Your background is quite varied and includes work as a creative director, makeup artist, screenwriter, and even as a television weather person. How have these diverse experiences influenced your work as an author and cookbook writer?

The deal is I’m old. So I’ve done a lot of stuff. Back in the day, when we were starting our careers in the sixties, you just did stuff. You didn’t have a plan, especially if you’re a female. You didn’t have a resume, you didn’t have anything, you just said “yes”, whenever you had an opportunity. 

Because I grew up in L A, a lot of my friends were in ShowBiz, in some way or another. So they’d say “do you know how to do make up?” I’d say “Yeah, I do that” and then I do it. I got in a lot of trouble that way but got a lot of experience, had a lot of adventures, and most importantly fun. After a few years I started focusing more on the creative part. Specifically the writing part, because I could always find somebody who was better than I was at the acting or the modeling or the makeup or the art direction, but I couldn’t find anyone to write what I thought should be written. So I ended up doing that and I am still at it after all this time. 

I will say about the TV weather thing, that I think I hold some kind of international record for being the worst TV weather person in broadcasting in the world anywhere. I was bad. I got fired before too long and we won’t talk about why or where. I’m a big believer in failing up. When people fire you they’re doing you a favor and you’re moving on to something different and better. Today people seem so much more timid about that kind of thing. We just rolled with the punches back then. 

I always advise parents that failure is the best thing that happens to your kids. Let them fail, watch them fail, encourage their failure and then watch them get up and brush themselves off and they’ll try again. It’s the same with adults and young adults and here I am at this age like starting new stuff and you know, who knows? I could totally fall on my bum but you have to keep punching. 

In addition to being a cookbook author, you are also the president of The Pescadero Foundation. Can you tell us more about this organization and what it does?

The Pescadero foundation is just a small community foundation. I live way out in the sticks in a little country town in northern California. The Pescadero Community Foundation, is a 501c3 that is fiscal sponsor for all these little community groups, such as the arts group, the history group, and a bunch of smaller groups that don’t have the muscle or the money to get their own 501c3 and have their own accountant,insurance and all that. So we have this umbrella organization that takes care of those things for the smaller groups in town. It’s just a way of supporting small community activism. It has worked great for a long time and we hope it keeps working. I’m a great believer in starting local and starting small with whatever you do and that’s a good way to do it. 

Your cookbook “Brownies for Breakfast: A Cookbook for Diabetics and the People Who Love Them” has been described as a diabetic cookbook that readers will actually enjoy using. Can you tell us more about the inspiration behind the book and how it differs from other diabetic cookbooks on the market?

Well, number one, I think it’s a fun read. The first half of the book is stories and the whole thing is very heavily photographed and illustrated. So it’s fun to look at. I worked with a fabulous designer that I worked with in the past and she’s done a great job making it eye candy. I wanted people to have this book out on their counter and I want them to use it because anyone who is diabetic or has blood glucose issues, anyone who has a heart situation, fatty liver, literally any of these chronic conditions that are just absolutely epidemic these days, if you will eat the way granny here tells you to eat, you’ll be vastly improved. If not completely controlled and reversed just by eating sensibly. I wanted people to know that eating “sensibly,” actually means eating more flavor, more colors, more interest, more texture. You will eat better than you’ve ever eaten. If you include more plants, and more variety. I give you very simple recipes.  I’m not a believer in measuring and weighing. I don’t want anyone dieting. I want you to just eat beautifully and not eat crap. And it’s as simple as that. That’s it. That’s the formula.

I also preach that you cannot be really healthy if you don’t prepare your own food. When I say “prepare,” a lot of the stuff in the book is like three ingredients. You don’t really have to cook it, you throw it together and it’s fabulous. It’s easy. It tastes great. 

Grandmas are a little bit out of style, right? Unfortunately there are so many people living alone and they’re eating alone and out of a bag that they’re getting from drive-thru. Well, I’m sort of a one woman campaign to get you to eat joyfully.

Your cookbook includes beautiful graphics and photographs, as well as nutrition facts for every recipe. Can you tell us more about the visual and nutritional components of your book and why you felt it was important to include them?

It took me three years to do the book and I sort of changed a little bit halfway along because I decided to experiment with veganism. So for a year I didn’t eat a bite of meat just to see how that was in my body before I talked about it, I wanted to do it. The book is not vegan,it is friendly to vegans. You can eat vegan out of it. You can eat vegetarian, you can eat paleo, you can eat keto. It’s all in the book. It’s all the same stuff. 

The photography just ended up being something that I did. I just photographed what I was actually cooking, preparing in my own house for me, for my friends, for my husband, which was important to me because I wanted people to know they could make food that looked just like the picture. There were no stylists injured in the preparation of this book whatsoever. I did it and you can do it too. That’s the whole point. It didn’t take a team to do it,  just one grandma in her kitchen doing this thing. 

Your cookbook also includes information on sugar substitutes, dairy-free baking, no-carb thickeners, gluten-free options, and plant-based protein. Can you tell us more about these topics and why they are important for people with diabetes to know about?

 Because you wanna live? Diabetes is a silent killer. You don’t know you have it. You won’t have any symptoms. As is true with a lot of heart disease and fatty liver. What’s happening is diabetes actually destroys your organs from the inside out. You can choose to manage it, prevent it and like I did reverse it.  I’m healthy and I want that for everybody, and you can do it. It’s a decision that each of us makes.

Can you share some of the feedback you’ve received from readers of your cookbook, particularly those who have diabetes or are pre-diabetic?

Oh, absolutely. It thrills me to read that someone has reversed their numbers and they have actually learned how to cook.  I don’t want people to wait until they’ve had a bad health scare as some of the people who write me have had. I want everyone to get in front of that. Do it now, take care of it and bring your kids up eating well. 

What are some common misconceptions about cooking for people with diabetes, and how does your cookbook help dispel these misconceptions?

I think the common misconception is that you are gonna be deprived of a lot of stuff, and in fact, what people discover is a whole new world of eating stuff that they didn’t realize was so yummy.

You’ve been friends with actress Deidre Hall for over 40 years and have co-authored two books with her. Can you tell us more about your friendship and how it has influenced your work as a cookbook author?

That’s easy. I’m sitting in her kitchen right now. I’ve been spending a fair amount of time in her kitchen for all these years. Different kitchens at times. But that’s where we  sort of function. I can remember at this exact table where I’m sitting right now, she said to me, “I’ve been invited to go to Australia.”  I said “you know, you need a book to take with you.” She said “that’s a great idea.” So we put our heads together and she sent me some stuff. I went home and six weeks later we had a printed book in our hands and took off for Australia and had a lot of fun with the Australian ladies and the books. 

We decided to do another book which I think came out in 2013, which was more of a beauty based. We love talking about what beauty really is, which should be no surprise to you. It’s good health and good attitude, It was kind of the beginning of self publishing. We were playing with these new toys that were now available to us and we were having a great time doing it. 

Finally, can you share any future projects or collaborations that you’re currently working on and how they relate to your work in the world of food and health?

I am off to a podcast conference in a little bit and I’m podcasting all the time. That seems to be the way that we’re reaching people nowadays. So I’ll be doing more of that. I’ll be doing some Audible books. My website – lynnebowman.com I try to post everything that’s going on there. I mail recipes to people who will sign up on my website. I share my latest and greatest and I don’t have a big long list, but I would love to have you if you’re interested on my list so I can send you uh in your very own inbox the latest greatest healthy tips and tricks and recipes from me.

Brownies for Breakfast: A Cookbook for Diabetics and the People Who Love Them is available now on Amazon, and you can find out more tips, tricks and secrets by heading over to Lynnebowman.com 

The post Baking Brownies For Breakfast with Author Lynne Bowman  appeared first on TV Source Magazine. TV Source Magazine - TV News, Spoilers, Recaps, Interviews

In a celebratory interview with TV Source Magazine, Ms. Hall spoke with us and discussed her lengthy career and the evolution of the television landscape as she shared this historic event. 

Congratulations on reaching 5,000 episodes on Days of our Lives! What does this milestone mean to you, and how does it feel to have been a part of the show for so long? 

Somebody one day said I was coming up on 5000 and I went, “Ok, bye.” Of course in hindsight it’s extraordinary. There’s no such thing as 5000 shows.  I don’t even think there’s much of anything that’s close to that. So I’m, I’m very pleased to have been the person that got to make it to this landmark. It meant a life. It’s meant that I get to do a job that I love, that I get to work with people that I admire and respect.  The phone number doesn’t change. The parking space doesn’t change.  I love all that. I get to come home and have time with my family and know what my schedule is for the next three or four weeks. I know when my vacations are.  I mean it’s the best job there is.

