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It’s been a long hot summer, and one of the burning issues in soapland has been whether General Hospital and William deVry (Julian Jerome) can reach a deal that would put the popular star back under contract after negotiations were at an impasse.

After taping his last episode under his contract at the end of June, as of July, Will had not returned to the set of the ABC daytime drama series to continue the story of mobster Julian Jerome, and the rebuilding of the love story that had been known as “Julexis”.

GH and deVry fans have been very vocal on social media voicing their displeasure that he has not inked a new deal since the actor has made it publicly known he very much would like to remain with the show, and dig deeper into the next phase of Julian’s journey; which would hopefully feature some redemption, and other shades of this complex character.

Will sat down over GHFCW 2017 with On-Air On-Soaps for this in-depth, candid interview where he addresses where things stand with GH, if a return may be imminent, how he is moving on if they should not, his experiences with some of his major scene partners including: Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis) and Maurice Benard (Sonny), and much more.  Here’s what he shared in our conversation below.

So, take me though what happened.  You taped, which was for now, your last episode of GH at the end of June, and at that point contract negotiations were still going on? 

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WILLIAM:  The negotiations were sort of starting at the point. I had hoped we could wrap it up quickly. I guess, times in daytime have changed quite a bit.  Things weren’t wrapped up as quickly as I would have preferred, and for all I know, maybe they did not get wrapped up as quickly as Frank Valentini (EP, General Hospital) would have preferred.  Everybody has mandates.  In the meantime. they are telling a story that allows them the freedom of having a little bit of breathing space for when I am hopefully back.  I am auditioning for other shows right now, and have a couple of things that I am close to getting.  I feel bad for the fans, really.

Your fans have really gotten behind this and voiced their displeasure over you currently not being at GH, and wanting the show to work things out with you.

WILLIAM:  I agree with you. They have gotten behind me, and I’m very thankful.  It’s surprising to be honest with you!

In a way, it reminds me of your time as Michael Cambias on All My Children. There was so much potential to keep that dark side of the character, similar to Julian, but not turn him so bad that he was irredeemable. Ultimately, Michael was killed-off, though.

WILLIAM:  Yes.  I think back to when I played Michael Cambias on All My Children.  When he first came on the fans loved him, and then Megan McTavish (Ex-head writer, AMC) just skewered him.

At GH, what do you think their position is in regards to wanting to work things out with you?

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WILLIAM:  At General Hospital, the good news is they want to keep me there, and I am thankful for that.  I love the show … I love working on the show, and I know Frank is passionate about it. But again, mostly I feel bad for the fans, because the powers-that-be at the show know what’s going on.  I know what’s going on, some of my closest friends know what is going on, but the fans don’t know what is going on, and not only do they not understand what is going on, they don’t know why, and that’s tough.  It’s probably tougher for me than anybody else.  The good news is we are super close to a resolution, and I hope that it is good news.  I am just going to keep doing my thing.  I am enjoying myself auditioning.

Is going back into the world of auditioning hard to do when you have not been doing that on an on-going basis, given that you spent the last four years at GH?

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WILLIAM:  It’s a muscle you have to use when you audition.  Now when you play Julian Jerome there is a confidence, and knowledge behind the work of the character.  I find I have to work four times as hard to prepare to go out for an audition.  If they call me at 6pm the night before, and say I have an audition at 10am in the morning, I will try to use as much of that time and get as little sleep as I can.  For instance, if I have 50 minutes to spare, I will decide to build a bio on this guy, and give him a background so I am confident when I go into the room for the audition.  A lot of actors hate auditioning, but I love auditioning, because that’s the real work. The payoff is when you have fun and get paid.  Our job is to get the gig.  I think the playtime is when we are working.

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I produced B&B’s 30th Anniversary tribute for this year’s 44th annual Daytime Emmy ceremonies.  I remember sitting in the edit bay watching Storm’s suicide.  Years later, it was still so powerful as a performance, and the way it was directed.  I was so moved by it.  The point I am making here is that the four years you spent playing GH’s Julian, while I understand a huge part of it is in the writing, you took what’s on the page and made the character work as you have done throughout your soap career. 

WILLIAM:  I appreciate you saying that.  The writers have given me a lot of material to challenge me with, for sure, and I am thankful for it.  I am an actor, so I agree with you.  It’s up to us to bring those pages to life. You have to really think about; is there any empathy there, and finding the likability in someone even if they are doing dastardly deeds.  I have had a great time over the four years at GH, and I hope it continues.  Going back to your comment on The Bold and the Beautiful… 

Wait! Could Storm actually be alive? (Laughs)  Stranger things have happened on the soaps and B&B! 

