Read related article "Transcript: Mark's Appearance at the Salem Daysfest Fanfest Reception for him"

Mark's First Question and Answer Session (also included Braden Matthews):

(Mark is wearing a brown jacket, blue v-neck lightweight sweater, and dark blue jeans)

Question to Braden: I wanted to know how you feel playing a bad guy. I mean Stefano's going to have to die sooner or later....

[crowd and Braden laugh]

Braden: Stefano will never die. How many times has Stefano been killed? [listens for answer from crowd] Nine. Oh, it's the best [to play a bad guy]. [points to Mark and jokingly teases him] Who wants to play a good guy like him? I mean he's just like ... he's pretty and everything [someone teases Braden for saying that about Mark].

Mark: How many Home Pages do you got on the internet, pal? [points to Braden with a smile] Go ahead!

[crowd laughs]

Braden: Four.... A hundred....

[crowd laughs]

Question: I have a question for you. When you decide to leave the show, is it the producer's choice or the actor's choice?

Mark: It depends. I had a three year contract. And umm... months before your contract finishes, the producers will approach you and give you an offer and then you decide to negotiate. For money, stuff like that. Money, vacations, cars, stuff like that. And umm... and then you go through a negotiating process and... Uh... let me just say this point: if you get fired, they fire you, if they want you, they give you an offer. And if you want to stay, you take the offer or you try to negotiate it and try to get the money up or whatever. For me, they wanted me to stay. [Mark raises his voice and says] They wanted me to stay! I didn't get fired! I wanna make that clear, alright? [crowd cheers] They wanted me to stay, not the producers, but I think some of the people that watch the show -- like my immediate family. [Mark and Braden laugh] They wanted me to stay, but in the middle of negotiating, I kind of thought to myself, you know, "I need to take a little risk. Need to take a little chance. Need to take a little jump. And umm... I said, "It's been fun. Thanks. But I'm not going to take the offer..."

Braden: Actually, it's just like any other job. You have different levels to it. Doing what we do is just one level of it. And you can do that for the rest of your life, if that's what you want to do. Or if you want to go on and do films, [then] do films. But the way that the business works, it's a really difficult circle to get into and everything. And when you feel like you're at the highest [?], you gotta strike. You gotta do that. I mean, Mark definitely has the capability to do films and I'm sure he's gonna be successful at it.

[crowd goes "awww..." because they thought that was sweet of Braden to say that about Mark. Mark walks across stage to hug Braden and they kind of laugh. Crowd claps]

[Someone in crowd asks Mark if they gave him a "Farewell Party"]

Mark: Yeah, they give me a cake. That's what happens when you leave the show -- they give you a cake. Everyone stands around and they get somebody from the soap magazine to take a picture of everybody smiling around the cake. And then you eat the cake and then they say, "Hey, we're filming. Let's get back into Studio Two. Bail [?] outta here!" [crowd laughs]

Question: Is the person that's playing Jack, is he as good-looking as you?

[Crowd goes "aww." Mark smiles]

Mark: Awww.. that's such a nice thing... Well, I would guess he probably is....

[crowd, Mark and Braden laugh]

Braden: Good answer, Mark.

Mark: It's gonna be a question of taste, you know what I mean? One man's ... whatever. However the saying goes...

Braden: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

Mark: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, you know so..... [to fan] Thank you very much.

Question: Question for you, Jack: Who's the better kisser -- the old Jennifer or the new?

Mark: Oh boy, what a question. [crowd laughs] I don't know. I mean, I think... I think probably the new one, just because the old one had to kiss Peter so much. He is so messy when he kisses! [crowd laughs] He was just like, you know, saliva everywhere. You'd have to turn down the volume -- it would be like [Mark makes slurping noises into the microphone. Crowd laughs] You know that? Isn't that kind of disgusting when you're watching the show and it's like they're kissing? Right? And you have the volume turned up, you know, you hear this, like [Mark makes more kissing sounds. Crowd laughs] And you're like "UGGH! I mean, I want Bo & Hope to be together but that sounds disgusting!", you know?

[Beauty pageant winner "Miss Marion County Fair 1997" walks onto stage, standing in the middle of the stage, near Mark, to his left side]

Braden: Oh Mark, here comes "Miss Marion County Pageant".

[Mark shakes her hand]

Mark: [smiles and says to crowd] Wow. She is beautiful.

