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The Man Behind the Mystery
Although his AMC character has secrets to burn, Michael Nader has nothing to hide (SOW 11/26/91)

"What's a nice prime time kinda guy like Michael Nader going in a place like Pine Valley? According to Nader, All My Children's darkly brooding mystery man, Dimitri, he's doing what any intelligent actor would be doing given the chance: working. In a profession that is precarious at its best- a business where box-office returns and ratings are the final arbiter of talent- Nader has been supporting himself very well, thank you, for many years.

Best known to the public for his role as Dynasty's Dex Dexter, which he played from 1983 to 1989, Nader has none of the elitist notions you might expect from someone who has successfully reached the promised land of nighttime tv and, to a lesser degree, films. His high-profile primetime presence has brought a flush of excitement to daytime's cheek- there's nothing like a little geniune Hollywood glamour to stir the blood. But Nader, a practical man, in no way feels that returning to soaps (he played As the World Turns' Kevin Thompson from 1976-78) is a backwards move in that sometimes illogical chess game called a career.

'The fact of the matter is we're in a different era,' Nader says in a muffled gravel. 'And if you look at the cutbacks in Hollywood, being on a soap is not of any less or more value than being in any other medium at this time. The more you're out there, the more those people who judge your work have the opportunity to see it. I have no fear that when I get back to the [west] coast I'll have any trouble opening those doors,' he says confidently. 'Since I've been doing Dynasty there's been no lack of work; I've gone from one project to another (among them, he starred opposite Susan Lucci in Lady Mobster in 1989 and recently completed a role in the new Kim Basinger/Richard Gere film, Final Analysis). I put food on the table; I show up and I do what I do well. People don't know how lucky you are just to be working.'

Not to mention how lucky one is to be paid handsomely to be working. Although no figure has been quoted, Nader is reported making a nice piece of change for his sojourn in Pine Valley. There were, however, considerations other than monetary that also figured prominently in his decision to accept AMC's offer.

'My fiancee, Beth Windsor, had literally just worked into being bicoastal. She has an apartment here and I had been seeking out some theater here in New York and would have been spending time both here and there (L.A.). So after we made the decision to go ahead with that game plan, this offer (Dimitri) came on the table and when we worked out all the figures, moneywise it was a great opportunity. So yes, it's money and it's business. But the big thing in coming to work here is respect.' Nader explains further, 'The reality of what it takes to put on a show like this every day always catches me by surprise... what it takes behind the scenes for us to get in front of the camera... it's just so awesome. So, coming to this show and seeing the writing power and the producer's power and the technical power and the actors' stamina, I've gained a new respect. And here I am in the middle of that reality and it's a tough arena to function in,' Nader admits.

It's true, of course, that soap work tests the mettle of any actor, but Nader's experience had been a bit out of the norm in any case. By the time the deal was struck, the show had been shooting around Nader's character, Dimitri Marick, for nearly two weeks. In fact, the man worked so hard the first few weeks on the show that he almost didn't survive. He laughs, and attempts to piece together the previous month.

'I think what happened,' Nader recalls, 'is they had a certain perception of this character and had a lot of trouble finding what they were looking for. I think the idea of contacting me came into the picture later in the interplay.' Agnes Nixon, AMC's creator and head writer, backs up this senario. 'I had conceived the character of Dimitri before we ever knew Michael was available,' she says. 'But I jumped up and down with joy when I found out he was. We had auditioned with a number of people and then suddenly there was some investigation of it (hiring Nader)...At first, it didn't seem possible and then it was... well, it was just ideal. He's so good,' she says, 'so professional. He's just a joy.'

Nader continues, 'By the time we had resolved som of the terms, they were really against the wall in terms of back story. By the time I got there, I had no idea I had the amount of backlog I had to make up. No one informed me. In retrospect, I should have just slept on the set,' he recalls, 'because it was like 60 or 70 pages a day! I'd get there at 7:30 in the morning and I'd get out at 11:30 at night. That went on for a solid two weeks. Then it tapered off into... we're shooting three shows a day. I think in 10 days I shot 16 shows.'

It is a tribute to Nader's talent and professionalism that the audience had no idea what the actor was going through. He seldom went up on his lines, and those early scenes were exciting and convincing. But the actor confides he experienced a few really bad moments. 'At one point I was doing a scene and the red light came on the camera and all of a sudden I just said, "Oh, my God!" I leaned over and kind of dropped my head to the floor and moaned, "I can't do this! You've got the wrong guy. Send me home." Unbeknownst to me, of course, I was doing a hell of a job with the amount of material I was getting. I just thought that if it wasn't absolutely perfect I would slit my wrists. You know, when you're juggling so much you want it all to work.'