You’ve played Marlena Evans for over 40 years. How has the character of Marlena evolved over the course of those 5,000 episodes?

Well, Marlena evolves as the country evolves.  We tell current and topical stories. For example; many, many years ago I did the first crib death, which had never been discussed on television. We had the first gay wedding. Our writers have always felt that being relevant was important. Ken Corday and Ron Carlavati continue this.  Because I think one thing the daytime does is it helps you see how somebody else handles it. It’s not watching the Kardashians. So if there was a death in the family everybody is shell shocked and horrified and heartbroken. Now what do they do? You know, Don and Marlena could not survive a crib death. Most couples can’t. The fact that we get to do a little bit of teaching along the way I think is awfully important.

What would you say is the key to the show’s longevity and continued success after so many years on the air? 

First of all, I think it’s being run by a family. Because the Corday’s are a family. When I came on Betty Corday was my boss and then Ken swept in and he took over at one point. So we’re family run you know so we have those values. Betty and even Ken are very attached to the story that we’re doing. What are we telling and what are we saying. 

We’ve got the wealthy family, we’ve got the not so wealthy family. The Brady family of whom I was apart. We knew how they lived and what was important and how they held together and the things that were incredibly important to them. Then we have the Horton family, which was the doctors, lawyers and you know, all those fancy folks and we got to see how they live and how they interacted.  We got to see a lot of contrast, which I think is important for people to see. 

We also get to be a family off camera as well. That means that when there is a tragedy, when there’s a joy, we’re such a safe place. A person coming to work gets to be handled anyway they want to be handled. We know each other really well. I don’t think a lot of us get together outside the studio but we don’t have to. I know what my makeup artist is going through,  I know what my hairdresser is going through.  I know what the stage manager is finding a challenge at the moment.  So those things I get to know and it makes a real difference working in such a positive environment. 

How have you seen the soap opera genre change over the course of your career, and where do you see it going in the future? 

I think we’ve stayed current with our storylines. Things that couldn’t have been told 10 or 20 years ago we were telling. I think our audience has an appetite for it and they appreciate our take on what’s going on. Where do I see it going? I don’t know where I see it going. I think I see it staying the same and getting better.

What message would you like to say to your fans?

What I want to say to the fans is, first of all, we do it as a family, and you are a part of that. Because we don’t do it without somebody watching. We don’t do it without somebody being moved by it and being inspired by it. and that’s important to us.  So that’s what keeps us on the air and especially to the people that followed us to Peacock. Thank you so very much, Thank you for all of that. It’s just been a real blessing, so thank you.

Thank you so much for speaking with us today and once again congratulations on this amazing achievement.

Peacock is now the new exclusive home of the fan-favorite drama series Days of our Lives. The 61-time Emmy Award-winning daytime drama began streaming daily ONLY on Peacock in September. In addition to new episodes streaming daily, the past season will also be available exclusively to Peacock Premium customers.

Peacock is also home to the Peacock’s Original limited drama series Days of our Lives: Beyond Salem and the holiday film Days of our Lives: A Very Salem Christmas.

The post Interview: Celebrating 5,000 Episodes with ‘Days of Our Lives’ Icon Deidre Hall! appeared first on TV Source Magazine. TV Source Magazine - TV News, Spoilers, Recaps, Interviews

With a brief stint on As The World Turns under his belt, Peter Reckell forged his path to daytime royalty as the bad news little brother of fan favorite, Roman Brady on Days Of Our Lives. But it wouldn’t take him long to carve out a lane of his own. Over the next 40 years, Beauregard Aurelius Brady would become a beloved and integral part of the NBC sudster whether his character was on screen or not. From the shock of Bo’s true paternity to one — if not the — greatest daytime love stories of all time, Peter humbly credits the writing for his character’s longevity and popularity. But we know that the writing would mean little if the portrayer was anything less than iconic.

TV Source Magazine was honored to sit down with Peter Reckell to discuss Bo’s return to Salem, who he is eager for his character to reconnect with and if Bope fans can expect immediate gratification or just a tad bit more torture.

In previous interviews, you mentioned that the vibe onset at Beyond Salem felt alive again in a way that it wasn’t during the end of your previous runs. Now that you’ve returned to the main show, how would you describe the onset vibe now compared to when the show aired on network tv? 

We have a little bit more freedom now that it’s on Peacock. So that helps. It’s more freedom in terms of storylines, as well as more freedom in regards to both language and content. So that kind of opens things up for you as an actor. When I first started on Days, especially with the character I’m playing being so “out there” with his emotions, my language sometimes needed to be curbed. But nowadays it’s nice to have that freedom as an actor to express those emotions.

The show went through, as all of us, some pretty incredible things with the pandemic. The results of which remain with us. For the show, production became much more streamlined. So as an actor, you really have to be prepared when you go in. You don’t get a lot of rehearsal. 

For me, it’s been different than everyone else’s experience because I’m coming back and I’ve got this atmosphere of friends both in the cast and crew. For example, the other day I finished a scene and I went back to pick up a prop behind a set. I heard one of the cameramen say to the other cameraman, who was new, “Hey, it’s so great to have Pete back. He really knows how to help us out.” I was like, “Oh my God, I couldn’t get a better compliment from somebody on the crew than that.” 

So yeah, it’s been great to be back on the show.

Based on all of the press surrounding the move from NBC to Peacock, a big factor in the decision appeared to be how well the Beyond Salem franchise performed. You’re no stranger to the growing online soap genre. How did it feel knowing that you were a part of moving the soap genre into the future on a new platform? 

That’s kind of hard to talk about without sounding a little bit egotistical, but it feels good. They asked me if I wanted to be part of the Emmys, and I was like, you know what? That’s a whole political thing. I’ve already gotten my accolades, but just being there and seeing the show being picked up through its 60th year, and people in the crew saying, “Hey, it’s good to have you back. you’re helping out the show.” 

That’s enough for me. I don’t need to get an Emmy or anything. Just the day to day emotions from the cast and crew is better than anything else.

Some fans were initially apprehensive about the move to Peacock, but it seems like the actors have really enjoyed it. Have you felt any big differences in production from NBC to Peacock?

When I was doing the stuff in heaven, they had me swear a couple of times and I was like, “I don’t think I can do that.” It was difficult for me. However, I think I did a couple of times on this go around, but mostly because of where my character is at the time. Bo’s been through an awful lot and done some crazy things. But this go around is unlike anything that he’s been through before.

I think the audience is going to be glad to see him, but also shouting, “what the heck is the matter with you” while throwing things at the TV. So it’s going to be quite a ride.

As Bope fans, we have to admit that we have been through quite a bit over the decades and we never really got our happily ever after that so many super couples have received. What would you like to say to the Bo and Hope fans that never gave up and where can we expect their story to go? 

For Bo and Hope, their best love stories are always ones where the circumstances keep them apart and they are struggling to get back together. That’s what we have coming up here as these circumstances will keep them apart but obviously you know their love is going to carry them through. 

To have fans who — you know, fans just doesn’t seem the right word, they’re almost like friends who’ve been there, and it’s because of them that this couple has survived.

I mean, it’s crazy. I first left the show over ten years ago [in 2012]. I came back because Bo’s absence was really felt strongly by the audience. They didn’t have a chance to really say goodbye. So I came back for that stint, where Bo passed away [in 2015], so that the audience had a chance to say goodbye to Bo. At the time we thought that that was going to be it. There was so much uncertainty with the future of Daytime. We are one of four shows left, and who knew what was going to happen to Days of Our Lives? But despite all the odds it is still going, and now we’ve gotten picked up and we’re going to make it to the 60th anniversary, which is astounding.

So when I left the show, I didn’t know that I would have an opportunity like this to come back. 

The reaction from the audience to Bo and Hope coming back is just breathtaking to me. We’ve had amazing storylines and I’m pretty excited to be back and to see what else they can come up with for Bo and Hope.

It’s been over fifteen years since you last appeared in a scene with Brandon Beemer’s Shawn-Douglas and you have never shared a scene with Victoria Konefal’s Ciara. What was it like getting to work with your on-screen kids?

I have been so lucky to work with some amazing actors. I actually had an idea about presenting a storyline for Ciara and Bo because the audience reaction to that relationship is quite large. She’s just an incredible little actress and I would love to work with her. To be able to bring in this older audience that I have and combine it with the younger audience that she has I think would be wonderful.