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WILLIAM:  Well, possibly.  We had a couple of conversations over the years, but I do remember getting notes that they kind of wanted me to lose my s**t before it all went down.  I felt that there is a calm that needs to happen before the storm for it to pay off.  So when you are playing it as if you are freaking out along the way, you know it’s going to happen.  This way, you don’t.  I felt like I didn’t want anybody to know where Storm was emotionally during that whole time.  When he is looking at the pictures of the sisters, he knows it’s a possibility, but I also think when he is looking at the pictures that is when he is making that decision, and he knew it all along, but he finally allows himself to believe he is going to go there. That’s where that emotion and pain comes out right in that split second.  Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke, B&B) coming into the hospital room and running in from outside in the hallway with Nick (Jack Wagner) and realizing what was going, I thought was really well-shot and directed.  I know Brad Bell (EP and head writer, B&B) was super happy with it.  Interestingly enough, I have had this problem a few times, where if you are just looking at me from across the room, or on the monitor, or in warm-ups you might not register what I’m doing.  Frank Valentini said to me one time, “When I tape you Will, I prefer to come in really close. It’s not that you’re not doing anything, but you have to come in really close to catch it.” 

Have the GH contract talks and your current status with the show, and the last few months, been an extremely frustrating time for you?

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WILLIAM:  Not as a professional actor, because being out in my element, I am a super confident guy, and I will continue to work. The frustration lies that I honestly feel that it just shouldn’t be this hard. Again, everyone has a mandate, and I do feel like people have my back, but they only have so much power. I have told the powers-that-be that daytime is in this weird era of telling multiple stories instead of focusing on consistency and that’s frustrating to me.  I meet so many fans, and they are so passionate, and they have differences of opinion.  Some are Julian fans, and some are not.  But the one thing that they can all agree on is they want the core characters, and they want to see the core every day.  We are in the salary cap era, and it’s all scientific.  They are going to devote, and I am probably going to get myself in trouble for saying this, but they are going to devote this pot of money to all the recurring character stories, and this pot of money to all the contract players and stories, and they are not going to deviate from those.  That is the way it is.  It’s scientific. It’s about we know we can pay our bills at the end of the year, and that’s just what it is going to be.  That’s all we can do.  It doesn’t matter if one of these contract guys runs off the charts in popularity, it doesn’t matter, and it should.  I know we are all being reasonable, and I know we were all challenged.  We all are in the same boat.  I want to be a part of the solution. I don’t want to be a part of the problem, and I don’t think I am part of the problem.  I feel like I love the show, I feel like I promote the show.  I go on Twitter and promote the show.  It’s natural for me to do things like that, because I am so passionate about it.  I want to do it.  Of course, being an actor you don’t have that power, and that is the frustrating part.  I think that is where a lot of actors get into trouble, but then a lot of us wouldn’t be so good if we weren’t so damn passionate. 

Let’s talk Julexis. There was this whole controversy of how could Julian be redeemed after everything he did to Alexis. 

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WILLIAM:  I was really concerned about that, but I have to give props to the writers. They somehow knew they would fix it in the end.  I feel like there are some fans that things will never be fixed for, but I don’t feel like they were really true fans anyway.  I think of the ones who love Julexis, there is maybe 10% who go “that bridge is burned”, but there is still that 90% that are still raging for it.  Everyone else has been given vindication on the GH canvas.  Everyone else has been fixed and is still surviving, and they think Julexis should be able to that as well.  That is yet another frustrating thing for the fans.  I don’t like to compare other characters to mine, but somehow Julian keeps getting s**t on, but that is part of the story.  That is part of the excitement, and what gets people rooting for characters, or throwing bricks at the TV at other ones.  It’s part of the whole genre, and I get it.  That’s the cool thing about it.  And again, I want to be a part of the solution, and I don’t want to rock the boat.

What did the fans say to you at your event and during GHFCW?

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WILLIAM:  They don’t understand. They just don’t get it.  They don’t know why it’s taking so long to get it done.  For them, it’s a no-brainer: “We want Will back. What’s the problem?” They are kind of embodying me (laughs) and they are kind of taking that on. 

When you left and taped your last episode at General Hospital at the end of June, obviously you left feeling there was much unresolved for Julian.

WILLIAM:  Oh, yeah.  I feel like there is more story to tell, and I don’t feel it’s been exhausted by any stretch of the imagination, and that’s the sad thing; that there is so much left to explore. I feel like we have told a lot of good stories, but I feel like there are so many stories that we haven’t told.  I also feel there are a lot of people in the cast I haven’t worked with that I would love to have the chance to be in scenes with. There is a lot of stuff Julian hasn’t explored about himself.  There are also relationships that need to be explored further between his children: Lucas (Ryan Carnes) and Sam (Kelly Monaco).  In addition, his relationship with Olivia (Lisa LoCicero), who is the mother of his other child, would be great to explore as well.

