Meet Grayson on ‘Beyond the Gates’: Jordi Vilasuso Details Character With a ‘Good Heart’
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Jordi Vilasuso will make his Beyond the Gates debut on Tuesday, January 13, as a new character, Grayson Perez.
Since getting his daytime start as Tony Santos on Guiding Light in 2000, Vilasuso has built an impressive résumé that includes playing All My Children‘s Griffin Castillo, Days of our Lives‘ Dario Hernandez, and, most recently, Rey Rosales on The Young and the Restless. Now stepping into his fifth soap role, the Daytime Emmy winner is keenly aware of how rare such opportunities have become. “I’m grateful to work in a time where jobs are few and far between,” he says. “It’s a privilege nowadays to work on a TV show, and I’m so encouraged by there being a fifth soap on the air. When I started 25 years ago, there were 10 soap operas. It shows you the viability. The people want these stories. There’s still an audience for them, and it keeps us actors employed.”
The timing of the new role has been especially fortunate for the Vilasuso family. Beyond the Gates films in Atlanta, and the family moved to Nashville last year, a change he says has been nothing but positive. “I left L.A. for a reason, because I knew I didn’t have to be there to work, and my family had an opportunity to go to Nashville, which we’re just loving,” Vilasuso explains. “It’s a three-and-a-half-hour drive to the studio, not bad at all. Sometimes my call time is at 2 p.m., and I’ll leave Nashville at 8 a.m., come here, finish, and then go back, and I get to see my kids.”
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Upon arriving on the BTG set, Vilasuso says he was immediately embraced by his new castmates. “It’s just such a great group,” he enthuses. “And it’s so interesting to be on a show that’s just starting. Everybody’s here helping something grow and wanting it to do really well. There’s a lot of loveliness in this place. Sometimes you don’t feel that family dynamic, and on this show in particular, I feel like everybody is just so friendly and welcoming. That’s been really encouraging and just a positive work environment.”
Like AMC‘s Griffin, Vilasuso is once again donning scrubs. “He’s a lab tech, and he’s got a very good heart,” relays Vilasuso of Grayson. “He’s been raised by a single parent for some time, and now the roles have changed because he has to take care of his mother. And he goes to great lengths; I’ll just leave it at that.”
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The role also places him in story with Jen Jacob‘s Ashley Morgan, a collaboration he was immediately excited about. “She’s super talented,” he praises. “When I did the chemistry read, I was like, ‘Wow, this would be so great. If I get to work with her, I’m going to be happy.’ And it worked out. She’s just such a pro, works very hard, and I’ll be honest, that hasn’t always been the case with costars, and that just makes the dynamic a lot of fun, and makes coming to work great. She’s reading the scripts and saying, ‘Okay, your storyline is getting so good.’ So, she’s excited, and that’s really what we should be. When you have that, and you’re all able to all be in that place, you’re like, ‘OK, cool.’”
Beyond the creative camaraderie, Vilasuso is enjoying the perks of the show’s production setup. “They actually have craft services here, too, which, by the way, is nonexistent on other shows,” he adds. “It’s a new studio, which is nice. The dressing rooms are great. It’s new sets, which are really nice, too. I’m shooting in Georgia, which I’ve never shot in Georgia, and it’s a beautiful place to shoot. It’s definitely a vibe.”
Outside of his Atlanta commute, Vilasuso has kept plenty on his plate. “It’s funny, when I got this role, I actually booked a movie, I booked a commercial, and I got funding for my project, all in the same week,” he marvels. “It was insane. It was such a blessing. And I had to say no to the commercial, and they moved the dates for the movie so I could do this show, which had never happened to me in my life. I was like, ‘Oh, my God, you can move the dates for me? That’s amazing.’”
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Reflecting on the past year, the actor notes just how dramatically his circumstances have shifted. “This time last year, I was definitely in a much different place,” he says. “And I just have a lot of gratitude in my life. I’m feeling good. I’m feeling really, really excited. I feel like there’s an opportunity here for Grayson to go in a lot of different directions.”
Vilasuso also remains deeply appreciative of the viewers who have supported him throughout his career. “I have fans that have become like friends,” he concludes. “I feel so blessed for the fans that I still have that watch me, that are always asking me, ‘When are we going to see you on TV again?’ And I’m so grateful that I have a really great answer for them now and a really great show. So, I can’t wait, and I’m hoping that we can keep this audience growing and alive, and that this is just the beginning of bringing soaps back to TV and broadcast television.”
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