In the past, Bo’s had very multifaceted relationships from Mrs. H, his mother, Pops, his brother and his sisters. So it’d be awesome to be able to work with my family, specifically my kids again.

On May 3rd, 1983 the character of Bo Brady debuted on DAYS and immediately became a fan favorite. What about the character do you think has resonated so much with fans? 

You know, if I could answer that question, I’d probably be a very rich producer. Most of it had to do with the writing. The writing was multifaceted and had storylines that were rather long. You’d have arcs that were six to eight months long. One of the biggest being the storyline revolving around the prisms and our trip to New Orleans. 

Honestly, Kristian and I just gave everything we had. We worked really hard. We both had a similar work ethic. To this day when we get together, we’re like, okay, how can we make this work? And what can we do? It’s that respect for each other. So when we look into each other’s eyes on screen you can see that. I think that’s what really pulls people in. When we have that close up just on our eyes, there’s no faking the audience out. It’s got to be there, and hopefully that’s what the audience will see in this go around, too. 

As previously mentioned, your character quickly became a fan favorite and really took off in 1984 when Roman Brady “died”. The then final scenes that you shared with Wayne Northrop are still highly regarded for your performances. Was the dynamic between you and Wayne similar to that of Bo and Roman?

Oh, absolutely. And it wasn’t just Wayne, you know, it was James [Reynolds] and Deidre [Hall]. I was thrown in with these icons of Daytime. I had done my two years on As the World Turns, so I knew a little bit about Daytime television. But to be thrown in the mix with these powerhouses was a learning lesson. They helped me along quite a bit. I learned an awful lot from them, and Frances Reid. The Bo and Mrs. H. relationship was one of the more important relationships in Bo’s life. I was extremely fortunate to work with those people and I learned an awful lot with them. 

Bo has had many great loves in his life. What was your reaction when you learned that Bo’s ex Megan Hathaway would be behind his return? 

It’s perfect, you know, especially with the ultimate Daytime villains no longer there. It just makes sense, especially the fact that Bo and Megan had a relationship pre-Days of Our Lives. So it’s just perfect for the writers coming up with that. It’s a perfect segway.

Recently, we sadly lost John Aniston who played Victor Kiriakis, Bo Brady’s biological father. What was your favorite memory of working with him?

Yeah, that hit me hard. I didn’t even realize how much he meant to me. Having my father pass just recently, and when I found out John passed it hit me pretty hard.

I think the best compliment you can get as an actor is when you hear “I didn’t catch you acting” and that’s what it was with him. You could never catch him. He just was.  Looking into his eyes when I was on set, I never saw anything but my father, or at the beginning this asshole who mistreated my sister, he just was. Every day I’d go in and work with him in his dressing room and he’d have a couple of jokes, always a couple of jokes and honestly some advice quite often, whether it was something about the show or mostly about life, ranging from the stock market to my personal life. He was always there. He was very wise and able to help me out during difficult circumstances. So going into rehearsal with him wasn’t always just about rehearsal. It was just a couple of jokes to lift my spirits or some advice to help me out through some circumstances.

Is there a current actor you’d like to work with or a character that you would like Bo to interact with that you may not have yet?

I think with my kids I’d really like to build those relationships because it seems like the audience wants to see that. They want to see us build on those, especially with Victoria. She has sort of taken on, or rather they have given her the mantle of Bo Brady’s spirit. The rebel, and she’s quite a feisty little actress and performer and people have recognized that as a Bo Brady attribute. So it’d be cool to get the two of us together.

We expect a lot of twists and turns as Bo and Hope’s return story unfolds. What can you tease for viewers?

As we see coming out of the cryogenics with Megan, she’s obviously going to have some kind of hold over Bo and when we’re looking at what’s keeping Bo and Hope apart, obviously Megan’s going to do everything she can to make Bo love her and try to rekindle what they had 40 years ago. Megan’s going to be the fly in the ointment, as they say.

Bo is coming with his memory of who he is right? Because sometimes whenever someone comes back from the dead or they’re coming back from, you know, a suspended state of reality, they don’t always have their memory of who they are and who they love. So we’re hoping that Bo comes back and he’s aware of who he is. He’s trying to get back to his family because if he comes back and his memories are wiped out, that’s just going to take a very long time.

His memories aren’t going to be wiped out, that I can guarantee you. But who he cares about and honestly more searching for himself because he doesn’t really know where he’s going and what his priorities are, which is the interesting part about him because his priorities are shifted. So that’s how they elongated the story. If you want to see Bo and Hope together right away…

Not going to happen.

On a personal note, what is something that you would tell others about life in Alaska that they may be surprised to know?

It’s incredibly beautiful. When people first learn that we’ve been in New Zealand, and now we’re in Alaska, I’d say, “Yeah, we just want to live in the places that people want to visit.” People go, “Wow, you lived in New Zealand, that must be beautiful.” We’re like, “Yep, it was” then people will say they want to go on a cruise to Alaska. To which I’m like “Yep, you should, because it’s beautiful here.”

I grew up in Michigan and lived part of my childhood in Marquette, Michigan, which is right on Lake Superior. So the weather there was very similar to here, maybe not quite as long or quite as cold, but very similar. I thought I might have some issues living here. Kelly is absolutely loving it because she’s back home. But I fell right into it. I got my mountain bike all set up. So I’m still riding my bike over the winter. I feel at home here. 

Climate change is really hitting Alaska hard and faster than quite a few places on Earth. I’ve always been an advocate for the environment, and have done so via social media.I recently recorded a video to the Alabama song “Pass It Down” which came out in the early 90s. There were people aware of what was going to happen in regards to climate change a long time ago. There’s a line in that song that says, “Now we all outta feel just a little bit guilty, When we look into the eyes of our kids, ‘Cause, brothers, it’s a fact, if we take and don’t put back, They’ll have to pay for all we did.” 

That’s a huge part of who I am. Because I’ve got a daughter now and knowing what she is going to be faced with when I’m gone is… To see the hurt and pain in her eyes is. That’s hard to face. 

As a veteran in this ever changing industry that is Hollywood, What advice would you give to up and coming actors that you wish you’d known as a young actor?

This is something I’ve said forever. If you’ve got something to fall back on if acting doesn’t work out, just go ahead and do that because this is a very difficult path in your life. So go ahead and take on your second plan. As long as you’ve got that in your back pocket, it’s ok if you don’t make it in this industry. 

Thank you so much for speaking with us today. We are huge fans and are very excited about your return. We can’t wait to see what unfolds!

Peacock is now the new exclusive home of the fan-favorite drama series Days of our Lives. The 61-time Emmy Award-winning daytime drama began streaming daily ONLY on Peacock in September. In addition to new episodes streaming daily, the past season will also be available exclusively to Peacock Premium customers.

Peacock is also home to the Peacock’s Original limited drama series Days of our Lives: Beyond Salem and the holiday film Days of our Lives: A Very Salem Christmas.

The post Daytime Legend Peter Reckell Talks ‘Days of Our Lives’ Move to Peacock, the Loves of Bo Brady’s Life and How This Return to Salem Will Be Different (EXCLUSIVE) appeared first on TV Source Magazine. TV Source Magazine - TV News, Spoilers, Recaps, Interviews

12 years later, the Miami-born actress sits down with TV Source Magazine to discuss cementing her role as a series’ leading lady, ushering Gabi Hernandez-DiMera and the now streaming soap opera into the digital era on Peacock, celebrating her Hispanic heritage through her work and inspiring others to continue the story of Hispanic Heritage Month all year round.

TV Source: Congratulations, it’s been 12 years since debuting in the role of Gabi Hernandez on Days of our Lives! She’s been through a lot since you’ve last spoken with us. Tell us how the milestone feels and what that means to you as an actress, especially as an actress of color? 

Camila Banus: First of all, thank you so much.

Second of all, it means the world to me to continue this journey of representation on such an iconic show, like Days of our Lives. I love Gabi so much. 

She has been through so much but her essence and spirit always remains the same. There’s always aspects of her that involve her culture into storylines or into moments and that is so special to me that we get to portray that on camera for the fans to see.

What first inspired you to act – was it family, TV and movies? 

Yeah, I think coming from a family that struggled so much to come to America, my mom provided a really amazing environment for me to dream very wildly. As young as maybe three years old, I remember watching television and seeing people inside of the TV and telling her, “I wanna be in that TV box. Asking her how people get in there.” That’s just something that I had always dreamed of. 

My mom specifically always encouraged the arts for me and my sister because she came from a country where she couldn’t really explore a lot. She had limited resources and so she wanted us to learn and be part of as many creative things as we could. So at a very young age, she put us in dancing and even acting classes. I remember telling her that this is what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to stop. It just so happened that I was good at memorizing and so I kept getting jobs. It was this addicting feeling and it just made me feel so happy.  

