Beauty, brains and hockey sticks
‘MVP’ star can school you on economic theories or just make you swoon
Most men with a bachelor’s degree in environmental science and a master’s in economics don’t wind up in a job that lands them half naked on a billboard in Times Square.
Currently, however, Dillon Casey, a 24-year-old graduate of Canada’s McGill University and the University of Toronto, stands towering over a Sbarro’s pizza shop on Broadway in nothing more than his Jockeys.
“I didn’t realize how huge this billboard was,” admits the Toronto-based Casey, who not only is well-educated, but the star of the sexy new SoapNet drama “MVP.” “But I’m not embarrassed. It’s good for the show; it’s all part of the character and was fun to do. We’ll see how I feel once I actually get down to New York and see the thing, but for now I’ll pretend that everything’s OK.”
Things actually seem to be going more than just OK for the chiseled young actor. “MVP” is a soap opera in the vein of “Footballers’ Wive$,” a fictional, salacious document of the lives of professional hockey players, and the women surrounding them. It first debuted earlier this year in Canada. Casey plays small-town rookie phenom Trevor Lemonde, who makes his multimillion dollar debut with the Mustangs hockey club at the start of the series. Trevor’s transition from the minor leagues to the big time echoes Casey’s own experience playing small parts before jumping into a headlining role in a prime time series.
“‘MVP’ is the biggest job I had ever gotten,” Casey says. “I was on set with mostly very experienced actors, and I was the fish out of water there. It scared the crap out of me.
“As an actor, you wait and wait to get a job, and then when you get a job, it’s the greatest feeling in the world at first,” he explains.
“I do hope to one day use my degrees,” Casey says in full-on regular guy, never-had-passersby-stare-at-his-package mode. “Before I got into this acting thing I always wanted to go to school and just know about the world. I never knew that I would be successful in acting — I mean, who does know that? University was such a great time. I wouldn’t give up those years at University for being world famous.”
“MVP” premieres Thursday at 11 p.m. on SoapNet with an encore airing Friday at 10 p.m. on ABC.