Catching up with Leigh McCloskey
By Travis Kinsey, Soap Opera Weekly, 2002	Home   Cette page en Français

You played two characters on the show with only a six-week break in between. And your first character, Zack, was Eden's gynecologist who also turned out to be her rapist. Creepy.

I was thinking, "This is going to play havoc with a whole lot of young people's brain." I thought it might not be the healthiest thing to put out there, but (people really responded to it). Jill (executive producer Jill Farren Phelps) told me they wanted to me to come on for a short-term character that was going to turn dark. And so wen they made my character the rapist and he started worshipping his sister in the basement, I had so much fun. Jill gave me permission to just go for it. That's probably what I remember the most, when the character went from becoming the rapist to spiraling down into a type of madness that was just very fun to explore. I would get letters as Zack and people would say, "I hate you. I wish you were dead. I hope you stay on the show forever." That's psychology of really hitting a nerve and people wanting you at the same time. The dastardly villain turning his mustache, the audience knows important it is. I learned a lot from that. Then, Jill said, "We want to kill you off, but we want to bring you back, and since we saw you as Zack and what you did when he went crazy, you can do anything. Why don't you come as our district attorney and we won't make you related at all. We'll give you six weeks and then come back." And that's what I did. A lot of people would still refer to Zack or they would ask whether I had something to do with the other character.

What was your relationship with Marcy Walker (Eden Capwell Castillo; now All My Children's Liza) ?

Marcy, I adored. Because I was her doctor we had some nice scenes together. She was a very present actress. Just very enjoyable to move in the scenes. Most of your work was her coming in and it was counseling her. When I did find out my character was the rapist, it textured the scenes even more perversely in a scene.