It was something that happened because she left a really open space for me to be able to do these kinds of things. A lot of times kids’ parents – especially from where I come from growing up in Little Havana, Miami – don’t have time to take them to auditions or to make it work for them. So for her to be able to even make that happen was amazing.

How would you say the character of Gabi evolved over the course of this time?

Gabi has definitely evolved quite a lot. 

She started out as kind of a timid girl. She always had that fire inside of her. She just didn’t know how to let it all go and wasn’t comfortable with everybody around her. Gabi started off as this girl that was all about family that made every moment about it and that’s something that has transcended throughout her entire existence and evolved with her now as this ferocious passionate person. 

It ties in so much to my Latino culture, my Latino heritage. Because one of the biggest things that is instilled in my family is that connection together. Staying true to us, spending time together is what is important and that is truly what we love.

That’s great, and honestly ties into our next question for you. How do you stay connected with your culture and your family on the opposite coast?

Well, you know, thank goodness for technology. We connect as often as we can on Facetime and on the phone. I try to call, and vice versa, as much as we can and stay involved in each other’s lives. But I think the most important thing is that when we do see each other, we make the time committed to creating memories, making sure that we take it all in and enjoy that time. 

There are no phones anytime I’m with my family. I don’t ever see myself on the phone. We just are always talking and it is just such a nice, refreshing time with them. I think the time apart makes the time together so special.

You proudly represent your Cuban heritage and love to adlib in some Spanish in some of Gabi’s scenes on DAYS. Tell us one of your favorites and what that means to be able to add that personal touch to your character? 

I think one of my favorite moments is anytime she’s cooking, particularly one time when she was making huaraches. I think it was with Rafe.  It means to me that this is normal, it’s an everyday thing. This is just part of life, our tradition and our food. It’s so lovely to feel included and to feel represented in this way. 

We have to say one of our favorite moments too. Was Gabi calling Gwen a puta in the original script or an adlib? 

They have written that before, but I have also taken some liberties in getting to adlib some fun stuff. So that’s why it’s been so much fun for me to be her for so many years because she keeps me on my toes.

Gabi is in a love triangle with Stefan Dimera but also Li Shin, one of the few Asian-American characters in DAYS’ history. What does diversity in Salem mean to you, especially being the sole Latina in Salem? 

It’s just wonderful, especially with the character of Li Shin. The character development the show has done for that character has been fantastic. The way that he was placed in a very inconspicuous way a very long time ago.He was initially in business meetings and nothing was played out that would remotely point to playing us being together. It has so beautifully evolved to where we are now, and where we are going and I think that having him and also Wendy, is fantastic.

It’s an amazing thing for the show – for representation, for diversity and for how life really is. We are a melting pot of people and it’s wonderful to see that on our show.

Would you like to see the Hernandez family expand? 

Of course, anytime we have scenes with any family members – it doesn’t have to be all of them – just even having A Martinez, who plays our father come in for certain scenes, the fans blow up, they love it! They love to see our dynamic together. We just work so well together. 

It’s just a really fantastic set of really seasoned Latino actors and so it’s just fun when we get together. So I am super game and open to any scenes with more family – and new family.

Gabi has been portrayed as a hero, villain, a fashionista and everything in between. You’ve mentioned before that you like playing her bad side but now she’s a bit more in the middle. Where do you hope to see the multi-faceted Gabi end up next? What can you tease?

I said one time as a joke in an interview that she wouldn’t stop until world domination and I might just see that. Because she’s ready to go to the top and is willing to do whatever it takes and however she needs to get there. We know how passionate she can be and she’s moved a lot of that passion into her business side.

Fans are enjoying the series’ move to Peacock and you’ve been in two digital spin-offs so far. How has the move to Peacock been and what’s it like behind the scenes now? 

Yeah, it’s been amazing. I will have to be honest and tell you there’s really been no change. Our Executive Producer, Ken Corday, told us it’s the same show, same way we shoot, nothing’s gonna change and that’s exactly how it’s been.

We are the same exact show, we just have a new home and I think fans like it. I’ve been seeing a lot of memes of people saying like they’ve been waiting in the morning for an episode to come out and just being able to have all the episodes there to be able to watch however you want, whenever you want is fantastic. I think fans are loving it.

Behind the scenes, it’s awesome. We get to also create cool content and spin off shows now. it’s amazing to be able to explore the world of Salem. 

This past September 15th to October 15th, we celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month. What does Hispanic Heritage Month mean to you and how do you hope to continue the importance of this month throughout the year through your work?

Every year, as much as I can, I try to post amazing Hispanic people in history throughout the month. Because Hispanic Heritage Month to me represents a celebration of past, present and future Hispanic people. 

This is the time to put them up, celebrate and remember them and that’s what I try to do. I post poets, artists, singers, musicians and all types of people that I think have been doing or have done amazing things for our community to have transitioned us to where we are today. 

People that are doing things now to hopefully help us get to where we are tomorrow.

What do you hope people take away from Hispanic Heritage Month whether they’re Hispanic or not? 

Even if they take away learning any small thing about any Hispanic country, custom, maybe they meet somebody from a country that they’ve never heard of. Just learning and expanding your mind about all the different types of people that exist in this world and celebrating them. I think that is what is important about this month.

October also means Spooky Season, so we have to ask you about your upcoming slasher film, Bad Connection. What do fans have to look forward to from your character, Eva?

First of all, I love scary movies. And people are going to be seeing a really edgy side of me, I have never played a character like this.

Eva is a different type of bad girl. It’s just fun to play, she just says a lot of wild things. It’s a really great film and it was made with a lot of love. Everybody had fun, you can tell. Anybody that watches, they’re gonna have a blast.

The trailer for your upcoming Christmas movie, Sweet Navidad recently dropped and is full of surprises for soap fans. What was the experience like reuniting with former One Life to Live co-stars David Fumero and making her directorial debut, Brittany Underwood? 

This was very wholesome, definitely not the same as Bad Connection. But that’s also something that people haven’t seen of me, this very wholesome character. What I love most is that if you really look and think about it, there aren’t a lot of Latino-based stories about Christmas.This one is so special. It just shows so many wonderful traditions because so much of the holidays is food. The movie showcases such an amazing array of Puerto Rican desserts and dishes. It’s this feel-good movie that makes you wanna snuggle up with a blanket, a cupcake and enjoy. It’s so much fun.

That’s how it was to shoot the movie as well. Getting to see David and having Brittany as my director was the most amazing experience of my life. I have never felt so comfortable with a director. I could speak to her with no reservations because she’s my friend and so it was a wonderful experience. Having Mark Hapka, who I worked with on DAYS was amazing too. It is just such a fun group of people and it focuses on Latino stories, traditions, cultures, food and music, that’s why it’s a blast.

What kind of character or type of story do you want to play in the future, is there a superhero movie in your future? 

I would love that. Yeah, I definitely was going to say something action. I think there’s a space in there to show even more badassness. I think there’s still a moment in time for that and hopefully a production company out there needs a Latina for an action movie. Let me know, I’m your girl.

What advice would you give to a young Camila Banus just beginning her acting journey? 

It’s easier said than done, but I would definitely say, “Don’t be scared. You got this.” 

In the moment, it’s hard to recognize because you’re going through it but know we’ve got this.

Peacock is now the new exclusive home of the fan-favorite drama series Days of our Lives. The 61-time Emmy Award-winning daytime drama began streaming daily ONLY on Peacock in September. In addition to new episodes streaming daily, the past season will also be available exclusively to Peacock Premium customers.

Peacock is also home to the Peacock’s Original limited drama series Days of our Lives: Beyond Salem and the holiday film Days of our Lives: A Very Salem Christmas.

Camila Banus’ Christmas movie Sweet Navidad airs Thursday, November 17th at 8 PM on Lifetime.

The post <i>Evolution Through the Hourglass</i>— An Interview with ‘Days of our Lives’ star Camila Banus appeared first on TV Source Magazine. TV Source Magazine - TV News, Spoilers, Recaps, Interviews

With this transition, we had the amazing opportunity to sit down with the reigning Queen of Daytime, Deidre Hall. 

Spanning four decades (off and on), Deidre Hall has aired in a staggering 4,955 episodes. As Dr. Marlena Evans Black, she has been kidnapped 33 times, had 18 on-screen weddings, given birth to 6 children, been possessed by the devil twice, and continues to be one of Daytime’s most talked about characters. 

