Colin Egglesfield has amassed quite the resume over the years. He’s steamed up daytime on All My Children and later, took on nighttime gigs thanks to shows like Melrose Place and The Client List. The heartthrob also has made viewers swoon with film romances on Something Borrowed and Hallmark Channel’s Autumn Dreams. These credits and more made him an anticipated first-time guest of RomaDrama LIVE!, a three-day event bringing fans together with their favorite stars from popular shows and made-for-TV movies.
“I’m most excited about getting back out there and interacting with people after a couple of years of being clammed up in our houses,” Egglesfield told TV Insider. “I love to meet my fans who are watching my shows and movies to see what reaction my work has on people. You go to a studio and shoot and come home and don’t necessarily get the immediate reaction, compared to someone who is doing live theater or performance. This is our chance.”
Ahead of the event, we caught up with Egglesfield to look back on some of his most memorable television roles.
Jason Mendez/Getty Images
Tell me about your favorite encounter with a fan.
Colin Egglesfield: I went to buy some shoes at the Nike store in New York City. The kid who was helping me recognized me from All My Children. He said he just wanted to thank me for my work and for portraying the character I did on the show. He said he had a similar experience with his mom and his father. He felt less alone and weird having watched my character go through a similar experience of not knowing who his real parents were growing up. I played Erica Kane’s (Susan Lucci) biological son, [who] grew up thinking [his] real parents were this doctor and his wife. It was a pretty in-depth storyline.
Someone also asked if I could shoot a video for their mom because they were big fans of Rizzoli & Isles. She let me know her mom was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. [Later on], once she saw my video, she [told me] her mom smiled for the first time in five years. Things like that make what I do purposeful and meaningful.
Soaps can reflect what’s going on in the world today. How do you look back on your time as Josh Madden?
It was three years of being part of a really great cast and crew. They became my family. That was why it was so difficult to leave it. A soap opera is a great place to focus on one character for an extended period of time and really flesh out and explore that character, which you don’t get to do really in film and primetime TV. It’s one of the best training grounds as well. You have to learn so many pages of dialogue each day. When I got done with All My children, I felt like I could do anything. In my first few weeks, I think if you go back and watch, I probably look like a deer in headlights. It was pretty overwhelming in the beginning, but you get used to it. [It was] an amazing experience.
Would you ever go back to that world?
Yeah, definitely. I’ve been fortunate enough to work in primetime TV and film and now producing a couple of projects. [There’s] a film I’m going to be shooting in the Canary Islands in July. It’s an independent film [that’s like] Blood Diamond meets Scarface meets Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. Then, I’m working on a TV show called Cypher. They are shooting Season 2 in the fall for the Roku Channel. I’ve been able to work in these other areas, but I would definitely go back to soaps with the right character.
You transitioned to the new Melrose Place, which aired on The CW from 2009-2010. Do you think if that show launched today it would have lasted longer than one season?
That’s a good question. I think what happened with Melrose Place was it was so different from the original. The original was a bunch of 20 and 30-year-olds living in an apartment complex in L.A. It was more about the relationship between these six people and dating and their jobs. I think a lot of people resonated with it because it was a storyline for a real character portraying what most people deal with. The reboot was a bit too ambitious. It was almost like three or four different shows crammed into one. I think they tried too much. People didn’t know how to connect with it. That’s why it didn’t resonate.
You also worked on The Client List with Jennifer Love Hewitt on Lifetime. It’s hard to believe that show premiered 10 years ago!
I loved that show. It was fun to work with Jennifer. She has this double life as a mom and as a happy-ending masseuse. We were trying to do things that were edgy and pushing the envelope, and I think we were on the wrong network. Lifetime is a great network. I just think we were just better suited with this material on Showtime or streaming where we could have pushed the envelope a little more and been more risque. It got to a point where creative differences were enough to not allow us to move forward just because the Lifetime audience felt like they were trying to cater to their audience, which I would say was on the more conservative side than we were trying to do.
Outside of acting and producing, you’re also hosting the virtual talk show “Coffee with Colin.” How is it to have that platform?
I love to have real conversations with people about their dreams and ambitions in life. I’ve been a fan of Tony Robbins and personal development. As an actor, I faced several challenges in my own personal life. I would be nervous in auditions to the point where I would get such stage fright. It would be hard to breathe. As much as I loved acting, I just would get so nervous. My body would physiologically shut down. I went on this journey to find out what are those subconscious beliefs that we have within us that prevent us from going out in the world.
What I’ve discovered through these conversations with successful actors is everyone has doubts and fears about who they are, but if you just step inside your comfort zone and arena of the unknown, you start to learn things and get feedback. People are afraid to take that first step. We talk to actors about what challenges they faced and how they overcome them to find success. We provide insight to other people who want to do the same.
For more information on RomaDrama LIVE!, visit romadrama.com.