How did this "new" role come about?

"I got a call from Karen [Rea], the casting director, and she told me how much she has enjoyed the ghost storyline over the last few months. Karen called me and said they wanted to talk to me about a new character and didn't say too much other than Maria [Bell] created it. She set up a meeting for me to sit down with them and find out what they had in mind."

"I am very fond of Maria. I really like her as a person. She is very devoted to certain charities and my wife Kym has attended many events with Maria. She has always been very sweet to my wife. She is a very genuine person."

"A couple of days later, I went to see them and they proceeded to tell me all about Alistair Wallingford, a drunken old actor. We decided how to disguise him a bit from my look. We talked about a beard and putting a hat on. We talked about him having a Scottish accent the first couple of days to make him even more grotesque to Jack and Sharon. My first scene was March 18, brief but hysterical. I walk in and they practically faint because he looks like a stumble bum actor."

Describe his character…

"He is a devoted stage artist in his own mind. Many of the stage actors that I grew up around in New York as young actor who were devoted to the classics like Shakespeare didn't really have a great awareness of film and television. Today things are different, your exposure is so much greater with the Internet and so forth. But back then, the world was your stage and he is very theatrical. He has no qualms about telling you how great he is. And he is very charming! Now that I have portrayed him for a few weeks, I think he is genuinely a good person with a good heart. He is a bit of a lost soul. He has no roots. A kind of wandering minstrel from theater to theater for most of his life but he loves the stage and he loves performing. I find him fascinating."

How fun was it for you to play a character so different from John Abbott?

"I can only thank Maria Bell. It is so fun to come back and play a character that has a little bit of the craziness of Jerry Douglas. The core of John Abbott is in me but I am a bit more playful. I have a little bit of an exhibitionist in me like Alistair. I'm a singer and singers entertain. You work the audience. That's the part of me that comes out when I sing that audiences don't see when they see John Abbott. That is the fun in me that comes out in Alistair."

Whom has Alistair interacted with so far?

"Jack and Sharon in the beginning and a little bit with Jeff. Ted Shackelford was very, very funny. We were both laughing after we finished our scenes. I worked with Katherine and Jill. Jess and Jeanne and I go way back so it was really fun to work with them. I just finished some scenes with Gloria and Alistair. He falls in love with Gloria when he sees her. He is really taken with her. Jill wants him to find someone else but he is really taken with Gloria. He charms her, warms up to her. He is still very theatrical but he is more down to earth with her than anyone else that he has met."

Does this mean that Jack and Sharon's plan will backfire on them?

"I'm sure it will because he is always a crazy old drunk. He can't stop drinking and he gets whacked and ends up screwing up everything they want him to do. He is supposed to scare Gloria but when he sees her talking tenderly to a picture of John he walks in on Gloria and Jeff walks in and hurries him out. Jack and Sharon confront him about being such a royal screw up only to find that he has fallen in love with Gloria and that keeps him in Genoa City. We'll just have to wait and see how long…"

During his down time Jerry Douglas has been touring to promote his latest CD, The Best Is Yet To Come. If you haven't purchased your very own copy or want to listen to a sample of his smooth vocals, check out:

http://www.jerrydouglasmusic.com/product/612.htm He doesn't disappoint!

Thanks Jerry for spending some time with us.