Galen Gering has spent most of the last year acclimating to a new job (this first television role, as Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald on Passions), a new lifestyle (the celebrity that comes with the territory) and the word beautiful. First, came the honor of being voted one of SOAP OPERA WEEKLY's most gorgeous daytime stars last March. Then, Gering was the only soap performer in People magazine's prestigious 50 Most Beautiful issue in May.
“That was a very surreal moment,” Gering says, recalling how he learned of his inclusion in People via a cell-phone call from an NBC publicist while out shopping with his wife, Jenna. “I thought, ‘Oh that's great.’ But honestly, I didn't realize what a big deal it was until I got off the phone and told my wife. She practically started crying. ‘Oh my God! That's so amazing.’ When I saw her freaking — because she doesn't freak out over a lot of stuff — I figured it must be a big deal.”
Yet, the modest actor wasn't 100 percent convinced of its validity, particularly when his wife informed him that he'd be sandwiched between the likes of Sharon Stone and Harrison Ford. “That led me to believe that the whole thing was some kind of a hoax.” Gering asserts. “I mean, for me to be in the ranks of those people...”
It was no hoax, but rather the perfect cap to a whirlwind year of lucky breaks and achievements. “Seeing me on the cover of Soap Opera Weekly was one thing, but [being in People] was like the coup de grâce. It's great. Hopefully, there's going to be more. If not, I've certainly gotten my 15 minutes [of fame],” Gering says with a laugh.
Gering's fast and furious road to celebrity started in early 1999, when NBC vice president of daytime programming, Annamarie Kostura, put out a casting call for someone “gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous” for the role of Passions' resident Latino hunk, Luis. Scoffing at the mere mention of one “gorgeous,” let alone three, Gering insists, “I'm not obsessed with the way I look. I don't primp. I wash my face. I brush my teeth. That's basically the mainstay of what I do.”
Besides, as a former model, Gering has never gotten caught up in his physical attributes. “When you're modeling, you're surrounded by great-looking women and men. I always thought there were a million better-looking people than me out there,” he says. “So it comes as a huge surprise for me to have that [recognition]. But it's not something that is going to change the way I act or how I approach people.”
Gering adopts much the same attitude about the overnight success story that took him from aspiring filmmaker to working actor. Weeks away from graduating from the University of Miami and eagerly anticipating a future behind the scenes, Gering's whole world changed when his actress girlfriend (now wife) Jenna's agent persuaded him to read for Passions.
“At the time, I was directing and producing a student film called Gospel Hour, a satire on televangelists and how nice guys often finish last,” Gering recounts. “I was completely engrossed in it.” Not to mention, “I owned some property in Florida. So I was renovating houses, doing furniture design, modeling and going to school. I was completely crazy, doing a million things.”
Acting, however, wasn't one of them. Not that he hadn't ever considered it. “I always liked acting,” insists the Los Angeles native, who was exposed to the arts throughout his childhood. “I remember my grandmother taking my sister, Charissa, and me to the ballet — and we hated it. Plus, both my parents were artists. My father (Alan Gering) was a sculptor and a dancer, and my mother (Michele de Onate) was a fine artist who painted canvas.”
So when, at the age of 17, Gering met an agent who “said I could get rich and famous and promised me the world,” he took a few acting classes. “But I never felt it was a natural thing for me,” Gering says. “It was something I really had to work at.”
With that attitude still firmly in place, Gering agreed to read for Passions. It wasn't his first professional audition. Gering had already appeared in commercials and filmed a pilot for a Latin American soap two years prior. “But it was nothing of this magnitude — NBC in Los Angeles, up against thousands of other talented actors. How lucky am I, you know?” Gering asks, flashing his trademark big grin.
Lucky, indeed. He ultimately landed the gig, although the timing left something to be desired. “There was a week between the time that I found out I got Passions and that I was supposed to start shooting,” Gering says. “It was also the week of finals. I had to fly to Los Angeles after school one afternoon for a two-hour wardrobe fitting, then take the red-eye back to Florida, where I had finals the next day. I was studying the whole flight. I got home at 6 in the morning, typed two reports, went to school, and took two finals. As you can imagine, it was a friggin‘ nightmare. But it was great, too,” he says, claiming that he endured on pure “adrenaline.”
The rush continued right through graduation, which Gering attended “with my bags packed in my trunk.” Upon receiving his diploma, he hightailed it to the airport and hopped a plane to Los Angeles. “I started taping the next day,” Gering says. “And it's been awesome ever since. You couldn't ask for a better story.”
Or a better storyline since starting the show. Passions has struck gold with the pairing of Gering's Luis with McKenzie Westmore's Sheridan. The duo quickly emerged as the breakout couple, an occurrence that has taken Gering by storm. “Especially because we're not even a couple yet,” he points out with a chuckle. “We've just been very lucky what the storyline has been and how it's progressed in terms of keeping the audience interested, in terms of keeping us interested.”
Working with the lovely Westmore has been the icing on the cake. “I love when people ask me about Mac, because I've got nothing but wonderful things to say about her,” Gering begins. “She always knows her lines and always comes to work with a great attitude. She's open to changing things, if I have a suggestion. Or, sometimes she'll say ‘Hey, I was thinking this...’ That makes it wonderful. I've heard about co-stars who have to do scenes day in, day out who can't stand each other. Thank God that's not the case with us.”