Without further ado, TVSource Magazine is pleased to present to you our discussion with the one and only, Deidre Hall.

TVSource: Hello, and thank you so much for taking this opportunity to speak with us today! We are huge fans of both you and the show. We are so honored that you took the time out of your busy schedule to speak with us today. 

Deidre Hall: Well, you are very kind to say that and thank you for helping us to get the word out!

How was the news of this transition to Peacock shared with the cast? And what are you and the rest of the cast most excited to do on this new platform? 

You know, there was so much rumbling about NBC and Peacock, and we [Days of our Lives] have been on Peacock for awhile and it’s been a very good home to us.

So I think we were all just sort of already on this road and just waiting to see what was going to happen. Then we were told that we were going to Peacock and it was like, “It’s great.”  Without hesitation. We’ve been there before. They’re very good to us and we perform well on Peacock. It’s where we did Beyond Salem Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 as well as the Christmas special, so it’s been terrific. 

Ron Carlivati, our head writer, has that lovely way of turning the crystal just a little bit to make it work for Peacock. A little bit of suspension of disbelief, a little bit of, “Oh, here’s something new. Let’s try this!” Ken Corday, our showrunner, signed off on everything and the two of them just made magic happen. So we’re thrilled to be back and home at Peacock. 

With that said, speaking for myself, I’m excited to see how it goes. And to ask,  “What are the numbers on Monday? How did we do? What do they say?”

What would you say to fans that are nervous about the show’s future as it leaves network television and begins its life on this new platform?

Well, it’s a really good question and the answer is that we’re all feeling that same low-level anxiety. It’s new. It’s different. Nobody likes change, especially after 57 years on the network. So it’s a learning curve and what I’ve been saying is if you can’t get it to work then ask your 8 year old neighbor next door. Because the kids are so savvy about streaming. Streaming is just the venue of the future. 

Days of Our Lives, well, we are the first to truly leap into it with both feet. So I think everybody is watching us a little carefully and we’re just hoping for the best results.

You can catch us in most markets from 6 a.m. on, all day long. With streaming, one of the best things is if you missed yesterday’s show because you were flying in from New York, guess what? It’s still on Peacock and you can go back and watch it. 

Speaking of New York! Recently, Days of Our Lives fan, Elizabeth Capobianco flew over 500 miles to help her grandmother set up Peacock to make sure she continues watching Jarlena’s adventures on DAYS!

SHUT UP! Good girl! We flew in late last night, so I haven’t been able to keep up with all of the fan reaction but you know what? What a great, passionate and caring granddaughter. Wow, just wow. 

I hope she stayed for a while because it doesn’t take that long to set up. Hopefully they grabbed lunch or something afterwards. 

Editor’s Note: We reached out to Ms. Capobianco who happily assured us, “Yes, I stayed all day. We went to lunch and made a day out of it. 

Not to worry, Deidre! Grandma got the Peacock and hasn’t stopped watching yet.” 

While some fans wish for their favorite couple to settle down and trade pleasantries, Jarlena fans have proudly proclaimed, “Shoot the bride” after that now famous wedding shooting and often cheer whenever they hear their favorite supercouple’s lives are in peril. 

What do you think it is about John and Marlena that created such a pleasant group of ride or die fans? 

I think that Jarlena fans — and I think that it’s so weird for me to call them that — so the John and Marlena fans are responding to not just the greatest love story of all time, and not just how these characters have fought their way through some very difficult times, but we’re all hungry for consistency right now. 

You know, we’re all hungry for that feeling of, “I want to turn on my TV and no surprises.” I want my favorite people doing my favorite thing, being happy, being safe, and reassuring me that the world is a safe place. Because for so many people, it is not a safe place right now. Between wars and pandemics. It’s been a hard couple of years and I think we have provided the audience with that adventure and consistency.

Oh, and we’re cute.

Days of Our Lives and in particular, your character of Marlena have been at the core of telling positive LGBTQ storylines with the relationship between her and her grandchildren (Will and Allie). 

What has that experience been like for you as an actress?

As an actress, I’m getting to work with kids that I love and adore and it’s just been so much fun to have screen time with them. As I’ve said before, we really are on the cutting edge of most things, for example, we did the first gay wedding which I got to preside over. We got a lot of letters after Will’s coming out story and from the wedding. We got a lot of positive feedback from the audience about how important these stories were to them and how they wished they had someone like Marlena in their lives and it was rather touching.

We were so delighted by the audience’s response to those stories because it meant that they weren’t just finding it entertaining or even provocative, they were deeply moved by it. And some to the point and it was psychologically important to them.  

Our writers and our whole team are very good about having their pulse on the country and seeing what’s going on, then addressing it.

Does it feel like soaps are slowly having their resurgence again with NBC and Peacock doubling down on support for DAYS?

We’ve lost a number of soaps over the years. We used to have over 13 soaps on the air and we’re down to 4. But what we are seeing now is that soaps and continuing drama is not a lost art form. 

I think people that love us are really dedicated to their shows, and I think the Days fans hands down are the most dedicated of any fans. As I said before, I’ll be so curious now to see what happens with Peacock and to see the numbers from this move. We have shot shows through Christmas, so we will be there. 

How did it feel to record the opening epigraph for the first season of Beyond Salem, especially since John and Marlena are filling the void left behind by Tom and Alice?

When I was asked to do it, I was deeply moved. I had spent 40 plus years hearing Macdonald Carey say the words. So when I was asked to do the opening for Beyond Salem, I was moved. 

I was terribly excited and hearing it on the air was peculiar. It was just peculiar, it was a new animal to me and I was thrilled to do it and would love to do it again.

When you and Drake Hogestyn started working together in 1986, did you ever imagine that John and Marlena would become one of Daytime’s most iconic supercouples?

First, thanks for saying it that way. 

You don’t think about that. You just think about the job in front of you. The day in front of you. There are so many people who are a part of getting a show on the air and it’s not just Drake and me. It’s hair and makeup, and wardrobe, and production, and direction, and sound, and lighting. It’s everybody doing 110% of their very best to get that show on the air. I love the show. 

So, does it surprise me that we are still on the show? No, it doesn’t because I love it and our audience loves it. But I’m glad we are one of the remaining few that are on and having fans come to watch us.

Watching old DAYS clips, it’s so frustrating watching Marlena falling off a building, ending up in a coma, getting kidnapped by the ISA and blown up a few times while John comes to her rescue as we’re cheering for him through the screen.

One of the best parts of DAYS is seeing how your character’s adventures unfold. So thank you for the hard work that you all do every day.

Well, first of all we have to get you medicated for that.

Second, DAYS provides all sorts of different types of entertainment ranging from a damsel in distress and or helping people through incredibly difficult times or welcoming a gay grandchild who is coming out. It’s all a part of what we do. I think that’s why we’re able to have such a wide demographic. There’s something for everybody in every show. There’s always a young love story, there’s always a jeopardy story, there’s always something else that’s surprising.

I watched soaps a million years ago. I watched one. Doesn’t matter what network it was because it wasn’t ours, and I didn’t mean to get hooked on it. I just was watching a show where there was a young girl pianist and I wonder if she’s going to get… and there. Just like that I was hooked. I wonder if she’s going to achieve whatever goal she was after.  So I understand it. I have a very deep understanding of not wanting to miss an episode.

The character of Marlena has been involved in some of Daytime’s most influential storylines, which of those countless storylines are you most proud of being a part of?

Days of Our Lives, with the character of Marlena, told the first crib death storyline. It was so amazing, and I gained such a deep respect for our team at that point. I thought the story was written so beautifully.

You know, Don Craig (Jed Allan) and Marlena’s child was going to die of crib death and our team was deeply concerned about how to announce that. Whether on the one hand, to promote it enormously and say “Days of Our Lives tells a tragedy, a crib death” or do we just air it with no preamble? What was decided in the moment was that when a woman comes in and finds that baby, she doesn’t get a warning. She walks into it. The decision was to let that happen to Marlena and I thought that was beyond wise and disturbing… but beyond wise. 

We got an enormous amount of calls at that point. There was such an outpouring of people who were trusting us with that part of their lives and hanging in there with us. 

I was just so impressed with our ability to do that for our audience.

Over the years, Marlena has welcomed many fresh faces into Salem, and as such, you have welcomed many actors into the soap fold. 

What would you say to someone that is aspiring to set foot onto an iconic soap opera like Days of Our Lives?

I think there’s a grave misconception that Daytime is a good training ground for actors. Every time I hear that, my reaction to it is always the same, “Are you kidding? I mean, seriously are you kidding? A training ground?”

