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TV
Guide - November 10th, 1984
Michael
Nader - "I still do some foolish things"
Once a self-confessed 'bad boy,' Michael
Nader of Dynasty continues to search for a more fulfilling life style.
Michael Nader fairly leaps into the
Dynasty set with a grin no one deserves to wear before the sun has
risen.
It is the day following a big football game, and Nader is winner of the
first quarter pool among the show's cast and crew. The fellow who
organized the pool hands him a wad of bills totaling $200, and Nader
bounces it in his palm as if to make sure it's real.
Now the director is ready to start rehearsing. An assistant director
calls out. "Where's Mike?" "He's counting his
money," another crew member says, chiding Nader with a slap on the
back. "You got a spot on a TV show and now you win the pool."
A little later, Nader says, "I was playing craps in Tahoe over
Christmas and in 45 minutes - boom - I win $800. I think I've been given
gifts this whole year. I have to keep it in perspective that they're
just little gifts and not be obsessive about this crazy thing."
"This crazy thing," of course, is his co-starring role on
Dynasty, playing the suave, wealthy Dex Dexter, who arrived on the scene
to woo Alexis Carrington Colby (Joan Collins). Although it isn't what
you'd call a large part, making kissy-kissy with Collins on a weekly
basis certainly makes it the most visible role of Nader's career.
When his working day as Dex comes to an end, and he and Alexis have
sipped their last martini, and he has removed the tweed jacket and
unscuffed boots, and the prop man has unceremoniously stripped him of
Dex's solid-gold Rolex watch, Nader seems content to lad himself into
his old VW van and head for his contemporary Hollywood home. Nader, 39,
lives there with his bride, Robin, 32, a production assistant whom he
married in July. She is now full-time mother to their 3-month-old
daughter Lindsey Michelle.
"Family life," coos Nader, "is unbelievable. I'm
experiencing avenues of love and acceptance I've never known."
Robin was pregnant before the marriage. "We accepted the
responsibility of being parents," Nader says. "Through the
grace of God, it turned out beautifully." An Australian cattle dog
named John Henry is the other member of the Nader family.
The trappings of wealth, so prevalent on Dynasty; don't interest Nader.
He lives simply, likes it that way, and is deeply involved with self.
He's introspective, self-analytical and what he calls
"meditative," What attracts him to his profession is that
constant searching for the essential qualities of human behavior, the
same search Nader undertakes with himself daily.
He reveals only bits and pieces of what he finds. "My only personal
sanity and insanity is defined every day through a reflection of the
day," he might say. Or, "If I ain't perfect, that's OK as long
as I keep the process going." Or, "A show like Dynasty or the
income I get doesn't feed me in the way that the inner process of my own
spiritual workout does."
This is not a religious workout. "It's not from Catholicism or
Judaism or Presbyterianism. It's just knowing there's a power greater
than the little human race," he explains.
To that end, Nader reads a lot of books. Which books? "Well,
different books. I don't want to give away my secret names." Why
not? "Because it's a search."
Perhaps what started him out on his soul-searching was a somewhat
tumultuous beginning. (Although he will quickly tell you that the idea
of anyone else analyzing his nature displeases him. "I don't want
to get into a month or two of sadness here and there in the family
album," he snaps one day.) Born in St. Louis, Nader moved with his
family to Beverly Hills when he was a baby. "I come from a divided
family," he explains. His father, whom Nader describes as "a
jack-of-all-trades," was the one who "gave me a semblance of
manhood," Nader says. His mother, with whom he lived, was in show
business. "She'd come out in a gown and sing. 'See the U.S.A. in
your Chevrolet'." His uncle, George Nader, was a "50's B-flick
star."
At Beverly Hills High School, Nader spent most of his time getting into
trouble. "They had me in the psychiatrist's office and remedial
training with all the retarded kids," he says. "I was a bad
boy in school."
"I like to put it this way," says his father, John Nader.
"He had a personality all his own. I didn't ask him, 'Why can't you
be like other kids?' because I wasn't like other kid's, either."
Not only that, Nader also grew up on the wrong side of the tracks -
meaning, in Beverly Hills, living in an apartment building rather than a
mansion like most of his schoolmates. "At fifteen, they had
Farraris and Porches in the garage. Me and my friends drove '48 and '49
woodies. We were the surfing contingent."
Nader's main outlets were surfing ("You got a pair of trunks, the
ocean, a board under you - and no regulations") and movie-going,
especially the films of Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni.
"Max Von Sydown and Liv Ullmann blew me away," he recalls.
While in school, Nader enrolled in an acting workshop and was cast,
thanks to his surfing prowess, as "background" (doubling,
surfing, dancing) in a series of '60s beach movies such as "Beach
Blanket Bingo" and "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini." He
worked in a similar guise in Sally Field's 'Gidget' TV series. Around
that time, the drug explosion hit, and Nader wasn't immune. "We all
went through it," he says, referring to the range of psychedelic
drugs and marijuana. "We're talking 15, 16 years old. We were the
first ones it hit on a mass level, the guys hitting 40 today."
