Van Hansis
News

Here's a video of Van Hansis answering questions from As the World Turns fans:

Van Hansis has updated official blog at the official As the World Turns website. Here are highlights from it:

So I was going to start this blog like I feel I've started every blog within the last six months; by apologizing for how few and far between my blogs are. But then I was like, screw it. It's the New Year! I will blog when I want to blog! Quality, not quantity, right?

These last few months have been really amazing for me. Tonight I finished my run of Charles Busch's "Die Mommie Die!" at New World Stages here in New York City. This is my first long running theater job ever (110 performances- I only called out once!) I got my equity card, and I sort of, as actorish as it may sound, rediscovered my roots. I remember when I graduated school, I was all set on moving to Los Angeles instead of New York, I was going to sign with an agent in California.

I was in my hotel room in Los Angeles and Letterman came on. You know how when he goes to commercial, there are shots of the streets of New York? I saw that and I sort of knew that I couldn't live in Los Angeles without hitting up New York first. The next morning I called my parents and told them that I changed my mind - I wanted to go to New York; I wanted to do theater.

I signed a contract with an agency here in the city and I packed up and moved to lower Manhattan. I was going to get my start in theater! However, life doesn't happen the way you plan it. Instead I was a waiter for almost a year, then I was lucky enough to get As the World Turns.

Continue Reading...

Following a performance of "Die Mommie Die!" last week, Van Hansis was asked about Luke Snyder being part of Soap Opera Digest's Best Love Triangle of 2007.

The response of the As the World Turns star?

"That's great. I thought it was a really interesting way to tell a classic story. It's a story that happens in real life, so why not tell it on a soap opera, you know? And it uses the conventions of the soap opera, the triangle, and it's applicable to real life and it gives it a new twist."

Here's the latest blog entry from Van Hansis. It's posted on the official website for As the World Turns - but why waste time tracking that down when you can read it right here and now?

I guess I haven't really written anything lately because my daily life is kind of uneventful right now. "Die Mommie Die!" is going really well, it has been the longest run of any show I have done. "Die Mommie Die!" has been a great learning experience. Keeping things fresh after 50 performances is something I have never had to encounter. There is one guy on my show who did like, 1500 performances of "Beauty and the Beast." It is really mind-boggling.

I think sometimes people tend to glamorize actors in a way. I think unless you reach the stratosphere as far as celebrity goes, there isn't too much glamorous about it. It is a wonderful life being a working actor, but not one I would call glamorous. That is fine by me. I like working more than anything and have more fun doing that than doing all the other stuff... god, I just reread what I wrote. I sound like a huge cliche. But whatever -- in my case it's true.

So what else....uh....it is the holiday season. Again. I like Thanksgiving. I'm not too huge on Christmas. It seems like in America our holidays have simply turned into ways to spend more money. It also seems the Christmas season is almost like forced emotion. It is like the (commercial) world is telling you: you must be happy!

Continue Reading...

In September, Jake Silbermann and Van Hansis sat down with CBS to discuss the biggest story line on daytime television: the kiss between their characters, Noah and Luke.

Below are a few highlights of this interview with the As the World Turns stars:

CBS.com: How has the reaction been to the pairing of Noah and Luke?
Van Hansis: I think it's been incredibly positive as far as I've heard. I don't know if the production office just doesn't give us the negative comments. Everything I've heard has been very positive. We were a top couple in a recent Soap Opera Digest, which was cool.

CBS.com: Do you discuss in advance the scenes you're shooting?
Jake Silbermann: Of course. [With] specific scenes there is an understanding and it's well-written so we understand what's going on.
Van Hansis: The hard part is memorizing our lines!

CBS.com: Jake, how about you...coming in as a new character, did you know this relationship would be the center of the Noah story?
Jake Silbermann: I knew coming in that it was going to go in this direction. And I was thrown for a loop when Noah and Maddie got together. I thought it was great and a very realistic side to the story because Noah is confused.

CBS.com: Now, do you two hang out off the set?
Van Hansis: Yes. We've gone to parties and stuff. It's a very easy friendship there has never been any awkwardness. Jake's a very easy-going guy. We both like comic books.
Jake Silbermann: By the way, I brought you one.
Van Hansis: Jake just gave me a comic book. It's a graphic novel called Watchmen. It's award winning they are making it into a movie.

During a recent fan event in Boston sponsored by CosmoGIRL, a pair of As the World Turns actors showed their affected for Heidi Montag, star of the MTV reality series The Hills.

