‘One Life to Live’ Alum David Fumero Admits His Early Years Were Stressful: ‘They Kept Taking My Shirt Off’
Real-life husband and wife Melissa and David Fumero have been slaying primetime television since they ended their time at the now-defunct ABC soap opera, One Life to Live. With Melissa on Brooklyn Nine-Nine and David on L.A.’s Finest, they are still gracing television screens on a regular basis. In a recent interview, David reminisced on his One Life to Live days, including which period of time on the show was his favorite.
David Fumero played Cristian Vega on ‘One Life to Live’
Fumero played the role of Cristian Vega from 1998 to 2011 on the show. He was the second actor to play the role, following Yorlin Madera, who was in the role from 1995 to 1998. The Vega family became an integral part of the show. Cristian’s older brother, Antonio, was on the show 1995 to 1998, and then again from 2000 until 2009. Also on the show was the brothers’ mother, Carlotta Vega, and their first cousin, Adriana Cramer.
David Fumero recalls his early days on ‘One Life to Live’
Fumero talked about his One Life to Live role at length in a recent Soap Opera Digest interview. “The beginning of One Life to Live for me was very, ‘Try to figure out this job that you have,'” he said.
The actor pointed to his physique for being the reason why he held down the gig in the beginning. “I honestly think I kept the job in the beginning because I was in great shape and they kept taking my shirt off. That brought ratings so they kept me on.”
Still, despite this, Fumero had some reservations about his staying power, explaining that he thought he “was going to get fired every other day.”
“That was a stressful time for me,” he added. “And when I came back again, that was another stressful time for me because I worked every single day, but I didn’t have a lot of really great story that I cared about. The starving artist, the nice guy — that gets boring after a while.”
The stories that he did like on the show were some of the wildest ones, including when Cristian got brainwashed. “I actually enjoyed that Manchurian Candidate stuff. When I read it, I was like, “This is crazy!” But I was like, “Okay, let’s do something that’s different!” So I was excited about all that, when Cristian got brainwashed and he came back and he was supposed to kill his brother. I had a great time working with Kamar [de los Reyes, Antonio]. I worked a lot with Kassie DePaiva and we always just laughed so much. That was a lot of fun. I used to always love working with her. That time, I think, was the best.”
Will ‘One Life to Live’ ever come back
One Life to Live has been rumored to potentially come back in some form, but no details have surfaced since ABC president Karey Burke was asked about it back in February. At the time, Burke said that discussions were happening on bringing the show back.
“There have been more discussions, but I can’t tell you more than that,” she said.
The closest thing to All My Children is its pseudo-sister show, General Hospital, which airs weekdays on ABC.