There was another problem the audience was ignorant of, though sharp-eyed viewers might have noticed the results. 'They had devised this sort of "tapestry" layered look for Dimitri and it was like doing scenes inside a sauna. And I finally said, 'Please. A layer or two must be removed if you're to have anything left of me. I'm turning into Jack and the Beanstalk,' he laughs. But the 12 or so pounds he lost in less than two weeks wasn't much of a laughing matter. Nader says he got through it without "schizing out" because everyone there was so tremendously supportive, bringing in special macrobiotic meals (he's a vegetarian) and having a private secretary take 20 scripts and edit them down and arrange them for him so he'd have a through line of his scenes.

'We were shooting out of sequence,' he explains, '16 different scripts at different points in time. So with that through line I'd at least know that a certain place in the story, for instance, my obsession was starting to grow. I'd find this out right before we were going to shoot the scene. So my way of working was to title the scene with the main action like, 'You're going to be mine tonight.' He laughs good naturedly. 'And that was the first two weeks under fire. Then it lightened up to maybe 40 pages a day of dialogue.'

Nader admits that, not surprisingly, this is the hardest work he's ever done. 'I've done some shoots that were very difficult,' he recalls, 'but you know there's an end, that in 20 or 30 days it'll be over. I was shooting a movie-of-the-week, which then became the series The Flash, and at the same time I was shooting the six-hour miniseries Lucky. There were a couple of nights where I worked al night on The Flash, then a car would pick me up at 5:30 am and at 6:30 I'd be in makeup for Lucky. But it was only an overlap of about seven days and the jobs were too good to turn down.'

He says the experience of working on two roles simultaneously gives him a little insight into what his co-star Kate Collins (Natalie/Janet/Janet playing Natalie) goes through almost every day. 'I'm amazed at watching her,' he says. 'She's playing three people constantly; it amazes me the kind of workload she's under. 'I keep thinking, "God, am I lucky there aren't three of me on this show." She's just remarkable.'

Collins returns the compliment. 'I love working with him. He's the total professional,' she says. 'He's an actor's actor. By that I mean simple things; He turns you into your light, he turns you into your shot, he gets out of your way and at the same time is able to stay in the scene. So he does the acting work and the technical work simultaneously, and does it very, very graciously.' When told that Nader can't believe she does what she does, Collins laughs, 'Well, he's so funny because he does it himself. I really didn't expect to encounter someone so flexible and eager to learn. I don't know how we made it through the first two or three weeks,' she recalls. 'It staggers me what he went through. But we're beginning to relax now and we laugh a lot! Once we get started, forget it.' And he's not so hard on the eyes either. Collins smiles, 'Gee, I know him a little better than people who watch the show so I think he's adorable as opposed to drop-dead gorgeous. But, of course, he's that too. I just think he has this charming little imp who lives inside him.'

Drop-dead gorgeous, adorable or secretly impish, Nader has been pleasing audiences- especially the female members- since the early '60s, when he was plucked off his surfboard to appear in those now-famous beach party movies with Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon. It seemed a natural segue to join the TV series Gidget, starring Sally Field, as a semiregular. Although acting was not a conscious choice, he was definately drawn to the profession. 'I remember at about age 14,' he says, 'finding myself alone in movie theaters lost in the foreign films of directors like Godard, Bunuel, Bergman. When I got to high school, that's what I did. They guys would say, "Let's go play football! and I'd say, "Nah, I want to go to the movies!" My sport of choice then was surfing, and through this guy I knew I was cast in those beach party films; that was my introduction to acting.' He took a class in L.A., and remembers some of the other actors in the class: Jack Nicholson, Teri Garr, Dennis Hopper and Lesley Ann Warren. Not bad company, and pretty heady stuff for a green 16-year-old. 'They were all in their 20s and really rebels,' Nader recalls.

Because he decided he was serious about a career, and was especially drawn to the theater, Nader moved to New York to study with the best, including the The Actors' Studio and the Herbert Berghof Studios. He appeared in several off and off-off Broadway shows while supporting himself as a successful model. Returning to L.A. in 1983, Nader was cast in the NBC series Bare Essence. He appeared in episodic TV and on stage, including a major role in the West Coast premiere of one of Tennessee Williams' last plays, Vieux Carre. But it was in November 1983 that Nader finally captured the brass ring, when he was cast as Dynasty's Farnsworth "Dex" Dexter.

