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Nick Kiriazis Interviews
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Character: Antonio Torres
Nick Kiriazis plays Father Antonio Torres, who is the younger brother of police detective Ricardo Torres.
Nick was born on June 9th in Madison, Wis. He relocated to Port Jefferson, N.Y., at age 3, and later moved to nearby Hampton.
"I was planning to go to school for engineering. I was taking classes in calculus and physics, but then I thought: I don't know if this is for me. A friend of mine was taking acting classes at NYU. She suggested I take one, so I did. It snowballed from there. I got a bachelor's degree in theatre arts from the State University of New York at Stony Brook."
To pay the bills, Nick decided to do some side modeling. His first gig was a short promotional film for GQ Magazine. He also did some TV Commercials and some print work.
Nick then moved to Los Angeles. His first job was a week working on the movie 'Tin Cup' starring Renee Russo and Kevin Costner. "That was a really great experience. Kevin Costner was very cool, and took me under his wing. I was green as far as working in film goes. I had just done some short films. The one scene I was in took us all week to shoot. I was one of the guys sitting at a bar, discussing the odds on a bet that Kevin Costner and Don Johnson were about to make, " says Nick. "Tin Cup was a really small part, just a few lines. In the final edit, all my lines were cut except for one. But it wasn't about the money I made or how much screen time I got; it was the experience. It was my first big-deal movie. The director, Ron Shelton, was great to me. It was all really exciting."
Aside from 'Tin Cup', Nick's other acting credits include a stint on Beverly Hills, 90210 as Prince Carl.
On Sunset Beach, Nick portrays a Man of the Cloth. He is a priest who is also the brother of Detective Ricardo Torres (Hank Cheyne). "It's interesting to look inside Antonio and figure out why he became a priest. It's interesting in general to think about what makes a man decide to do it. You look into that and you can discover a lot about the character. He's very earnest and genuinely interested in what he does - helping people and being a man of God. But there must be conflicts, because he is so young. At this point, he's dealing well with them, be we'll see what happens".
Storylines that feature very handsome Catholic priests are always delicious, because veteran fans instinctively know it's only a matter of time before some sexy soap babe comes along and defrocks, defrocks, defrocks. Sweetening the anticipation here is Father Antonio's half-clad alternate identity of sufer-dude (He boards at Surf Central.) But Kiriazis especially sweetens Sunset for me because he appears to be a real actor, with chops as well as abs. The actor was quite good in the sequence in which Father Tony married Caitlin and Cole, with the shameful secrets Caitlin, Cole and Olivia had previously confessed to him running through his mind. For Ms. Marlena, there's nothing sexier than subtext!
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