Hometown: Minot, ND

Comedy or Drama?: "Comedy for sure. I'm most alive when I'm getting to do that."

Say Ahhh! Duhamel originally planned to become a dentist.

Heart of the matter: Duhamel is still dating model Kristy Pierce. "Everything's great with Kristy. She's doing well. She has been [visiting] with me in New York for the last couple of months."

AMC's Josh Duhamel contemplates the future.

"It's been great. It's been the best two years of my life, for sure," begins Josh Duhamel, who debuted as ALL MY CHILDREN's caddish Leo in October 1999. Then, he reflects, "I mean, it has been up and down as far as the show ... as far as the character, as far as how I feel [about] where the character is going and stuff like that."

For a while, the actor ---and some viewers ---- complained that the leather-pants-wearing Lothario had gone too soft. Take the time last spring when the once-feisty du Pres was reduced to blowing bubbles in the park with ailing Laura, whom he suddenly and inexplicably loved.

"The thing that got me down wasn't so much the Laura [relationship]. It was treating Greenlee so poorly throughout the whole thing. That was unnecessary," Duhamel notes. "I can't believe there are all these things like, 'Oooh, it's a triangle with Greenlee, Jake and [Leo], and half of them like Jake, and half of them like Leo.' Well, I can't believe they all don't like Jake because Leo treated her so crappy, you know?"

Duhamel share his grievances with show brass. "I went down there repeatedly and said, 'This isn't right. You can't throw away what Greenlee and Leo built. You just can't do it. I don't care how badly you guys want to build Jake up. This isn't fair to what we've done.' I was bitter about it. I was bitter that they lowered my character to build up Laura and Jake's characters and make them look better."

The actor who balked at Leo and Laura's forced romance says he tried to keep former co-star Laura Allen (Laura) from taking his frustrations personally. "I was always concerned about that with Laura. And we talked about it. I didn't want her to think that it was anything to do with her because I liked her. She felt the same way. She felt the relationship was coming out of nowhere, and they were fabricating this thing. They made her do things that were unrealistic, common sense-wise ... there was no rhyme nor reason to it. I thought she did a good job."

Now that the widely loathed union is kaput and the character has regained his spirit --- and Greenlee --- the actor muses, "I think he's back on track. I think Leo came out of it a better person, and I think that he learned."

But Duhamel isn't sure he emerged from the storyline unscathed. "You know what? To be honest, I feel like I've lost so many fans throughout this last six or eight months. That's what I feel. People haven't told me that, thank God. I've heard from people, 'Leo lost his fans because Josh lost his ... sparkle or whatever.' I think that has a lot to do with the thing they have for Jake now. They're so p---d off at what happened with Leo and Greenlee and the way he treated her that it's almost like they're thumbing their nose to it now, out of spite. As long as it's even, as long as we both get equal opportunity, it's fine with me. I love it. I love the fact that there's a strong triangle. As long as it isn't too much about sex with Leo and Greenlee. As long as they don't make it to be that it wasn't about anything other than sexual attraction because that's not true. There's so much more to it than that."

Though he fears his populatiry has slipped, fans, castmates and soap critics have pegged the actor as someone with breakout potential. Does Duhamel think he has a shot at branching into prime-time or film? "Well, I hope so. It's scary. It [would be] tough to walk away from AMC, but yeah, I've got really good people around me now as far as agents and managers. I'm not going to lie: I'm definitely going to try to go as far as I can. Not because I'm unhappy, but because I'm the kind of person who likes to keep going and tries to achieve as many things as I can so I don't get stagnant." On the other hand, he admits, "I'm scared, and you never know what's going to happen. There are people who think there's also a good chance that I'll go out there and fall flat on my face."

The show-biz adage, "Always leave them wanting more," strikes a chord with the actor. "I don't want to overstay my welcome at AMC because I don't want people to get tired of me. I don't want them to get used to me ... I don't want them to get sick of me."

So, what's his dream swan song? When Duhamel's contract is up next fall, should Leo wander off with amnesia just in time for pilot season? Or perhaps fall victim to a spectacular, showy soap death?

"Well, I hope they don't kill me," he muses. "I'd hope that they would leave the door open because I'd love to come back. Even if I went off and had sucess, I'd like to come back for little things beause it's fun. I love the people here so much."

Play Bill

He has leading-man looks, but Josh Duhamel wants to play quirky, character parts. "I've seen Best in Show five times and Waiting for Guffman jsut as many. That's my favorite kind of stuff to do -- not the romantic lead, crying over a deathbed kind of stuff. I like [drama]. It's good exercise, but it's not what I prefer to do. I was watching Scrooged [starring] Bill Murray the other night. Something like that would be awesome. Ultimately, Bill Murray's career is what would be the idea, to play these off-the-wall stupid characters. He's so funny, and he doesn't even try. I was trying to figure him out. Usually, you can watch and see, "Okay, that's what he's doing.' With him, I can't figure that guy out.