These are some of the hardest working actors you will ever find. We work so hard every single day and everybody comes in utterly prepared and ready to do a day’s work. Not just the actors, but everyone from those behind the scenes including the set people that come in at 4 a.m., to those that are there at the end of the day taking it all down. All day long this job is being done, and the show is being churned out and it is not a training ground, folks. 

This is a place where you better arrive knowing what you’re doing. Otherwise, everybody has to pull you through it and they’re working at capacity already. 

I’m sounding so fierce… whew! 

Not at all! From a viewer’s perspective, we feel the same. 

Daytime’s production model is one of the most rigorous, and you can see the heavy lifting that the veterans are having to do to lift the scenes up sometimes. 

Having said that, my twin sister joined the show, Andrea Gengler, and she had come from working as a special education teacher. When our then head writer, Ann Marcus realized I had a twin, they flew her in and they put her on camera. We’ve never had real twins on a Daytime show, and it’s too difficult to have one person playing twins. So they brought her out of her special education contract and put her on camera. 

Watching her have to learn… oof. That learning curve of how to go from a special education teacher to an actor who is being given quite lengthy material was extraordinary.

So my suggestion — I don’t give advice — but my suggestion is if you want to do a soap opera, go do something else first. Go to a class, go take a college course, go do some stage work. Learn how to hit a mark, find a light and not overlap. 

What does overlapping mean? Don’t pour coffee over somebody else’s line. It’s a world of information and not a thing you want to learn at everybody else’s expense.

There have been numerous actors who have come on the scene with Days of Our Lives and with the urban myth that it’s a training ground, that has to be frustrating. 

With that said, with the nature of our production, we hire young actors who have never really done a three camera production before. At that point, all of us pull together and it turns into a workshop. So when we’re not doing our dialogue, it becomes, ”You need to step back 6 to 8 inches until you see my face, fully lit.” That kind of thing.

Or, “If you step downstage off your mark, you’re now blocking my camera,” the new actor doesn’t know that. So the veteran will take another step downstage and adjust.

It’s all things that we love to help young people learn and it makes them extraordinary performers.

Soap fans love a good wedding, and Marlena has had her fair share of them. Which of the many iconic weddings has been your favorite?

I think it might have been the first wedding with John [then Roman] in 1986. I’m never quite sure because there have been rather a few. It is when Marlena married John in the church. 

Lee Smith designed an extraordinary headpiece, we didn’t want a veil because it wasn’t quite appropriate to have one, but it had these amazing cut out sleeves with cut outs on the side with a lovely little train. I just adored it.

What can you tease for us that’s coming up for Marlena on Peacock?

We have shot through December, with all of those shows in the can. So what’s coming toward you is what was prepared originally to be on network television. But with that said, Marlena will always be consistent. She will always be empathic and available and dare I say in jeopardy from time to time, I’m sure. 

But nothing will really change for the moment. I think farther down the road, Ron Carlivati will figure out a way to relax those margins a bit. But for the moment, no surprise changes to the audience, just find us in a different place. That’s the only surprise.

Once again, thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us. It was a great honor and we are so appreciative!

Days of Our Lives streams exclusively on Peacock. 

Fans can sign up for Peacock at PeacockTV.com, or by clicking here. Throughout the month of September, new premium subscribers can get Peacock for $1.99/month for 12 months or for $19.99/year for one year. 

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly listed Greg Meng as Co-Executive Producer and has been updated.

The post A Peacock Preview – An Exclusive Interview With The Queen of ‘Days of Our Lives,’ Deidre Hall appeared first on TV Source Magazine. TV Source Magazine - TV News, Spoilers, Recaps, Interviews

TV Source Magazine learned that while his character has shifted from frontburner romantic hero to a more supporting role, Billy has enjoyed every step of the journey with DAYS. There’s a genuine love there for Chad and it shows.

As new stories kick up for the young Dimera heir, we hope you enjoy this time getting to know Billy as an actor and the passion he puts into his complicated character of Chad.

TVSource: You’re entering your 8th year off and on at DAYS. Congrats, does it feel like it’s been that long? What’s changed the most for you in those years?

It doesn’t feel like that long. Well, it does and it doesn’t. I’m a whole different person from when I started and I’ve also accomplished a lot in those eight years.

It feels like a lot when you’re in the day-to-day, but if you look at it as part of the timeline or a chapter, or a couple of chapters of the whole story then you go, “Wow, I did a lot in those eight years.” It’s a cool, great chunk of the whole journey.

TVSource: Did you ever feel pressured being a part of such a big supercouple on the show, arguably the first big supercouple on DAYS in the 2010s? Did you expect such popularity?

It’s pretty wild to think about. At the time. I didn’t know anything about soaps or super couples. When I was coming into the show, I remember Allison Sweeney had been leaving and James Scott was there for maybe two weeks, so I wasn’t even aware that super couples existed for a time. I don’t know if Chad and Abigail were intended to always be a super couple or if Kate Mansi and I just made something through the work we did.

I’ve always said that there’s kind of a pivotal period a few months in. There is a scene at Will’s apartment where Chad and Abigail both have a breakthrough. At the time, I had started to come into my own as an actor and then Kate and I found our rhythm in that scene too. That’s really kind of where it feels like the spark for Chad and Abigail hit.

And you also asked if I’d seen it coming and I don’t think so, I don’t think I was really prepared for it. At first it was exciting and cool, then your ego takes over because you forget that this is what the show is and how it goes. Even though we’re the first ones in a while, you’re like, “Wow, there’s just never been a couple like this before. We must be doing something special.” There were tons of super couples before us and now the show has Ben, Ciara and others, so it goes on. I just think it was a surprise for me and I think as time has gone on, I’m able to look back and see it was a really cool period.

I did feel the pressure probably in 2018 and I think it had been like three or four years at that point of us being a super couple. We were definitely overworked, in every storyline, and so on. You know, on a soap, happiness is where a couple goes to die and then your ego gets involved, you start to become less satisfied with how the story’s moving along. You feel like, “Well, how do we top what we did?” I also didn’t know how soaps work. I was like, “How do you keep doing the same kind of breakups?” I think even with Chad and Abigail now, I think that’s been the hardest thing. What do you do after that period of time? Unless you have a show that’s still super dedicated to making you guys the couple, but when you’re not, I feel like you just kind of linger in the background. They don’t really work as a super couple if you don’t have the writing to support.

I was lucky I didn’t only strike that kind of gold with one actor, I got it with two. Not an easy thing to do. But long story short, there was definitely a lot of pressure during that period but not so much anymore.

TVSource: Chabby fans are super dedicated and supportive of Chabby in all forms. We’re curious, does it ever feel like a different Chabby when working with Kate vs Marci?

The fans have been absolutely incredible. I think over the years, I think they probably got a little bit frustrated which I can kinda see any time I decide to check in on Twitter. I think the two Abigails, Kate Mansi and Marci Miller are very different and they wrote them differently. The relationship with Chad and Kate’s version of Abigail felt a little bit more young, fiery, passionate and they butted heads a little bit more, you know. Marci’s version of Abigail felt like two people who were really fluid. So you work differently with them. But you also worked the same, right? There were certain things that were through lines.

Since I came on, it was just Chad and Abigail, there was nothing else. That was Chad’s only objective but now you throw in kids. I think with Marci’s version of Abigail, we grew, we aged a little bit with the characters. I think that was a really interesting period. You get to see how a married couple keeps things sexy. I would dance a little bit more, I would be a little bit goofier and you’re more comfortable. I think the hardest part was when Kate came back, because now we’ve developed this thing. Then it became doing that thing with Kate but then Kate left again, then Marci came back and then I just realized I had to play Chad consistently. But they’re both so good.

Ultimately, you know, we don’t create the story. We just say what’s on the page. Sometimes you have to play against some of the writing to still have a connection because writing can kind of pull you apart. Relaying back to your first question, I think that is where the pressure comes when you’re playing part of a super couple. The vets do this really well and it is no matter what is in the scene, you always have to play drawn together. So sometimes you get a scene where it doesn’t make sense for the couple, but you have to play against that. Whether it’s a look or the emotion behind the scene, the vulnerability behind it, the sexual tension or whatever it is. You always have to find something, layer that in. And at a certain point, if they stop writing a lot for the characters, you have to continue finding that if you want the couple to survive.

I think that got harder and harder as it went on and we were leaving and coming. I think their interest in writing Chad and Abigail gets harder and harder because they can’t plan for story. So for me, I’m just going how do I keep this thing alive?