On your last tape day, did everyone know on the set?

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WILLIAM:  No, nobody knew.  It was right before a three-week summer break and everyone wanted to finish up and leave, and start their vacations.  So, you shoot your last scene and it was like, “BAM … everybody’s gone!”  I am not the first one to go through it in daytime.

If things do not pan out with GH, would you go to another soap if there was a great role that popped up?

WILLIAM:  I am focused on primetime right now.  I could never say never to going back to the soaps.  In a lot of ways, it’s a home.  If somebody were to say, “I’m done”, there is a lot of emotional work behind saying that.  A lot of actors have said, “I’m done” but they don’t know how to prepare for the truth of that.  There is a truth of being really done. You now have to go out and get work, and that is not easy to do.  You have to disconnect emotionally from daytime. You can’t think you can always just pick up the phone. Having that crutch of being able to pick-up the phone means you won’t be concentrating on getting other work, because you are constantly seeing the soft landing. There is no ledge, and you have to jump off the ledge.

What show on primetime would you like to appear on?

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WILLIAM:  I just auditioned for a significant role on Taken.  I love that show.  It’s funny, in the breakdown it said, “Must be able to stand their ground with Jennifer Beals.  And I’m like, “That’s me!” Actually, Michelle Stafford (Nina, GH) helped me put some material down on videotape for Taken.  It was funny.  I felt like I was having virtual sex from across the room! (Laughs)  Michelle was so flattering.  She would say, “Oh, my God!  That was so good!”  I would go, “God, Michelle! I feel like you are sitting in my lap right now.” (Laughs)   She talked with the cameraman and goes, “Wasn’t he great?”  The cameraman goes, “OK, yeah.” (Laughs).  This all happened because it was a request from Toronto that I put myself on tape for the role. Being Canadian, they know me up there.  Now, I just want to say how much I love Michelle, and also to thank her for helping me with this.

Looking back at your time as GH’s Julian; was there a point in the story that you loved the most, or in his journey?

WILLIAM:  On a personal level working with Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis) was great, honestly.

Do you think Nancy upped your acting game being in scenes with her?

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WILLIAM:  That is an interesting question.  I am a Taurus.  I’m not easy.  Nancy is a pain in the ass (laughs), but we have had so much fun and that made for some great scenes.  As far as the story goes and character-wise, I love the challenge that they gave me where he has to go to the edge and then pull it back in trying to redeem himself.  I think the only person I drove nuts a little bit was Maurice Benard (Laughs).  He has been doing the show for 24 years.  He knows his character well enough that he can learn his lines the night before, and run it during the rehearsal.  He has decades of confidence that he will remember his dialog.  Will comes into work wanting to work and run his lines, so Maurice would be like, “Yeah, we will run it,” but then he would add, “Dude, you have to have the confidence.” He was in essence saying to me, “Don’t worry about it. It will be there when you need it to be.”  I am more like, “I need to know and have the confidence that it will be there.  I can’t just wish it.”  Maurice would laugh at me and it wasn’t a bad thing, and he has always had my back on the show.  That is another whole storyline still left to  explore.  I was brought on, and my screen-test was with the character of Sonny.  I feel like there is a lot more adversarial stuff to still play, or now even the allied stuff; like the prison material, which is great.  I thought that gave a good example of what Sonny and Julian could do.  

Many felt you deserved a Daytime Emmy nomination this past season for your work.  You had several meaty scenes and some Emmy-worthy material.  Some thought you could nab a Supporting Actor nod. 

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WILLIAM:  I went for “Lead Actor”, and I still think I should have been nominated.  You have to value yourself.  I would rather not get nominated, than not submitting myself where I feel I belong, or to just try to get a nomination.  Honestly, it’s not that important to me.  I just think if I can’t go in with the “Lead Actors” than I’m not interested in it.  I’m not saying anything other than that is where I want to be.  Everybody else is there to judge whether I deserve to be there or, not.  That is not my job.  My job is to give myself value.

In closing, what would you like to say to your ardent fans?

WILLIAM:  For all the fans who want to know if they are just whistling Dixie here and wondering if there is any hope?  Yeah, there is always hope.

So, what did you think about the comments made by William and his status with GH? Do you hope a deal can be struck that would bring him back under contract at the ABC daytime drama series? What should happen then to Julexis? Comment below!