[Man from Fanfest presents Beauty Pageant winner to crowd, saying she's a Days fan. She says she goes to college]

Mark: [to beauty pageant winner] So what are you studying in college?

Pageant Winner: Dental hygiene.

Mark: What a coincidence! Braden just gave me some floss today before we came out here. [Pageant winner and crowd laughs] He's actually pretty good at that [I think Mark shows pageant winner how Braden flosses -- couldn't tell because the camera was elsewhere.]

Braden: Mark said, "Could I borrow some toothpaste?"

Mark: And then he offered floss. I mean, how many people, like, offer... except, you know, [if] you need floss...

[crowd laughs]

Braden: I do it once a year, whether I need it or not. I always floss once a year.

Mark's second Q & A session at Fanfest:

(Mark is now wearing just his blue v-neck sweater, with a grey t-shirt underneath and same dark blue jeans)

Mark: .... Oh, I was gonna talk about "Abby" and the girls. Yeah. The thing about some child actors is they really um.... You know how little kids like "pretend", like "let's pretend", play store or something like that and they really believe it? You know, that's what's so great about those two little kids.... If I seem to be talking a little bit fast, it's because I just went to the hospital because I'm allergic to bee stings and I got stung in the hand [shows audience his thumb] and it started to swell up. But they gave me some epinephrine, so my heart is beating at twice the normal speed so... [Mark laughs and crowd laughs]. My mouth is moving at twice the normal speed. But anyway, one of the times with Paige and Ryanne, I couldn't rehearse the scene with them because they would believe it was actually happening. For example, we had this one scene where I have to tell Abby that I'm taking her to the park. And we rehearsed it once and I said, "Well, Abby, you know, we'll go to the park." And she says, "Okay, Daddy, let's go." But then, when we actually got on tape, I said, "Abby, let's go to the park." And she said, "You already told me that five minutes ago." [crowd laughs] And I was like, "It's pretend!" But they're a lot of fun to work with though. Good little actresses.

Braden: Yeah. They miss you.

Mark: Aww... I went to their soccer game last weekend. They're on a little soccer team. Yeah. I go to watch their soccer games on Saturdays.

Braden: ...where all twenty kids run after the ball...

Mark: [laughs] Yeah. It's like they follow the ball like a big snake. [Braden laughs]

Someone asks Mark if he's planning to go to another Soap Opera.

Mark: Uh.... I don't plan on going to another Soap. I plan on using soap. But... [crowd and Braden laughs]

[a half a minute later....]

Mark: Oh, someobody asked me if Paige and Ryanne, the girls who play Abby, if they think I'm "Batman". And I had these boots on from the Army [Mark shows his boots to audience] and they looked at them one time and said, "those are Batman boots." So I said, "oh okay." And then they saw my car, and I have a Mustang Fastback. So I told them I drive the Batmobile. So they're like, "Wow! You really drive the Batmobile!" So they think I'm Batman. [Braden and crowd laughs] Then one time, I'm at a car show and they had one of the real Batman cars from the TV show. So I got my picture, like, inside that car. So that cinched it. Now I am really Batman. [Mark laughs] I've got proof -- documented proof that I am Batman... Braden was auditioning for the part of "Robin"...

[Man from Fanfest introduces Barry from VRoom Video to talk about a sort of "incriminating" tape of Mark that he has.]

Braden: Mark.... in the Bat-tights! [crowd laughs] That's incriminating.

Mark: [laughs and says to Braden] Go for the easy joke! Go for the [?] joke! [Braden and Mark laugh]

[Barry talks about the video, saying it was made at James Reynolds' (Abe) charity basketball tournament.]

Barry: ... We have some very interesting footage of Mark...

Braden: ...making a shot, but actually missing it by, like, sixty feet.

[Barry gives Mark the videotape. Mark is smiling, takes the tape and sticks it right down the inside part of his blue jeans, in order to hide it. Too funny!! Mark starts laughing. Braden really starts laughing. Barry continues to talk to audience about ordering videotapes]

Mark: [says to crowd] The video is missing. The video's been taken away. I don't know where it is...

Barry: We've got plenty more.....

Braden: [laughing] "We've got plenty more." "Hard Copy's" got a copy of that, Mark.

