambiguity in our relations. We receive the one and the other a lot and Leslie, my wife, often does shopping with Marcy. Our children also start to be friends. I have also a lot of friendship for Stephen, the husband of Marcy." The truth is always what it was on the stage of Santa Barbara. One could believe being in psychodramas, in live from the famous Actor's studio, which formed in particular Marlon Brando : "That can appear incredible, but when, in the show, Cruz could not console hilmself from the disappearance of Eden who he believed dead, Marcy decided to not speak to me during a few weeks. We even avoided ourselves in the studio. As I really missed her, I could play with even more sincerity the scenes of her absence. I felt a true sorrow. Sometimes I did not sleep because of it of all the night !"

Marcy Walker repeats it without stop. She cannot imagine Santa Barbara without A Martinez, not more than the faithful ones of this show could conceive that Cruz and Eden separate, unless it would only be a momentary adventure of the scenario. In any case, A Martinez would not like it : "I would be too afraid that that carries me misfortune ! However I am not superstitious !"

A Martinez has never be so cheerful since he met Leslie and than they had two children : their daughter, Devon Makena, who will be 2 years old on June 7 and their son, Dakota Lee, known as Cody, who will be 5 years old, on July 25 : "They bring purity, innocence and especially serenity to me. When I am with them and that we look at the stars, I forget everything, even Santa Barbara. I try to give them the education that myself I have received from my parents : a great freedom but by making them understand that that does not mean to let it go and that it is often more difficult to assume ones freedom than its opposite. I worry also a lot with the problems of environment. I would not like that they have to walk on a dirty planet... It is a cause for which I am ready to fight me very hard."