Rollercoaster Ride

DAYS' Jensen Ackles moved to L.A. at just the right time!

He first appeared on the DAYS OF OUR LIVES scene last summer as long-lost Brady twin Eric--and from that moment on, Jensen Ackles has been melting hearts with soulful eyes adn dynamic on-screen prescence. And just what does the Dallas, Texas native think of this breakout success? "Wow," is Ackles' instinctive response. "I'm pinching myself," he admits. "I had no idea the character would be this big of a hit."

Ackles has been in L.A. since September 1996, when he was coaxed to the West Coast by persistant managers who insisted the teen had a shot at the showbiz brass ring. And after just a few months, he got the first of a steady string of acting gigs. And then came DAYS, "It's been a rollercoaster," Ackles asserts.

But Ackles seems to have kept his feet on the ground and his head out of the clouds--his rumored romance with country western sensation LeAnn Rimes notwithstanding (Rimes is slated to appear for several episodes on DAYS later this spring and will factor into Eric's story). He lives with two buddies from Texas who "always throw me a bone if I get a little too high for my league," he says with a laugh.

And now Eric's getting his own storyline, a new job...and it looks like he's getting a new girlfriend, too. "It's broken the dry spell," Ackles observes...and he's on his way to breaking many a viewer's heart as well, no doubt.

By Ellen Baskin, Soap Opera Update, April 28, 1998