An artist uses shadow for a multitude of purposes. To create mystery, to add depth, to stimulate the mind into seeing something that may or may not be there.

A good actor does the same thing.

Michael Nader is a very good actor.

Since joining the cast of ABC's All My Children as Dimitri Marick, Michael Nader has kept a tight rein on the publicity that surrounds him. Speculation on why he is doing this has run the gamut from "He's difficult" to "He's shy." The answer is: Michael Nader is a professional.

That proves itself to anyone who tunes in to AMC these days. The Dimitri/Natalie/Trevor/Janet storyline has intrigued viewers, while lifting the show in the Nielson ratings for the past several months.

What Nader brings to the mix is a touch of the mysterious -- something that the people behind the show as well as the actor are striving to maintain. "We created a dark, handsome, mysterious stranger. But then we got Michael Nader, and it's so much more than we ever hoped for," offers AMC co-headwriter Lorraine Broderick.

For his part, Nader is staying away from the press in an effort to perpetuate this shadowy image that is Dimitri Marick. And when you do manage to pin him down for a few minutes so that he can discuss the character, the actor simply creates more depth, intrigue, mystery, more shadows.

When asked to explain what motivates Dimitri's life, Nader responds with great suspense: "Knowing now tenuous life can be." Broderick is slightly more forthcoming when she adds: He's certainly a man who wants to be in control. He's a very strong man, he's a very passionate man. He's had a troubled, tragic background, and is just beginning to come out into the world again after being quite reclusive for the past 15 years. He is guarded, and he plays everything very close to the best. He is very slow to let other people in -- except Natalie, with whom he feels a special and unique bond, because he rescued her and because he fell in love with her very quickly, which we hope will be part of the mystery."

Mystery seems to be the key here.

Perhaps we can shed some light on what exactly brought Michael Nader to daytime. According to AMC casting director Judy Blye Wilson, they had been searching fast and for the actor that would bring Dimitri to life. "Quite frankly, we had tested many people, about 15 or 20, and no one that we had tested seemed to be quite right." So Wilson, remembering Nader from his Dynasty days, was hit with the inspiration that the enigmatic actor would make the perfect Dimitri. "I took the idea to my producer, and she loved it. And then we went after him," she adds with a sense of accomplishment in her voice.

"We wanted a really exciting love triangle," explains Broderick. "Natalie and Trevor are a couple that the audience has been loving and rooting for for about two years now. And of course with the Janet story, they were estranged. So we were looking for a really exciting, romantic, handsome leading man, so that there would be a real impediment; you know we'd have a really exciting love story between Trevor and somebody as different from Trevor as we could get...because Trevor is a wonderful, warm, teddy bear, lovable, down-to-earth, right-out-there guy -- and Dimitri is very much opposite from that." Broderick thinks about her comparison for a moment and then adds with a laugh: "Obviously both attractive in their own right...and lucky Natalie!"

Luck indeed. For Natalie not only finds herself the object of Trevor's desire, she also finds herself the point of obsession for Dimitri. "He can't do anything else," Nader says of the attraction. "There's an obsession. He doesn't know himself the reason for the attraction." But soon everyone else will know, and that will eliminate at least one shadow from this artist's rendering.

But still, others remain. According to Broderick, the more the writers see of Michael Nader, the more mysterious and intricate the character of Dimitri becomes. "It's so much more than we ever hoped for," she enthuses. The more we see of him, the more he inspires us. It's just a wonderful marriage of actor and character. And the more we see, the more we want to see. He's giving us so many levels and such depth, that it's a challenge. But it's exciting. Dimitri is one of the characters that is so much fun to write."

"Dimitri is a man who has had after-life experiences. He's experienced death and come back," Nader offers, while casting further shadows on the character. The assessment is very intriguing, but as with many things, the more light you try to shed on it, the more shadowy the figure becomes. Nader sums up the conversation with an intense, if obtuse statement of where he would like to see the character of Dimitri Marick go -- "Into an area of control that no one can understand or quibble with."

They say that the only time a shadow truly disappears is when there is an equal amount of light hitting an object from all angles. So during this time when the press is coming at Michael Nader from all directions, it is his desire to keep quiet, to block the light from shining in the only direction that he can control, that keeps Dimitri in the shadows, where everyone seems to agree he belongs.