TVSource: Was it hard coming to the show as a recast? Do you feel like you’ve fully solidified your Chad Dimera?

I don’t know if I put a ton of pressure on it in the beginning about playing a recast. I think for me, where I was at that stage of my life, I think I was more concerned with how the guy who used to play Chad was like 6’6” and a supermodel. I think I felt very insecure that he was better looking. I didn’t think about the character much. I don’t know if I had that kind of intellect to think that far outside the box. I think I was just nervous and doing my best.

I think the character solidified itself over time because I got more comfortable with who I was and what I wanted to bring to the character. There’s certain things to me that are super Chad Dimera now. I know that Chad was friends with Sonny and Will before I came on. But the way that they’re friends now and the love that they have, despite it being a gay couple and a straight man was something I feel like I did.

As I’ve grown and gotten more comfortable with myself, I think Chad has as well. I think I’ve solidified that in Chad. That character that swings from goofy to romantic to hero, to not afraid to be ugly or weird in a scene or weak in a scene. I think Chad’s done a good job and that’s the credit to a lot of the writing too. Maybe I’m biased or I just don’t have a wide knowledge of soap characters, but I think the male soap trope or whatever the word is, usually the guy has gotta be masculine and always the hero. I think I’ve always played Chad like the opposite, and that it’s okay to be uglier or not be ripped.

The next guy who plays Chad is gonna have to be really sexy and be a little bit goofy too.

TVSource: How would you best sum up Chad Dimera in a few words?

I think Chad is – I don’t know, like me. I think he’s imperfect and I think he’s doing his best just to get himself and his family through the day. That’s kind of the most that any of us can do.

I also think Chad leads with his heart and is kind of just unapologetically himself. Flaws and all.

TVSource: Fans are dying to know, what’s it been like being folded back into the WilSon world? How’s it been getting to work with a new Sonny, Zach Tinker? Will there really be a throuple?

I love Freddie [Smith] and all but Zach [Tinker] brings a whole different thing to Sonny. They’re just different people. Zach and I have a ton of fun. He’s a total weirdo. But he also takes his job seriously. The three of us – Billy, Chandler and Zach – always have a blast working together. I wish we did it more often other than when they’re asking Chad to do weird things like try to get into bed with Leo.

Now I’ve seen a lot about the throuple. Here’s my take on that. As somebody who plays Chad, I think it would ruin the friendship, right? Not every gay man wants to try to sleep with a straight man or something. I think the idea that you have this friendship, that is what it is, this straight man, two gay best friends. If you mix that up I don’t know. I guess my question would be, does that ruin the meaning of the friendship over the years? Does it muddle that?

Was Chad showing affection all those years because he had a secret that he was attracted to them? As opposed to just letting it be pure in what it is and what I think that we built, which is just a friendship with people who are just humans and aren’t afraid to show love or chemistry or whatever exactly.

I think Chad would die for Will or Sonny and – he certainly is willing to dress in drag and put himself in precarious situations for them every time. But I take it as a compliment. The fact that people want that for them just goes to show the chemistry that we have as actors. But in my opinion, I think it ruins a really interesting friendship.

TVSource: What’s it been like being a part of the Dimera resurgence? Do you wish Joe Mascolo could have been here to see it?

I think it’s amazing. Joe [Mascolo] was the biggest advocate for the Dimera family. He loved it, same with Thaao [Penglis]. Thaao also doesn’t get enough credit for his work. He was on the show even before Joe was.

I think it’s just a credit to them that they left such a legacy that we can continue to branch off more Dimeras.

But what makes the Dimeras is how they work together. If you’re gonna have a large number of Dimeras, at some point you gotta have them all come together. You have to bring together whoever Brandon Barash is playing at the time. Bring in Theo. He was always one of my favorites too. You look back and they were best friends when they were younger. I would like to see that kind of mentorship continue to grow.

TVSource: You’re so big in the DAYS community on Twitter. What’s your favorite part about getting to connect so closely to fans? How do you block out the hate?

To be on a soap as an actor is not easy. Everybody has talked about it over the years. It’s like you’re almost within the [acting] industry forgotten about, and it’s hard to feel like you’re part of that community. So to have such a strong community of fans makes you feel really at home, like you do have a place and you’re not just doing some weird story that nobody cares about. An actor’s job is to tell stories that move people one way or another and that’s what we’re doing. So to have such a strong community in the fans and seeing the interaction on Twitter and social media is a really nice reminder that we’re not just some old show that’s considered outside its own industry.

It’s a cool genre of storytelling and the fans are amazing. As far as the hate, I used to feel really overwhelmed. This was probably back before 2018, I made a lot of life changes in 2018, and I think it affected me more back then. I mean, now I can’t remember the last time I saw something that actually affected me. Everybody has their own opinions and they’re entitled to that.

Some fans of Ben and Ciarra don’t like this, and some fans of Chad and Abby don’t like Broe, to me they should just enjoy the show and enjoy that there’s multiple couples that they get to root for. But I don’t know. I think I spend a little less time on social media now than I used to as well. So I think that probably helps. I kind ofI dip my toe in to say hello and then I dip it right back out before it shifts.

I think when you realize, maybe this is just age, that people who are saying mean things to begin with, what are they going through that day? You know, what do they have going on that they need to go on and tell somebody that they’re an asshole. I find more compassion for people who talk weird on Twitter then it upsets me. Instead of going “I hate them” or allowing it to make me feel bad. I kind of just go, “oh man, that person’s having a rough day. I hope it gets better.”

TVSource: You’re kind of the digital spin off king having starred in all three so far. What’s it been like exploring Chad outside of daytime’s Salem?

It started with Chad and Abby in Paris. That was the first idea that was like, “oh, let’s see what happens outside of here.” The success of it gave birth to a lot of what you’re seeing now. On a show like DAYS where you have so many characters and actors that have played different characters over the years, that’s a lot of story arcs and multiverses you can explore. It’s fascinating, you know?

I had a blast with Chad and Abby in Paris, I thought it was a really cool experience. Beyond Salem had a lot more money behind it and it has NBC behind it. I think it’s just cool to see. Hopefully it is a way to find some new viewers and ultimately anything that can extend the life of the show is super positive.

TVSource: On top of acting, you also write and produce! How important is it to you to keep creative in multiple ways?

I think it’s really important. I mean, we move so fast and the show is such a machine. I think sometimes it’s hard to feel super creative. I think it has its ups and downs. Sometimes you’re able to feel very creative and some days you just do your best to kind of get through the day. I don’t think you should make anything your “end all be all.” With that said, I haven’t been writing much as of late, I’ve done a couple really cool little side projects, My wife wrote and produced a short film and I was in that and I have a friend named Tipper Newton, who’s done a couple of short films and I’ll just go and do that and I can make it work on my time off.

But I’ve found something more creative and a different type of fulfillment now. We bought a house about a year ago and I have been landscaping and doing that kind of stuff, which has been satisfying. So not even acting or writing or any of that stuff, just remodeling the kitchen and planting things in the yard feels weirdly creative to me lately. Maybe again it’s just me getting older.

TVSource: What can you tease about what’s to come for Chad?

Well, new beginnings.

I don’t know what can be printed yet. But there’s already some rumors out there. I think it’s gonna be fun to try to flex some acting chops. I feel like I haven’t had any really big scenes in a while. I think Chad is going to have some dark days but hopefully some light at the end of the tunnel.

It is actually the first time in a long time that I have felt almost insecure as an actor because it’s been so long I almost had to be like, “how do I do this again?” Because I’d done it before with a certain storyline.

I felt like there were two sides, one on good days when I thought the scenes went well, it was like, “Y’all must have forgotten, but I still got it!” Because I’ve just haven’t done much in the last couple years. Then other days I was like,man, why do you guys have to give me stuff so hard?”

I think with where they’re hopefully going with Chad, I think it’ll be a necessary change of pace.

Days of our Lives airs weekdays on NBC. Episodes are also available on Peacock TV. 

The post ‘Days of our Lives’ Star Billy Flynn Opens Up About His Salem Journey, Romance and New Beginnings appeared first on TV Source Magazine. TV Source Magazine - TV News, Spoilers, Recaps, Interviews

TVSource: Having been airing on the show since March 2017, what’s been your favorite part of working on DAYS? What was it like coming into an institution like a fifty-plus year old soap opera? 

Oh man, I may sound cliché, but I mean, honestly, just working with everybody because it’s so much fun. For example; working with Stephen and Marybeth, when I get to just go in and see them it’s so much fun. It is like a little family. So I’d say the best part about it is just honestly, the experience and the camaraderie around with everybody.

