Rev Up Your Engines! Days Heads to Motor City!

Bryan Dattilo is excited about his upcoming trip to Detroit for the Days of our Lives Talent and Fan Search. He's thrilled about the partnership with Gleaners Food Bank, and also about the trip to the Veteran's Administration hospital. As he told us, the VA hospital visit "means a lot to me. My grandfather was a Marine and received the Purple Heart in World War II," so a visit there is going to be special for him. And he enjoys meeting all kinds of people when he gets away from his duties in Salem, because, as he puts it, "our jobs are filled with a lot of hard work and a lot of studio time. You're usually grinding it out, there's another episode due tomorrow … It's a lot of hard work and can be exhausting and you forget just how many people watch. When you travel, you really get a sense of what your job means and how you affect people on a day-to-day basis. How you get them through when they're sick in the hospital or home from work or home from school or in bed or depressed or whatever they're going through. When you travel, you hear those stories and that's really cool."

But this is Bryan Dattilo we're talking about, so he's definitely not all about the serious. He enjoys traveling to events, getting out and meeting new people, but he tells us he also looks "forward to spending time with my coworkers, my peers, outside of the work environment. That's always fun. I'm looking forward to going to the Palace, where the Pistons play. It has a lot of basketball history. As a Laker fan growing up, I hated the Pistons! So it's going to be really cool to go there. Kind of like when I went to Lambeau Field as a Bears fan. You appreciate your rival when you go because you usually get a great tour and you get to understand the history of the team. You realize that they are a special team."

He's also looking forward to the "Man on the Street" segments he'll be doing live for the morning show on WDIV-TV. That's right; Bryan Dattilo will be hitting the streets of Detroit, brightening people's mornings. Live; no Days of our Lives script to follow. Scared? Not Bryan. He's looking "forward to it because that's my strength, just hanging out with people and talking to different kinds of people and appreciating all kinds. Being able to pull funny stuff out of people and do fun things. I can't wait for that. That's not work for me; that's just having fun."

Another perk is that Days' visit to Detroit may just give someone the chance of a lifetime. Bryan is used to telling people that they should probably move to Los Angeles or New York if they want to pursue acting. Now, "with a thing like this," he tells us, they don't have to do that. They can just come out and display what they have to offer, whatever their strengths are. It could work out for somebody. You never know. It could be a whole new life for somebody. It's kind of cool. We might actually have an influence."

His advice for what it takes to be a successful actor? "It sounds so clichéd, but always stick to what you are. Don't ever try to be anybody but what you have to offer. You're original just by being you. A lot of people think they have to do a song and dance to be original but that's just what everyone does. You have to be yourself."

Remember that, whether you're coming to the Talent and Fan search to win a dreamed-about trip to Hollywood or to follow your dream of becoming an actor: be yourself.

For more on Days' visit to Detroit, click here .