Days of Our Lives star Wally Kurth learned a lot about acting from soap opera legend John Aniston, and he put those lessons to good use when dealing with emotional scenes. His approach is grounded in reality, and he detailed what makes those scenes work for him.
Lots of Tools in His Acting Arsenal
Wally Kurth has been nominated for the 2024 Daytime Emmy for Supporting Performance in a Daytime Drama Series: Actor for his portrayal of Justin Kiriakis on DAYS. In an April 24 interview, he told Michael Fairman TV that the scenes that garnered him the nomination were surprising because he mainly submitted ones in which Justin was sobbing over Victor Kirakis’s (John Aniston) death, as well as boohooing that he was no longer Alex’s (Robert Scott Wilson) father.
“I was guessing the judges would be like, ‘Hey! Enough with the crying! Stop, you big baby!’” he explained, adding, “But, they didn’t. They must have thought that it was convincing enough that it felt really truthful at how Justin was upset about these two unfortunate realizations.” He praised the writers for understanding that when something awful happens, like the death of Victor, people don’t just cry all the time, and Justin allowed himself to cry only when he had private moments.
Kurth was able to tap into his real-life sorrow for John Aniston, who passed away in November 2022. The venerated actor had been like a mentor to him, and Kurth thought he was the nicest guy ever. “I just sort of allowed his presence for me in the scenes. It was sweet. It was good for me.” Even talking about it put tears in Kurth’s eyes. “He never told me anything specific, but he was just John, and in the scenes, this was the time for me to tell him how I feel.”
When approaching emotional scenes like those or when Justin learned he wasn’t Alex’s father, Kurth doesn’t think too much about it ahead of time, instead letting the scene play out as written. Upon reading the scenes, he “kind of imagined what it could look like, and then you just let it unfold from there.”
Kurth celebrated his 35th anniversary playing Justin in February 2024, and his approach to emotional scenes has served him quite well over the years!
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