Experimentation with drugs took Nader on a "spiritual quest,"
he says "It was never social. I was more into private reading -
literature, theological philosophy. My friends [and I], we all burned
the candle of life strongly and early." Four years ago, Nader
forswore drugs and alcohol completely. "I don't do any form of
drugs or drink," he says. "I grew out of it. I lived through
it. These days, I don't need any sort of condiment to enjoy my life
with."
Nonetheless, he hasn't found all the answers. Has he found himself?
"Yeah. I'm growing up," says Nader. "But I still do some
foolish things. I'm uncompassionate, inconsiderate. But this is the only
day I've got until tomorrow. I'm gonna make and break a lot of rules.
And each day that definition makes me a little more aware of what makes
Michael tick."
Nader also became active in drug-abuse counseling, of which he says:
"I've been in the business since 16. I've seen the ups and downs of
all the gimmicks, the illusion and the heartbreaking reality, and part
of my gift is to give that [experience] away."
Nader lived most of his adult life in New York. He went there in his 20s
to hone his craft with $20 in his pocket. He was accepted at Lee
Strasbourg's Actors Studio, and for the next 10 years he alternately
studied, performed off-Broadway and waited tables. "New York,"
he sighs, "ate me alive." At one point, Nader actually bought
into a restaurant, David's Potbelly, because he was so familiar with the
inner workings of a kitchen. A modeling career came next (he was
discovered in a shoe store), followed by a three-year stint on As The
World Turns, playing a character he describes as "a mysterious
unknown entity." When his contract expired, he headed to Hawaii to
surf and to "reevaluate," finally returning to Los Angeles in
the midst of the actors' strike.
"I came to L.A. for one season - to attack this area of the
industry," he says. He waited tables again, and then was cast as
Alexi Theophilus on the short lived NBC series Bare Essence. That's
where Dynasty supervising producer Elaine Rich spotted him for Dex, whom
she saw as "neither black nor white, but with all the
shadings."
"The role was almost tailored for him," maintains Rich.
"He's playing opposite one of the strongest actresses there has
ever been. The actor who plays off her has to have strength. In his
screen test, when he stood in the door, there was an electronic
presence."
Nevertheless, sharing center stage with Collins is somewhat a mixed
blessing. She's a scene-stealer if
there ever was one. "Even Oliver would be overwhelmed by Collins'
mannerisms." Observes Peter Bunzel, a writer and former TV critic
of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner.
David Ansen, film critic for Newsweek and once a Beverly Hills High
School classmate of Nader's,
suggests that Nader's role as Dex may be mostly window dressing for
Alexis. "Well, his hair is blown dry correctly and his teeth are
gleaming," says Ansen. "He's not going to win any Emmys, but I
don't think he expects to."
"Michael's a very good actor - as good as anybody on the
show," says Gordon Thomson, who plays Alexis and Blake Carrington's
long-lost son, Adam. "I think he's hard on himself - he doesn't
always like what he sees. But Joan once said the show was like doing
repertory theater. You get a chance to watch yourself and improve."
Collins is full of nothing but admiration for Nader. "He's a very
romantic leading man and he has a certain sinister edge," she says.
"He's an interesting actor to work with." He is also, Collins
points out, "very sweet and warm. He's one of the few people I'm
close to" on the set.
"It works out so well with Joan and me," says Nader,
"because we both found each other attractive right away. We both
have a sense of humor. We could play together and it just carried
over." A member of the production company observes of their working
relationship: "Michael's presence is very strong and Joan respects
him. I'd say he charms her more than stands up to her."
One afternoon on the set of Alexis's living room, Collins has questioned
the director about a) the cheap-looking phone book on her desk
("Haven't you guys ever heard of Louis Vuitton?" she asks) b)
the lack of hors d'oeuvres at cocktail hour ("is there going to be
anything to eat - like caviar?" and c) why the script has Dex
inexplicably dressed for their date - which they ultimately don't make -
wearing a tuxedo.
"It doesn't make sense to me," says Collins. "Why is he
in a tux? If we had date to go out to dinner, he'd be in an ordinary
suit. He's dressed up to go to the ballet, isn't he?" she ask
director George Stanford Brown.
"I think it's all right." Says Brown.
Nevertheless, the discussion about the tuxedo continues. Until, that is,
Nader saves the day by thinking up an explanation. "I can say, 'No
problem, there goes the ballet'," he suggests to Collins.
"That's it!" Collins says breaking into a smile. And the line
is inserted.
In real life, Nader is more apt to eat a home-cooked meal than dress in
tuxedos and miss ballet curtains. He doesn't hang out with oil tycoons
"The cost of that kind of life style - the chaos involved - it
isn't my style." Says Nader. And he climbs into his VW van and
heads back to his house, his wife, his baby and his dog.
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