'The thing about Dex that was so great is that I came on when Dynasty hadn't peaked yet and I became a central part of that "peaking", he says. 'They tried a lot of guys with Joan (Collins, who played dragon lady Alexis Colby) and they hadn't worked, and I came on and obviously it did work. It was great to be a part of that genre of a nighttime melodrama. It was the first show that really crossed over to all segments of society. You had the poor, you had the gay population, the Bible Belt, the Wall Street executive all going on at the same time. It was very glitzy. It was great fun and I lucked out.' He explains, 'I had a character who walked on the edge in terms of that show. John James (Jeff Colby) played the "aw, shucks" nice guy, and I played the guy who was on the edge, who would take care of business and not take any bull. Dimitri is sort of a darker Dex. Though I don't know exactly how dark to make him yet,' he says, laughing. 'The truth of the matter is they do not tell you anything on daytime!'

Well, with or without much information, Nader has made Dimitri a mysterious and moodily romantic hero, a man viewers are finding irresistable. Nader makes it look easy, but he insists it's all an illusion, that acting doesn't come easily to him. 'I sometimes get tired of what I do to myself, but I don't mind that critic in myself.' He envies the ease with which some actors, like co-worker Scott Thompson-Baker (Craig) handle the work. 'I watch Scott and there's a kind of Gary Cooper-like easiness about him and I can't help but wish I had some of that.' Nader is definately his own toughest critic; he never seems to let up on himself, which is evidenced by what he considers his best and worst traits.

He believes his best quality is 'literally, constantly busting my own behavior, which, I guess, is a strange thing to say in terms of a best quality. I find in my life that basically, when I'm wrong I want to make amends. Right now that's the handle by which I gauge my ability to stay in the moment, as a man.'

As to his worst trait, 'Pulling back from life, isolating myself,' he explains. 'There's a tendancy in me to be a loner. There always has been. I think it's a universal trait based on the way most of us are brought up in these "slightly dysfunctional settings" that we find ourselves in. I get beyond that by definate action. I work with addicted young people (he also works for environmental causes); I do a lot of philosophical self-study, things that whet my appetite and keep me out of the obsession of self,' he says. What a refreshing point of view, especially for an actor. Nader agrees that actors tend towards self-absorption. 'As an actor you can end up spending all your time schmoozing about yourself, me, and I! It's a selfish world.'

Nader may be an admitted loner, but there are a couple of people he wouldn't chose to live without. He and his fiancee have been together for more than a year. 'The moment I saw Beth..' he recalls, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. 'We met at a friend's birthday party. She was leaning against a wall and the moment I sawy her I thought, 'My, God, look at that attitude! This one is definately checking out the parameters of this experience.' I went up to her and we spoke for a very short time. Then she just bolted, left. And I hunted her down, got her number and called her. I said, 'You got away once, but I think we should get to know each other.' We had dinner and both agreed that was the best course of action. She's an incredibly vivacious, spunky, mischievous, brillant woman.' When we remark that this sounds like love, he doesn't disagree and adds cryptically, but with good nature, 'We're a match made in... comis hell.'

But there's another woman in Nader's life- daughter Lindsay, who lives on the West Coast with his ex-wife. 'Lindsay is in her seventh year on this planet,' he says, radiating paternal pride. 'We see each other regularly, though it's a little harder now that I'm in New York. But she'll be coming to visit me.' Lindsay, like most children of actors, knows she must share her dad with others to some degree. 'She knows that Daddy is an actor,' Nader says, 'and that he gets recognized on the street a lot. She understands that people knkow who Daddy is.' With Nader's looks, talent, intelligence and incredible work ethic, that isn't likely to change, although Nader doesn't believe he really owes his personal life to his pulic. He answers his fan mail when he can find the time because 'it's a nice thing to do and I appreciate that they took the time to write.'

'I'm obligated to do my work and do it well. Otherwise my life is totally my own. Once in a while, suddenly you remember- when they remember- who you are. Then you think, "Do I look ok? Oh, gosh... Oh, shut up, Mike!" On a good day, it's very complimentary. On a bad day, it's like,' he laughs and makes his voice very small, 'Let me out of here. I don't really want to be bothered. I'm not up to this.'"