A.J. Quartermaine is a man who desperately wants to be accepted by a family that finds it easy to reject him. Numbing the pain by picking up a drink is once again his way of coping. Playing an alcoholic involves more than slurred speech and wobbly legs. It's the look in the eyes, the sound in the voice and the ache in the heart. Sean Kanan's poignant portrayal of A.J. makes him SOAP OPERA MAGAZINE's Star of the Week.

"A lot of people see A.J. as this smarmy jerk, but I don't," Sean proclaims. "He does a lot of things that are kind of slick and underhanded, things that we probably wouldn't do as human beings," he admits. "But we, of course, don't live in the Quartermaine family.

"I see him as a guy who has a half brother who is constantly the shining star of the family. A.J. feels like he has never been given his due."

As A.J. has collapsed into a depression that not even he knows the depths of, Sean has risen to the challenge.

"I've been down there, too," he confides. "We've all had those times when we feel unappreciated and that our hard work is not being validated. It makes you want to cry."

Falling off the wagon seemed like A.J.'s only way to fix a life that had reached the breaking point, Sean explains.

"A.J. had reconciled himself to the fact that Jason got Keesha and that Ned was CEO under Edward for ELQ," he asserts. "The foundation had become his niche. It's his, and he thought he could make it work. If Keesha notices it, great. If mom, dad, grandfather and Ned notice it, all the better.

"A.J. thought he could go into the foundation and shine. Then I think he fell in love with what he was doing.

"He realized he was making a tangible difference and began liking what he was doing for what it actually was as opposed to what it could do for him," Sean adds. "A.J. really poured his heart and soul into it. When it was taken away from him because of Carla duping him, it let the air out of his balloon."

But it was more than just his family turning him away (again). It was a double whammy because he thought he might have found a relationship at last.

"Here's Carla, who probably seemed receptive, and she not only isn't interested in him at all, she turns around and screws him - without 'screwing' him!" Sean declares. "He was made to look like a fool. That's what pushed him over the edge. It's a complete loss of his self-worth and it hurts like hell."

Sean disputes those who accuse him of wanting to make A.J. a nice guy. "Jason is a much nicer person than A.J.," he says. "But that doesn't mean that A.J. doesn't have just as large - if not a larger - capacity for compassion. He's been beaten up by the world. It's nice when we see the times when he can be compassionate and loving and understanding, even amidst his own personal turmoil.

Sean, whose contract is presently being negotiated, is looking at his future with (or without) GH with open eyes and arms. "I honestly don't know what's going to happen," he says. "I've resigned myself emotionally and mentally to accept and be prepared for either scenario.

"But I do know when I do good work because I feel it," he adds. "My acting teacher described it as a divine sense of dissatisfaction. It's that nebulous gray area where you walk off stage and go, 'That kind of felt good.'"