SOAP OPERA Weekly 4/18/1995 - After Midnight

Playing a street cop in MIDNIGHT MAN - an action- adventure flick starring Lorenzo Lamas (Lance Cumson, Falcon Crest) and Eric Pierpoint - was like reliving a part of his childhood for Gerald Hopkins (ex-AJ, General Hospital). "I felt like I was 5 years old again and playing cops and robbers in my neighborhood," says Hopkins. "There were a lot of action scenes, and I got to handle all kinds of guns. I learned a lot about using weapons - live weapons. That was probably the high- light of the movie for me."

MIDNIGHT MAN is the story of a Taiwanese drug ring, and the cops' plan to use their top-notch surveillance team to expose the gang. Pierpoint plays Paddy, the team leader. Hop- kins' Tony is one of his overly eager, and somewhat inexperienced, men. Lamas portrays Kang, a cop proficient in marital arts and fluent in Taiwanese who is brought on to the case.

Hopkins describes Tony as "the cowboy of the group, who's always on the edge and looking for action. He's very sarcastic, and is usually the first one into a gunfight. My job in the script was mainly to stay on Kang's behind," he laughs. "I always rag on him. He's the hero, obviously. My character is kind of the comic relief. The surveillance team needs him to help with the drug bust, thought."

Normally cast as the guy-next-door, Hopkins got to shed his clean-cut, all-American-boy look for the film. He had grown his hair long and was sporting a goatee when he went on the audition, he says. "The director loved it. He told me that it was perfect for Tony."

Hopkins recounts in vivid detail his test for MIDNIGHT MAN. "I wanted to show (the producers) that I could do action," he says, explaining that the audition scene had Tony in "a target simulation range going through a fake town where people popped out from behind buildings."

"Even though the audition room was kind of small - I only had about 10 feet at the most in which to do this roll - I decided to go for it," Hopkins continues. "Well, my adrenaline was going, and I overshot it. I really nailed the wall with my shin. I almost took the house down."

MIDNIGHT MAN'S producers obviously appreciated Hopkins' effort. "My manager told me that they thought I was the funniest guy there, and best for the character. Besides, since I almost killed myself in the audition; they had to give me the part," the actor laughs.

Although Hopkins' character meets an untimely demise in the movie, the actor is taking it all in stride. "I get killed in everything! I guess I die well," he says, deadpan. "In the past I've always been cast as the best friend or someone really close to the hero, and those characters always get knocked off.

"But in this film my character's death is a little less sympathetic, be- cause Tony is pretty much a smart aleck," Hopkins continues. "So some people might even cheer when he gets killed."

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