[Mark has turned around and his back is facing the audience. While Barry is talking, Mark pulls the tape out of his blue jeans and pretends he's destroying the videotape by stomping on it and crushing it. Then, he turns around and gives Barry the tape back]

[Mark takes off his blue sweater and is wearing a grey t-shirt. Barry is asking if Mark will sign the tape for him. Mark signs it. Barry is talking about his videotaping this Fanfest, asking crowd to order the tape]

Barry: [to audience] ... so if you have any questions [about the tape or ordering], just ask me, myself.

Mark: [smiling] I got a question, Barry. How much am I getting paid for this?

Barry: Umm.... I heard that you're going to be unemployed soon, so whatever you want.

[Mark laughs]

Mark's third Q & A session, Braden is not present at this session:

(Mark is wearing a white t-shirt now and the same dark blue jeans)

Mark: [to crowd] If anything at all could happen, if I was gonna come back to Days of our Lives, like any character, any plot or any storyline, who would it be and what would I do?

[Mark chooses a fan in audience.].

Fan #1: You could... someone to beat up Sami.

[Mark and audience really laugh at that answer. Audience claps]

Mark: Good one. Mark Valley comes back as the character of the guy who beats up Sami.

Fan #2: How old are your kids and what's their names?

Mark: How old is what?

Fan #2: Your children. If you have any...

Mark: Oh, I have one daughter. A beautiful daughter. Her name is Sherri Anne Valley [sp?] and she's nine years old. She's got a birthday coming up on ...

[tape cuts off rest of his answer]

Fan #3: Do you have like a funny story that happened like off the set? Like do you do pranks or jokes or anything?

Mark: Do I pull pranks or anything like that? [fan answers 'yeah'] Umm... I do but they're much too disgusting to be shared with everybody here [Mark and fan laugh] Let me think of a good prank. Umm...

Fan #3: I mean, is it all work and no play?

Mark: Oh no! There's a lot of play. There's a lot of messing around. I don't know. Where's Braden? Does Braden have any good pranks? No, I guess he can't remember any. Umm.. I think what we used to do, is they'd send down pink pages like with line changes and stuff like that. And every once in a while I would change people's lines and send down pink pages and have them say these ridiculous things. And then they'd get on the set and and the people in the booth are like, "What the heck are they talking about?!" So I used to do that sometimes. I used to mess around with Jason Brooks quite a bit, but he couldn't really take a joke that much. He used to get really mad -- he's a big guy [Mark kind of laughs] -- so I kind of stopped pulling pranks on him. And that's about it. We really have a pretty good time there. But for me, personally, I tend to, like, if I'm not working, I just kind of sit around in my room and read or play the guitar or something like that, you know. It's not like... it's not like partying between the scenes like "Woohoo!! I got ten minutes! Let's party! Yeah!"

Fan#3: You play the acoustic guitar?

Mark: Yeah. Yeah. You know, I mean I'm no "Eddie Vedder" or anything but [kind of laughs]

[fan asks Mark a question, which we don't hear]

Mark: I can only watch myself on television, or on the show, maybe about once every two months or once every month because I'll see myself do a scene, and then I'll think like, you know, where I'll be doing something where I'm like "Jennifer, you have to understand that you da,da,da,da....." I'll be watching and I'll be like [Mark has a disgusted look on his face] "Oh God!", you know? I couldn't believe it. I can't really... I can see a lot of my mistakes when I watch it so I don't watch it that much. So I don't beat myself to death about it, you know what I mean? Umm.. do I worry about... what did you say? Do I worry about what they think of me?

Person in Audience: Well, maybe the critics. Do you ever pay any attention to that?

Mark: Oh yeah! One of the hardest things is when the critics will come up to you and say... or someone comes up to you and says, "I really love your work. You're great on the show." Or, "You're my favorite character." You know, you have like a... it's very nice when people come up to say that. But you really have to, in the words of Brad Pitt, you know, you have to kind of know what you have yourself and that's the most important thing. Because if you start believing everything that people tell you that's good about you, then when somebody comes up and says, "Hey! Jack! I think you suck!", you know, you're like, "Oh, do I believe this?" If I believe all the good things everybody said, now do I believe... this. So you end up.. umm... It's [an] interesting situation. It really forces you to analyze your own work and your own talent and just kind of believe in yourself, know what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are. And just kind of go from there. I mean, it's nice to hear good things and it sucks to hear bad things, but it doesn't really get to your core, you know?

Read related article "Transcript: Mark's Appearance at the Salem Daysfest Fanfest Reception for him"