In Typical Soap Fashion, Satterfield has a Change of Heart
Rewind to August 10, 1999. I wrote an article for Soap Opera Weekly on how some soap stars landed their role on soaps. It was called “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Audition.” Here’s an excerpt on Paul Satterfield, who was then appearing on B&B. Find out how he got there and what he said at that time regarding east coast soaps. Boy how times change :o)
Paul Satterfield (pictured at right as Pierce on B&B in 1999, now Spencer on OLTL) almost missed out on getting the role of Pierce thanks to his representatives. Wait? Aren’t agents and managers supposed to help you get work? Here’s the story…
Satterfield got his first soap in 1991. It was the character of Paul Hornsby on General Hospital. He landed the part because the casting director had remembered seeing him in a play a year before. "Theater is the best training for the soap format,” Satterfield told me back then. “I did a lot of theater. General Hospital called me in to meet with Gloria Monte. She and I clicked. They had me test for John York's part (Mac Scorpio). Five of us did. I didn't get it, but she kept us on contract and eventually wrote another part for me."
After leaving General Hospital in 1994, Satterfield went to a primetime show called Malibu Shores and then to Savannah, which was canceled after two seasons. Satterfield then passed on several offers to do east coast soaps. "I'm not going to the east coast for anybody,” Satterfield said emphatically. “But my agents or manager turned down Brad Bell (executive producer of B&B) without checking with me first. When I heard it was for B&B, I told them we had to look into it, because I'd heard it was a great place to work." They had a meeting and Satterfield started as Pierce in 1998.
2005 Update ~ The role of Pierce was short lived. By 1999, Satterfield was off B&B, but not out of the public eye. He guest starred on a number of prime time shows, like Will & Grace, 7th Heaven, The Pretender, Profiler, Just Shoot Me, and Coupling to name a few. He did a few made for TV movies and even starred opposite Jim Carey in the feature film, Bruce Almighty.
About a month ago, Satterfield showed up on One Life to Live as Spencer Truman, shown here with OLTL co-star Heather Tom (Kelly) from an episode that aired the week of June 20, 2005. But wait a second. Isn’t OLTL taped on the east coast? Didn’t Satterfield say he’d never do an east coast soap? Soapdom has not yet had the opportunity to ask Satterfield what caused his change of heart, but you can rest assured the next time we see him, we will! At any rate, regardless of what made him change his mind, we’re glad he did. The character of Spencer Truman seems right up Satterfield’s ally and we wish him all the best in the role. LMS
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
Snail Mail TPTB
Soap Tweets
