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Sam Page: Swimming With Sharks

Sam Page. Remember that name because you’ll surely be seeing a great deal more of this very talented actor in the future. Currently, he’s the District Attorney hottie who melts his fans’ hearts while co-starring with veteran actor James Woods in the CBS hit, Shark, and as Joan’s husband on the AMC hit, Mad Men. A graduate of Princeton, he headed to Tinsletown to seek his fame, where being smart and handsome in Hollywood is a lethal combination. And it didn’t take long for People magazine to name him one of their Most Eligible Bachelors in his All My Children soap hunk days. Here, in an exclusive, we get up close and personal with this sexy maverick actor about Hollywood, traveling and the perfect place on Earth.

Lance Avery Morgan: Sam, you’re on a hit show playing a really nice guy surrounded by sharkish lawyers. Is it a fun role?

Sam Page: It really is. The character is not inclined to be a lawyer because of his life in politics – he was never interested in justice and the law. My co-star, James Woods’ is one of the veteran actors on television these days. He’s very generous and protective of the other actors.

LAM: You obviously are very educated – did your Ivy League education help you prepare for this type of role, meaning, are you sort of playing yourself?

SP: I don’t think school prepared me to play a lawyer role – my education in law has been from watching TV. My formal education taught me about hard work and discipline and how that can pay off.

LAM: You got your degree in ecology and evolutionary biology. Not exactly a drama major. Why’d you pursue the thespian life?

SP: I knew that to finish my degree and writing my thesis – I would have find something I was interested in. Acting and drama was not an option because of the time it took. So I picked something I wanted to learn I with my major and that major answered a lot of questions about life and the world around us.

LAM: So, picking up acting was sort of intuitive then?

SP: I am so passionate about film. It just seemed right to do it. As a child, my parents took me along to films and dinner afterward with their friends and they would discuss the movie analytically so I guess being a part of that really helped my passion.

LAM: That’s pretty cool. Parents are important in the formation of our pop cultural tastes. What films influenced you most?

SP: That’s easy. Anything with Jack Nicholson, William Hurt and films like The Big Chill, Gorky’s Park, Prizzi’s Honor that I saw as a kid.

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LAM: When you were on the WB’s monster family hit, 7th Heaven, that must have been interesting. You weren’t one of those many teenagers on the show who gets married at 16 were you?

SP: Ha. I wasn’t. That and working on NBC’s American Dreams were great training ground. It showed me how to know what goes into putting together a scene.

LAM: Long days on the set can take their toll. How do you unwind?

SP: It doesn’t seem like we have too long of work days right now. Just twelve hour days. But I do like to run at night. It’s one exercise I know I can do consistently. I like to do Pilates when I have time off.

LAM: What hotspots are your current favorites in Los Angeles?

SP: I don’t go out a whole lot - I just don’t go to the big clubs you read about. I mostly go to bars when I go out. The Village Idiot is fun and the Snake Pit is nearby that. Then there’s the Belmont. The Well on Sunset Boulevard. OK, I guess I do have some favorites.

LAM: Since this is our big Travel Issue, tell me about some of your favorite travels.

SP: I like to travel a lot. Close to home, I have family on the East Coast in Boston and I lived in New York for a year and fell in love with city. I love London. And I shot a movie in Spain on the coast across from Gibraltar and Morocco, which was an amazing experience.

LAM: Is that your favorite place in the world?

SP: Really, Barcelona is my favorite place in the world. I prefer going to cities to make it an adventure. I’m not a laying on the beach kind of guy.

LAM: Do you have a favorite type of book to read while traveling – light and frothy or heavy and heady?

SP: I take a book that’s light – and as many scripts as possible. Movie scripts are a great read while on vacation. Your imagination opens up a little more when you’re relaxed.

LAM: Speaking of your career, what’s your secret to acting success?

SP: You know, I have a hard time to considering myself successful because there is always the next level to achieve. As an actor, the greatest tools to work with your life experiences, so pay attention to the details of your life – the more you can recall, the more you can achieve.