He’s a healer, that’s what he is. That will always take precedence over everything… except for the one time he stepped over his mother when she was having a heart attack in the parking lot (he laughs). Erica’s going, ‘Dr. Hayward! Dr. Hayward! I’m so happy you’re here, this woman is having a heart attack!’ and the audience didn’t even know who she was and [David] just walk over her and was like, ‘Die you b****!’ Erica was like ‘What are you doing?!’
Why on earth David has stayed in Pine Valley when everyone in town so clearly despises him…
I do feel he sees a great degree of hypocrisy in [the people] in Pine Valley. You have these paragons of society, whether it’s Jesse or Tad and they slap each other on the back, ‘You’re a great man.’ But meanwhile they’ll bend the rules, they’ll commit crimes. Like the scene I had recently with Angie where I say, ‘Jesse toys with human life and he’s misinterpreting God’s plan, but when I do it, I’m committing a great sin. I’m like the pariah of society.’ That’s how he always feels. He’s extremely stubborn. People ask, ‘Why does he stay in Pine Valley?’ He’s taken this as another mission – to hold up the mirror to the people of Pine Valley and say look at yourselves you’re not that much different than me. Except you’re lacking the brilliance (he laughs).
Why he loves playing David…
I love that he’s so self-aware. He has his levels of denials as well. He doesn’t like to acknowledge his fragility, acknowledge any weakness in himself. He sees himself as a man without limitations but obviously that’s not the case. He is broken, he is damaged and occasionally that comes out where he acknowledges that for himself. He is a man with a God complex. He sees himself working concurrently with God, restoring and preserving human life. At the same time, I remember one scene was quite nice when Leora [his daughter with Anna] was dying.
He did fall to his knees and pray to God and said, ‘I know more often than not I act as if I’m you, but I know that I’m not. In that instance I’m completely aware of the fact that I’m not self-sufficient in this.’ He needed God to help in this because he couldn’t do anything, which is the great irony that she died from a heart condition. He’s the great heart doctor but he couldn’t save his own daughter. He wasn’t allowed to and that’s why he resents the Martins so much because Joe wouldn’t let him save her.
Watch the YouTube video of David’s scenes with Joe.
Why a David-Cara relationship could be just what the doctor ordered…
I think it’s very interesting. What I like about it, is that David wasn’t pursuing anything from her. He didn’t need something from her so there was no reason to manipulate her at all. It was just two people came together at a moment when they were both needy but at the same time they found a common ground with each other. They see something that’s like-minded with each other, like-spirited with each other. She’s gone through the Martin mill. I said to her, ‘That was your first mistake, going through the Martin shredder. You go from one to the next and now here’s how you come out at the end, shredded.’ And with David going through the whole Orpheus thing, that no matter what he does, people still look at him as this devil from hell. The relationship has something that could be very different for David. He’s not looking for control. It could be very nice.
How his first soap role as Guiding Light’s Lujack changed his opinion of soaps…
I didn’t know the soaps. I wasn’t watching soaps when I got Guiding Light. One of the great ironies of my life was that when my brother and sister were in high school, I was in junior high, they were watching [General Hospital’s] Luke and Laura. My grandparents always watched the soaps. They watched DAYS and General Hospital. I’d walk through the living room and they’d be watching. I’d see my brother and sister watching Luke and Laura and I’d walk by and go, ‘Losers! Bunch of losers! You’re watching a soap opera?!’ Then, here I am, working in soaps for 30 years (he laughs).
Lujack was great. I loved that character. It was a fantastic character. He really came out of nowhere. It was only three days. Then they liked what they saw and gave me another three days. Then they offered me a contract. It grew and became very special with Lujack and Beth [then played by Judi Evans].
Watch the YouTube video of Lujack and Beth.
They wanted me to continue on but I left after two years because I felt I was young and wanted to do something else. But die young and leave a good corpse – that’s how my character was at the time, I felt. It was fun.
Being mentored by the late, legendary Beverlee McKinsey on Guiding Light…
My greatest mentor was Beverlee McKinsey without question. When I went on that show I didn’t know who Beverlee was. They told me that Beverlee McKinsey was going to play my mother and I was like, ‘Oh, Okay.’ And everyone was like, ‘Beverlee McKinsey! She’s an icon—the first person who ever had her name above the title like, Beverlee McKinsey in Texas.’
I met her and I loved her immediately. We immediately forged a very special relationship that was a very mother-son type of relationship. She came on right before Mother’s Day and I brought her flowers for her dressing room and she was so appreciative. I knew her son Scott [McKinsey, a long-time director at General Hospital]. I met him before he was a director. He would come and visit and hang out and I worked with him on his first show he directed for Guiding Light. [Beverlee] got him the job for that. She gave me such a strong sense of professionalism and respect for the medium. I loved her for that. I loved doing scenes with her. I went through significant things with her through the telling of our story together.
Watch the YouTube video of Vincent and Beverlee’s first scenes together.