Pill-Popping Papa

An addiction to prescription drugs may be the downfall of GH's Alan Quartermaine, but the riveting storyline is the best thing that's happened lately to actor Stuart Damon

General Hospitals Stuart Damon is back where he belongs: at the epicenter of Alan Quartermaine's own tumultuous storm.
Even while playing the supporting role in recent years - nurturing his wife Monica through her breast-cancer crisis, comforting his daughter Emily or battling his bullheaded family in the boardroom - Damon has always been placed in an arena that lets him show off Alan's strength in the midst of chaos,
Now, with his descent into the world of prescription-drug addiction, viewers get to watch a man about to self-destruct. And although we won't actually see Alan pop the pills very frequently in the future, his nightmare has just begun.

"The only way you can tell I've taken them is the mood swings," Damon says. "Sometimes I'm very happy and very mellow and sometimes I jump off the deep end for no reason.
"The audience can surmise whatever they want to from that. But it's a very very heavy addiction. I don't know how long this goes on, but I know Alan will go down, big time. There's no way you can recover
from this kind of toxicity. You can't keep building up that kind of thing. Eventually, your body and your mind give way. And I'm sure that will happen to Alan."
Going to work every day and pretending you're thisclose to crashing may sound like a huge downer for someone other than an actor. But Damon relishes the opportunity.
"This is wonderful fun for me because, you know, we never wake up the same way," he says. "And whatever place Stuart is in on that day, I can bring all of that with me to the storyline. If I wake up p--d off, I can be p--d off all day. If I wake up happy, of course I'll take care of the necessities, but I can use all that stuff. I love it.

"This is the best storyline I've had in a very long time - since the breast-cancer storyline," adds Damon. One thing that makes the story so powerful is that it's based firmly in reality. "This stuff is not far from the truth, I guarantee you," Damon points out. "The doctor who gave us all the information for the storyline is the head of the chemical dependency unit at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. He was once a drug addict - a 'speed' freak. This doctor told us he knew a female plastic surgeon who was a heroin addict and operated under the influence. It's terrifying. But that's why this story is so wonderful ? because Alan is stealing pills and all that kind of thing and getting stuff from drug wholesalers. For an actor, playing this is like working in a candy factory."

A long with Alan's addiction comes a trimmer Stuart Damon, who's lost 25 pounds since the storyline began. And, says Damon, the timing was right. Watching one of this fall's shows, which included clips from Monica and Alan's past, really opened his eyes. "I never watch myself because I don't like to," Damon reveals. "But I saw some of that. It's very hard to watch yourself get older on the screen, getting fatter and all that stuff. And I hated it!
"Then Wendy Riche (GH's executive producer) told me, 'You know, this is going to be coming up and although you don't have to do anything if you don't want to, I just want to let you know that what happens is that your appetite decreases and you get more effect from the pills if you take them on an empty stomach,"' recalls Damon.
"It was just the right time. From that moment on, it's like everything sat in the right place. From that day on, which is probably four months ago, I changed my diet. I stopped eating all the fatty foods I was eating and stopped lifting weights, which I was doing. Because I'm so big, no matter how light the weights were, it was putting bulk on me. "Instead, I started doing heavy cardiovascular exercise seven days a week. I was on my stationary bike at least once a day and sometimes twice. The combination meant weight just started to fall off."

And Damon has had such positive reinforcement about how great he looks that it helps him keep the pounds off. "Before, when I got finished playing golf and I'd be really hungry, I'd stop at McDonalds," he admits. "Now I drive a little bit farther, then stop for some chicken and a salad. I go the extra mile because I love being where I am - and I feel fabulous."

By Rosemary Rossi