Then again, there's a very good chance Van Hansis and Michael Graziadei are just mocking the heck out of the spoiled cover girl. We certainly hope that's the case.

Take a look:

As the World Turns fans don't need to worry about Van Hansis ditching the show any time soon.

But the young actor will be taking on a role in the off-Broadway production of Die Mommie Die! later this month. He spoke to Soap Opera Weekly about the gig...

Soap Opera Weekly: What's your role in Die Mommie Die! like?
Van Hansis: Lance is a guy who may have fetal alcohol syndrome. He's not the brightest person in the universe and has rage and OCD and is kind of a big slut. The genre is very different, but it's like a soap opera. There's this family that's trying to kill each other; they're this rich family in L.A. who have all these dark secrets.

It's a raunchy comedy that takes place in 1968, so it's Old Hollywood versus the '60s revolution. It's fun. I honestly have no idea how to explain it. It's very out there and it's very campy.

Weekly: In other words, you're playing the polar opposite of Luke?
Hansis: Lance, my character, is a big hedonist; all he likes to do is have fun. Luke is always torturing himself about something.

Weekly: Luke's getting stronger, though, right?
Hansis: Yeah, I love playing Luke being strong, getting stronger. Luke's growing some b----, and it's about damn time, you know?

Weekly: Do you have to switch gears when you go from the show to the play?
Hansis: A little bit. It's a different vocabulary. We were blocking some scene and I was like, "Who will cue me on?" and they were like, "Nobody, you just have to listen." I'm so used to having somebody tell me when to enter a scene.

Weekly: People certainly want to see more of Luke and Noah.
Hansis: Honestly, I'm not going to say I'm surprised, because I'm not. If you tell a good story, good feedback will happen. The writing is really incredible. There's always these questions about whether the audience is ready for this [relationship] and yeah, I think they are. There's a big faction of people who have been waiting for this for years and years, and the story hasn't been told.

Now that it's finally being told people are tuning in. I get so much fan mail from people who are like, “I started watching As the World Turns because of Luke and Noah.”

Van Hansis will be starring in an off-Broadway production of the play "Die Mommy Die." Performances with the As the World Turns star begin October 10.

Visit the play's official website now to learn about ticket information and show times.

Van Hansis recently talked about the big controversy on As the World Turns: the kiss between Noah and Luke.

“The kiss between the two was a hit, as I think everyone involved knew it would be,” Hansis said in his blog on the CBS website. “On YouTube the video was the second most watched for the weekend after it aired on CBS. The response Jake Silbermann as well as the producers and I have gotten has been so overwhelmingly positive.

In fact, out of the over 100 emails and letters I received, only one was negative. So in my mind that says that the pairing has a 99 percent approval rating. I consider that not bad for something that not too long ago would have been considered edgy.”

Still, the actor is also aware of those who don't want the Luke and Noah story to develop further.

“We need to accept each other and embrace differences of all kinds,” he said. “We need not to label someone who has a different skin color, sexual orientation, social class, or country of origin as 'the other.'”

Meanwhile, Hansis thanks viewers who have embraced the controversial pair, as well as the long-running soap opera, which he's pleased to be a part of, while hinting that there will be more things in store for the characters.

“The letters I have received, the blogs I have read, and the message boards that I have visited make me really proud of the story that As the World Turns is telling, and I am so grateful to be a part of it. From everything that I have heard, the show is excited to continue moving forward with this story and I can tell you that Luke is just starting his journey. There is a lot more to come and I hope the fans stay with him for the ride."

On the official As the World Turns website, Van Hansis posts on his personal blog. Here's the latest entry:

I'm going to be doing double duty!!! Starting next week I'm going to have two jobs. I'm starting rehearsals for Charles Busch's play Die Mommie Die! at New World Stages in New York City.

Needless to say, I'm pretty stoked about this. Charles is a really fantastic playwright, his work is wicked and witty and pretty much hilarious. I believe this is the first New York production of the play and it is the first off-Broadway production.

This is also going to be my off-Broadway debut, and the first time I have been in a long running play in over a year. For more info and tickets check out www.dmdtheplay.com.

I want to thank Chris Goutman and everybody at As the World Turns for being so accommodating in letting me do both projects. Also, this doesn't mean that Luke will be M.I.A. - he'll still be there. It will just mean that I will be freaking exhausted.

Matt Cavenaugh, who played Adam, was balancing ATWT with his musical "Grey Gardens" at the time he was on our show, so it can be done. I'll be taking lots of naps I guess. Lots and lots of naps. I hope you can come and check out the show.