Rebel With A Cause
By Mary Arrigo
In His Younger Days, Mark Derwin's Energy Got Him Into Trouble.
Today, He's Using All He's Got To Make It As An Actor.
Just The Fact's
Hometown: Brewster, N Y
On Dating Actresses: "What If I fall in love with one?
I'm an equal opportunity dater"
Worst High School Prank: He and two friends threw a firecracker into the girls bathroom.
Education: One semester, SUNY Cobleskill: Mercy Community College
What He Did Between Stints On Y&R and GL: I knocked about 15 strokes off my golf game, he reports. "I really stunk at the beginning of the summer. Now I'm just lousy"
Status In The Business: " I'm still pretty much a rookie."
Off screen, Derwin is extremely easygoing and friendly, but he's no stranger to trouble. In high school, he took the road not taken, making the sports teams but quitting them because he couldnt see the value of scrimmages. On the basketball bench, he was more interested in the opposing teams cheerleaders than what was happening on the court. "I was getting into my rebel years, and I was pretty much a pain in the butt after that," Mark says.
After just one semester at the State University of NY at Cobbleskill, he got the boot. "They sent me a really interesting letter that pretty much said, 'You better come get your stuff because you won't be returning to our fine college.' They kicked me and a couple of guys out. I had some pretty weird friends there." What exactly they did to get kicked out, Derwin won't reveal. " I think my mom might read this article,' he jokes, then adds, "I don't know; they didnt appreciate our senses of humor and our studies lacked. It was a combination of things. It was like bad chemistry."
After a brief stint at IBM, where his father, brother, sister and sister-in-law worked, Mark went back to school." I did the community college thing for a semester, driving there and taking 4 courses. I went 3 out of 4: I failed philosophy and I'd probably fail it now," he says.
After that Mark left school altogether and got a job mopping floors at a nursing home. "I was hitting low times then," he admits." It was really interesting though. I mean, some of these things I'd mop up weren't too interesting, but the people were really interesting. You can learn a lot from people of any age. I kind of liked that job. After awhile I got out of there and went into construction."
He learned carpentry and landscaping. "But I was spinning my wheels," he says. "I was getting good at it and it was fun, but I wasn't really estatic with my life. I was really bored and some days, I hated getting up to go to work. I wanted to be able to wake up being psyched to go to work."
Today, Mark is psyched to get up for work, but it didn't happen overnight. The first step was figuring out what he wanted to do, and making a commitment to it. The first part was easy. Derwin says he always wanted to act. It makes sense. He seems so at home in jeans,
Mark studied with actor Michael LaGuardia in the basement of his home, and then took off for LA.. "I started over with just a bag of clothes, found a car, found a job, found a place to live, found a life," he remembers. Like most actors, he did a lot of free films and student films, all the while auditioning.
Finally, he landed a few commercials. "I did a Nike commercial. Me and about 24 other guys. It was these golf spots; they ran a little, but I never saw them,"he reports. "I did a Toyota commercial and it was a great spot, but they never ran it. So down with Toyota. Nissan all the way." Best of all, though, are the five commercials he did for Fiesta Cigarettes on Mexican TV. I'm the Fiesta man," he says, laughing. "They were looking for a NY actor with an attitude. Its pretty funny. They dub over my voice. After I did the spots, they put a real mexican voice and there were dancing girls and fireworks."
Derwin learned that there's no fast track to acting. Mark needed a plan. "I visualized my future. I visualized getting a soap and getting a lot of experience and learning. And then the next step, it's tough to say, is features. You probably hear that from every actor, but its true; its the ultimate goal. And if you're just patient, and keep doing the right things, it'll happen. You know, I mean like sleep with the right people, whatever it takes," he adds ironically. For Mark, it meant an episode of HARDBALL and six episodes of DAYS OF OUR LIVES before he made step one of his plan and landed the role of Adrian Hunter on Y&R.
"It was fun being a murderin' guy," he jokes. "The 2 characters (Adrian and Mallet) are so different. I'm the Stalker instead of the Stalked. And its just fun. I got to work with so many different actors on GUIDING LIGHT investigating (Phillips death)"
Mark also says Mallet is his favorite character so far and, according to him, thats as it should be. "You've gotta love what your doing." he says in the most serious tone he's used yet. "When you hear someone say, "I hate this scene, you think, well, you better find a way to like this scene, otherwise, its not going to work as well."
One aspect of soaps Mark still hasn't gotten used to is being recognized on the street. "I still get called names for being Adrian Hunter, "he says. "Once, I went to a restaurant in LA and a couple of guys in leather with their women came in. They had their hogs (motorcycles) outside and they sat down and this guy was staring at me. And I was like, What? I thought he caught me looking at his girl. He said "You Adrian Hunter?" And I said, "Yeah." And he goes, "I like what you're doin." " And I'm like, Thanks, he was bigger than me. "
Its funny; its a job. You go in and you do it and you leave. I forget that people might watch it. When someone is staring at me, the first thing I do is catch an attitude because I'm thinking, "This is so rude of you; I'm trying to eat," and then sometimes you look at someone and you don't expect them to be the soap kind of person, and then they say something like that and you're blown away. Then you're like, "Oh yeah, nice to meet you,"
Mark loves being back in NY, close enough to visit his family in Westchester, just north of the city, on weekends. And his family is thrilled about his career. "They love it," he says. "My mother was an actress." "My folks are from Ireland and she did a lot of stage acting when she was living there. And my father used to sing. They're all into my career."
Mark isn't currently sharing his life with anyone on a steady basis. "I know a lot of girls and I do date," he says. "I've just been too busy to date much here. Actually, I'm shy and reserved and I just can't talk to girls," Yet anyone who's spent even a few minutes with him would have trouble reconciling his personality with shyness. But Derwin doesn't think there's anything wrong with being a bit mysterious. His final words: "LET ' EM WONDER."
a funky t-shirt and a few days growth of beard that its hard to picture Derwin clean shaven in a navy blue suit, working as corporate man in an enviroment like IBM's. " Now its easy to look back and laugh. At the time, it wasnt the greatest thing...but thats just the way it works out," he observes. "I grew up a lot when I was 25; I started waking up to things, knowing that there was life outside the gates of Brewster. So I started trying to work on some thing else. And thank God, I went in the right direction. Things are opening up. Its pretty exciting."