DAYTIME TV Would-be soap stars should heed actor's advice: Keep your shirt on

Not enough attention was paid to the actor's talent.
By TERRY MORROW
SCRIPPS HOWARD
Cameron Mathison is in a hurry to keep his shirt on.
"I'm not taking my shirt off as much anymore," says the actor, whose Ryan Lavery character is famous for going topless just about anywhere on "All My Children" (1 p.m. weekdays, ABC).
At home.
At work.
Even standing around an elevator.
"I started on [the soap] as a guy who didn't own a shirt," Mathison jokes. "That digs a hole for an actor. Yeah, it's fun for the fans and stuff, but no one takes you seriously."
A shirtless Ryan became so popular with viewers that Mathison couldn't resist their pleas during public appearances. They chanted for him to take it off -- and he obliged.
Now he regrets it.
"I blame myself for letting it get out of control," he says. "I didn't realize it was escalating into such a silly thing."
Noticed for wrong reason
Turns out that his well-toned tummy and broad chest were getting more notices than his acting chops.
The 35-year-old soap stud stayed with the show for four years. He left for a year, did some prime-time guest gigs and then returned with a new outlook. During the leave from daytime, he got married and became a father.
He says his priorities changed. The shirt is staying on.
"I stopped taking it off in places where it was just kind of silly," he says.
"On the show, we had a little talk about it, and they promised me my shirt would not come off on the show in places where it doesn't make sense, like at the elevator at the office. It's just a weird place to get naked."
The buttoned-up Mathison is baring some thoughts during an interview about his latest gig -- as host of the reality series "I Wanna Be a Soap Star" (8 p.m. Saturdays on SoapNet).
On it, struggling actors looking for their big break compete for a contract role on "General Hospital." Like with other so-called reality shows, the contestants live together and participate in challenges.
Each week a person is eliminated.
Sees same mistakes
Mathison sees some of the male contestants making the rookie mistakes he did. They love lifting their shirts and showing off their six-pack abs to impress casting agents.
He's hardly the first daytime actor to be used this way. On the late CBS soap "Capitol," for example, the executive producer vowed to raise ratings by keeping the show's hunky lifeguard shirtless during the summer of 1982, and he was.
As host of "Soap Star," Mathison is forbidden to give contestants advice. But if he could, he'd tell them to keep it on.
It's not the advice he got in his early days.
"Back then I didn't have a clear idea of what was important when you're an actor," he says. "I just wanted to make a splash and secure my place on the show. I just did it in the wrong way."