INTERVIEW WITH MARK PINTER (GRANT; AW): PART #1

Actor Mark Pinter portrayed Another World’s multifaceted, Machiavellian Grant Harrison from 1991 to 1999.

Though the good people of Bay City believed him dead, viewers caught a glimpse of the disgraced politician on the series’ last episode, sipping a drink and seemingly living it up in the tropics, very much alive.

In addition to AW, Pinter appeared on the daytime dramas Love of Life, Guiding Light, As The World Turns (where he met his wife, Colleen Zenk Pinter), Loving, All My Children, and currently General Hospital.

He reminisced with Another World Today about his time on the show, what he has been up to since then, and his personal thoughts on what his AW alter ego has been doing for the past decade.

AWT: Were you on the set of Another World for the taping of the final episode?
MP: No. I left the show six months before it went off the air. They killed Grant, but then he reappeared in a stunt where you see him sipping a pina colada in a grass hut somewhere.

AWT: So what do you imagine Grant has been doing since that moment?
MP: I think he got away with all the money, and he’s just been living the high life somewhere on an island in Fiji. He probably bought an island, built a nice little place, and is content to laugh at everyone while he got happy with the natives. He obviously ducked out of sight and decided it was too much for him and he’s just laying low, that would be my guess. And he’s fathered a whole mess of little Fiji-ans. He’s just as happy as a clam.

AWT: So much of Grant’s motivation, for both his good deeds and bad, was his love for his son, Kirkland. How has Grant managed to be separated from him for all these years?
MP: I loved that Grant was always in love with Vicky, desperately in love with her, desperately wanted her, and had this child with her. Family rooted him and still roots him. It’s his reason for living, his reason to survive. He wanted family and went somewhere where he could have that and not be bothered anymore. The whole thing about Grant, the whole reason he was such a successful character despite the fact that he had maybe ten Headwriters during the time I was on the show, was they never failed to keep him a loving father, in spite of all the blackness and all the unforgivable things that he was asked to do by so many. They always had the good sense to have him dote on his child. I think that’s really good writing. Make certain that your villains are lovers, as well, because that makes them attractive. If they’re just one-sided characters who have no dimension, if they’re just pure evil for evil sake, well, there’s not much to grab on to for the audience. I think an audience wants to love something about a bad guy. They’re usually the interesting people. I’ve played both, and most of the successful characters have been the bad guys.

Make sure to come back tomorrow for Part #2!