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Michael Easton Looks Back at Caleb & Livvie’s Vampy ‘Port Charles’ Romance

On June 4, 2001, Port Charles, which had shifted from traditional soap storytelling to 13-week arcs earlier in the year, unveiled its most ambitious book to date. “Tainted Love” centered on Caleb Morley, a centuries-old vampire whose romance with Livvie Locke (Kelly Monaco) captivated viewers and became one of the show’s defining chapters.

Bringing Caleb Morley to life required an actor who could be equally convincing as a romantic lead and a tortured soul. That challenge ultimately fell to Michael Easton, who had previously appeared on Days of Our Lives as Tanner Scofield from 1991-92 and was building a successful primetime résumé when Port Charles came calling.

“Most of my life, I haven’t had any sort of plan, but I have been blessed with some good fortune and on occasion a bit of serendipity,” Easton tells Swooon. “In this case, the SAG strike in 2000 was in its fourth or fifth month, and I was waiting to see if the show I had been working on — Total Recall 2070 — was going to get picked up for a second season when [casting director] Mark Teschner, who I had known for years and I have great respect for, called and asked if I wanted to come down and do a 10-week arc on Port Charles.”

Easton was intrigued, but completely in the dark about what part he’d be playing. “The only stipulation to my casting was the storyline and the character were very secretive and would only be revealed to me after I signed my contract to play the part,” he shares. “Which has never happened to me before, but I figured, it’s a soap opera, the guy’s a doctor, lawyer, or a cop. How hard could it be? So, I signed my contract and went to a meeting with the executive producer, Julie [Hanan] Carruthers, and the head writers, Barbara Esensten and Jim Harmon.”

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What sounded like a routine daytime role quickly turned into something far more unexpected, something that hadn’t been done on daytime before. “When they told me that the character was a twin — one a priest, the other a vampire, but in the end of the story they’ll be revealed to be the same person — my first reaction, to be honest, was to excuse myself, say I was going to the bathroom and make a run for the parking lot,” he recalls. “This was, in my mind, so ambitious for any show, let alone a soap. I had immediate doubts about my own ability to even play the part. I mean, it was a challenge for Fight Club, and they had Brad Pitt, David Fincher, and a hundred million dollars.”

Despite his initial hesitation, the creative team’s enthusiasm soon proved contagious. “The more I listened to Jim and Barbara, the more impressed I was with how outside the box they were thinking, and Julie had this amazing confidence in her ability to make their vision a reality on the screen,” Easton explains. “By the time they were done, I was a dreamer, too. I really came to understand on Port Charles that the writers are the real stars on daytime, and when you get those good words, and you don’t make a mess of them, sometimes you can make something beautiful.”

Once he committed to the role, Easton turned his attention to the task of creating two distinct personalities. “I don’t want to give away the whole bag of tricks, but there was softness to Father Michael’s voice, and he was a ‘listener,’ so he always waited for people to stop talking before he spoke,” Easton shares. “On the other hand, time was always hanging over Caleb — the sun was rising, the sun was setting — so he couldn’t wait for people to finish and would often talk over them.”

The storyline represented a leap of faith, not just for Easton, but for the entire cast, who had signed on to the General Hospital spinoff in 1997. Among his first costars were Julie Pinson, who played Eve Lambert, and Thorsten Kaye [Ridge Forrester, The Bold and the Beautiful], who played Ian Thornhart. “I remember they were kind and really lovely,” Easton reflects. “Looking back, I realize what a difficult position the entire cast had been put in, in that their show had been one thing for a number of years, and suddenly it was going to be something different. I imagine they could have had the attitude that, ‘This is not what I signed up for,’ but instead they embraced it and did this amazing work, and they deserve all the credit for the show’s success.”

Scott Garfield / ABC Photo Archives

If the vampire mythology drew viewers in, it was Caleb’s romance with Livvie Locke that kept them invested. Easton reveals that he never did a chemistry read with Monaco before they were paired. “Poor Kelly was just stuck with me,” he muses. “Trial by fire. Live without a net. They introduced us, we shook hands, and then they said, ‘Now put your fangs in and go roll around on those silk sheets together.'”

Both actors committed fully to grounding the fantastical premise in emotional reality. “It was a fun sandbox to play in,” Easton notes. “For the most part, no one can say, ‘A vampire wouldn’t do that.’ So, you have freedom to create. That being said, it had to be grounded in truth. We had to make it real. We had to be all in, all the time. It could never be irreverent. Fortunately for us, we had wonderful scripts that we could pour our souls into.”

Easton says his bond with Monaco was strengthened by an immediate sense of comfort between them. “I just remember always feeling safe with Kelly,” he explains. “There was something unspoken from the very first scene. We trusted each other. I wish I had better words to explain it, but more than anything, I think that got us through the storm. When you look into Kelly’s eyes, you can get lost with her, and I think that’s what I tried to do every day. Block out all the outside noise and just be in the moment and invite in all the raw feelings that come with that and, hopefully, along the way, do justice to a really well-written story.”

It didn’t take long for viewers to embrace the doomed romance, one that still looms large in their hearts. That intensity was by design, according to Easton. “I realize that Caleb was intended to be the villain of the arc, but early on it occurred to me that he only existed to be in love with this one woman, Olivia, and anybody who tried to stop him, in his mind, they were the villain,” he points out. “It was Caleb and Livvie against the world, and they were willing to die for one another, which made it something of a tragic love story. It was a very simple concept, but it was grounded in affection, desire, romance, obsession, and passion, and I think those are some of the emotions and sentiments that people enjoy watching on daytime television.”

Scott Garfield / ABC Photo Archives

Even after Caleb’s story appeared to come to an end at the conclusion of the arc on August 31, 2001, Easton’s connection to Port Charles — and the people behind it — was far from over. “Knife in the heart. I was dead. Never thought I’d be back,” he says. “Again, a bit of fortunate happenstance. I went to work on Mutant X and got a call one day in Toronto from Julie, and she said, ‘When you’re done there, how would you feel about playing a rock star [Stephen Clay]?’ I told her, ‘I knew there was a reason I didn’t throw out my leather pants.'”

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More than two decades later, Easton still reflects on how unexpectedly meaningful that period became. “Prior to Port Charles, I had done five or six series that all lasted one season,” he explains. “You go on location and grow close to people for a year, and then the show ends, and you never see them again. So, by the time I got to Prospect Studios, I was probably a little remote, detached. In a way, I didn’t want to get close to anyone, but the entire cast and crew were so kind and talented and gracious, I couldn’t help myself.”

But what he remembers most clearly is the sense of unity on set. “The hours were crazy, and they didn’t have much in the way of a budget, but a cool energy circulated around that studio for the next year or so, and it really felt like we all came together and we were part of something bigger than ourselves,” he reflects. “We contributed to a shared vision, and they are memories I won’t soon forget. I feel very blessed to have been a part of Port Charles.”