Gering also appreciates the opportunity the Luis/Sheridan pairing has provided for the originally rigid Luis “to loosen up and show his vulnerability. There were a lot of people who wrote in and said, ‘I love your smile when you play and have fun.’ I think it's been very important to show that [side of Luis], and I love it,” says Gering, who believes laughter is the best medicine. “Besides, there were only so many times I could say, ‘I hate the damned Cranes.’”
Having recently celebrated Passions' first anniversary, Gering takes great pride in the strides he and his castmates have made. “I was looking at a bunch of old tapes and noticed that the show, as a whole, is much more cohesive now. There's more of a rapport between the characters,” he says. “Even if you look back on a show like Friends, when that first started, it was not nearly as funny as it is now. That just happens naturally.”
So, too, has been Gering's development as an actor. “I embrace the growth that I've made,” Gering says. “I've worked hard to get where I am, although I still sometimes wake up and go, ’My God! How am I going to get through this day?’ They make us do so many different things on this show. It's like a roller coaster.”
Nevertheless, it's been a fun, exhilarating ride — one that landed Gering and Westmore on Passions' first full magazine cover for SPW. “That was huge. Super-exciting for everyone. It was not only great for us but great for the show, because it was our first cover. It was super-rewarding for everyone in this cast who works so hard. It's nice to feel appreciated, to know that people out there are enjoying what you're doing.” Has Gering framed the memento? “No,” he admits. “But I haven't even hung my diploma yet, if that tells you anything about my state of affairs right now.”
Not only is Gering adjusting to the responsibilities of being a new daytime star, but also being a new husband. He wed longtime love Jenna Hudlett twice earlier this year. It was a page right out of a soap opera script. Wedding No. 1, January 3, was a spur-of-the-moment elopement to Las Vegas “in the Elvis chapel, the Graceland Wedding Chapel. We thought, ‘How cool! If we're going to do it in Vegas, we've got to do it there,’” Gering explains. “An Elvis lookalike walked Jen down the aisle, and there was this Fat Daddy Elvis with a broken-down old radio who kept playing funky old Elvis cassettes and trying to sing along.
“It was a blast,” he continues, noting that the private ceremony “was just for us. We didn't want to be mired down by what color the tablecloths were or what everyone was going to eat, all those little things that sort of take away the essence of what a wedding is.” The couple saved arranging all those little details for when they exchanged vows again April 8 in Los Angeles before their family and friends, none of whom had a clue that Gering and his bride were already legally married. “We wanted it to be really special for them and felt like if we'd told them [the truth], that would have taken something away.”
Despite the double ‘I do's,’ Gering insists that marriage hasn't changed him one bit. “Jen and I had been together for seven years. It's not really different at all, except for the fact that it's legal now. But it was going to be common-law anyway,” he adds, grinning.
For the most part, Gering and his wife are two of a kind. “Jen likes a lot of things I do. Movies. She's athletic. She loves snowboarding, which is great; a lot of girls don't. So when we have vacation time, we'll go on a snowboarding trip. She has a similar sense of humor, too, so she gets my jokes. That's huge,” Gering emphasizes with a loud roar of laughter. “We have similar tastes in food, too, although she hates sushi, and I love it. Other than that, it's a good connection.”
Together, the pair has endured Gering's rise to fame, but he is the first to admit that it's ‘totally changed’ their lives, particularly his. “Up until this point, I never really had a day job where I have to be at the same place every day and just working. I was always my own boss, so I could dictate what hours I wanted to work and decide when I wanted to take a vacation. It was all up to me. Now it's not — not by a long shot. I get two weeks off a year. So it's like, ‘Whoa!’ From having all the freedom in the world to not. It's a great change for me. I don't want it to come off like I'm not completely happy with where I'm at, but it is a big adjustment.
“In addition to that, I was never a ‘celebrity’ before. Now I go out and people recognize me, talk to me about things. That changes your life. There's no way around it. But I appreciate it. I certainly appreciate all of it.”
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Soap Opera Digest
The first-time moments like that happen; the energy is amazing. It's electric. You don't really understand what's going on or where it's going. McKenzie [Westmore, Sheridan] and I agree that things like that are important and we want to portray that on-screen. So we discuss what we can do to keep that magic in Sheridan and Luis' relationship alive. Sometimes, Sheridan and Luis are doing nothing but saying mean things to each other, but the subtext is that they really want to just jump in bed.”
“What Galen puts into Luis and what I put into Sheridan creates a spark between the two characters that works really well,” agrees Westmore. “They're both so pigheaded. They don't want to show their true colors.” The age-old story of their families hating each other certainly helps. “That's part of their allure,” nods Westmore. “People want Sheridan and Luis together because they're such an unlikely couple. Understandably, there has to be conflict.”
So ... abstinence makes the heart grow fonder? “If you see someone naked, that's one thing,” theorizes Gering. “But if you're holding that person's heart, it's completely different. It's the simple things that are the real moments."