As far as coming into a show with such history, it was nerve wracking, to say the least. It was a little easier for me because I wasn’t coming in as a recast. So I got to make the character of Tripp how I wanted him. So that was at least a little easier for me. But I was also very nervous because I was the son of a legacy character and I wanted to do it justice. So I was very nervous, but I was also very excited for the opportunity.

TVSource: Tripp is finally a doctor now! What would you say your dream story is for Tripp outside his usual romantic entanglements?

With being a doctor I feel like he’s got to perform some type of trauma surgery. I think he needs to perform something like open heart surgery in the middle of the Horton cabin or somewhere like that. That would probably be something fun, just because Tripp would obviously find himself in some weird situation like that. So I think that would be really fun just because I already have to Google all the medical terms I need to say anyway, so if I just have to do stuff with my hands that will be one hundred percent easier.

TVSource: And the cool thing about Days is you can specialize in just about anything and then do the other thing the next week. So it’s fine.

Exactly. You know, Tripp is just a doctor, not necessarily a doctor of anything. He’s a general practitioner doctor. He is a jack of all trades. He just roams around the hospital like “Oh, you need a doctor.” and be like “I just did brain surgery across the hall.” So we’re good to go.

TVSource: Since joining the show, your character has been tied to some pretty big names in Days of Our Lives history. Who has been your favorite person to work with and who is the person you want to work with more?  

Well, like I said earlier, Steve [Nichols] and Mary Beth [Evans], I mean the two of them are just amazing. When I first started they really took me under their wing and really acted as if they were my parents in a way. So I would definitely say the two of them, along with Tamara Braun. The three of them together, is just so much fun. It’s hard to explain but when you’re just in the room with them you can’t go wrong. 

Then someone I would probably want to work with more because we’ve only had maybe one scene together, tops, is probably Paul Telfer just because a Xander and Tripp scenario would be very interesting to see. I love Paul to death and so getting to work with him would be really fun. Tripp with his mafia background along with Xander and his intense background. You know, that might be a dynamic duo right there.

TVSource: Being the on-screen son of one of daytime’s most iconic “anti-heroes”, Steve ‘Patch’ Johnson, has ingrained your character into the soap fabric. But Tripp is also the son of a mob princess, Ava Vitali. Do you hope to see some of their rough edges rub off on Tripp?

Totally. When I first started Tripp was very troubled and he had a lot of issues with his past. Over the years I think that he’s become much more of the “good guy”, the one always making the right choice. I would really like to see some more of his anger come out every once in a while.  Every now and then it’s like, “oh, he can be angry”, you know? And he does have this dark side to him. He just tries so hard to compress it and put it away. Sometimes it just comes out like that.  I think that’s why it’s exciting because he is like the Boy Scout so whenever he explodes, it’s almost like nobody’s expecting it anymore.

TVSource: Tripp’s had quite the rocky love life since arriving in Salem, from his tumultuous relationship with Ciara to the rollercoaster that was Allie, will Tripp ever have an easy love life? What’s it been like playing out his constant romantic disappointment?

I always make jokes with Eric Marstolf (Brady) as you know he hasn’t had the best luck with women either. Sometimes you just have the characters that try their best, but that’s never good enough. But hey, as long as you step up to bat, you’ll eventually hit a home run.

TVSource: Fans loved seeing an alternate reality version of Tripp and Chanel get to play out on A Very Salem Christmas, and this week we’re getting to see it play out on the main show. What can you tease about this coupling? Did you expect this to happen in the main show too?

Well, it’s actually been really fun. Raven [Bowens] is one of my favorite people, so working with her is so fun and doing those scenes in A Very Salem Christmas is just almost like an “of course” it is going to lead to this. Because on the main show, both of our characters are just depressed. We don’t really have anybody to talk to. So who else to confide in than each other? 

It’s interesting because it’s almost like we’re enemies in a way, even though we were fairly friendly at the time. It is like that kind of opposition that draws you closer. It’s like magnets with opposites attracting. So, I think that they really just needed someone to basically hug and just talk it out. The fact that they both found each other in their arms totally makes sense in that way.

TVSource: It’s been really interesting as a fan to see the quad of Johnny/Chanel/Allie/Tripp and how there’s not really a bad guy there, other than you know, the devil. Viewers can see different angles and everybody can root for each pairing in different ways and that’s been a real joy to watch.

Because it’s really just mimicking life in that way! Sometimes nobody’s in the wrong. It’s just you’re living your life the way you need to live it. Like that’s just kind of how things go. So I think that’s what the four of us have really tried to capture is just that sometimes this stuff just happens.

TVSource: What was your reaction when you heard that Tripp was going to be involved with one of the most iconic storylines in Days of Our Lives history, the Devil Possession storyline? 

It was very surprising. I wasn’t expecting that I was going to be really involved with the Devil storyline. Then it kind of just rippled all across Salem. 

I love it because it’s really throwing a wrench into everything. So I was actually pretty excited, especially because it’s also, like you said, an iconic storyline. Having it come back is really fun and to get to play around with this evil character has been wonderful. 

Also, Linz (Lindsay Arnold) as the Devil – she was just dying waiting to become evil at one point. She was very excited and she’s great at it. So yeah it’s really, really fun.

TVSource: Speaking of Lindsay Arnold, she told us that you’re big on hosting and having your cast members over and having a fun time. How do you all keep your amazing chemistry on screen alive? What’s a cast hang out at your place like?

We’re really good friends. I think that it’s something we all try hard to take seriously, especially when a new actor comes in. We all want to make sure they feel welcome. 

Lindsay and I have been through a roller coaster of a relationship on this show. So we have kind of been friends basically ever since she started. I have people over to the house, we play board games, I cook and like to host all the time. We’re all just great friends. Like I said earlier, it sounds cliche, but it is like a big family over here.

TVSource: Outside of soaps, what kind of acting challenge would you like to tackle next? 

Well, I’ve always wanted to do something very dark and gritty. Just something that I can just sink my teeth into, maybe a period piece would be so fun. 

Wouldn’t it be awesome to see a Western nowadays? Or like a medieval show or movie? That’d be really fun. I really just want something dark and grittier than I usually get casted for. 

TVSource: Congratulations on being a part of the second season of Beyond Salem! We know it’s really early to be talking about it, but what’s the vibe on set been like since the announcement? 

Oh, it’s awesome. Everybody is just super excited because of the Peacock vibes, it’s like such a different feeling. 

The storylines are a little bit different, the characters are a little bit different and everybody’s just super excited to be involved in this. The fact that it’s become so popular, it really makes us feel awesome because we love doing this stuff for the fans. So the fact that the fans love it, is even better.

TVSource: Looking at things from a technical standpoint, was the production on A Very Salem Christmas any different than the way traditional episodes of DAYS are shot?

With the regular show, a lot of times we’ll do rehearsal and then you do one or maybe two takes for some stuff. 

With A Very Salem Christmas and Beyond, you’re actually getting a couple of takes. There’s getting more camera angles involved. They bring more cameras in so you can have more of a crane shot or a jib shot and things like that. So they really make it feel more like a movie. But they’re really like taking their time on everything instead of our normal speed where we really just kind of go, go, go, because we are this machine that can do that. 

So I think with the Peacock content, they’re really taking their time. For example, with A Very Salem Christmas we had a choreographer for the dance routine come in. We had like three days of dance routine stuff and then they brought in extra cameras for the whole Christmas show. So we would do one take on the stage and then they’d do it again where the crowd is reacting. So that was a little different. They’re starting to feel more like a movie or an hour-long drama that feels like single-cam style, which is nice.

TVSource: What can you tease is coming up for Tripp in the coming days? 

Let’s see. What can I say here? 

I would say it’s about to get even more complicated for him. I think he’s finally dealing with some of his own, like pun not intended, but inner demons. I think he’s finally just dealing with the fact that his relationship is over. I think that he needs to really just kind of focus on that and just kind of, like I said, start living for himself now.

TVSource: Do you have any words of advice for aspiring young actors like yourself? In other words, any words of advice for the Lucas Adamses who just started their acting journey? 

That’s a good question. 

I would say get into some classes and focus on memorization. Then after that, work on the feelings and the emotions. Because especially here, you have to memorize sometimes pages and pages of dialogue and just come in and be ready to go. 

So I would definitely say memorization and, I don’t know if this makes any sense but, just feeling the flow of scenes. By that I mean just letting the scene come to you instead of you trying to force exactly what you want in a scene. Just let the scene play out and then figure out what goes on from there. You know, you come in, you have something that you have all written down in front of you. But you have to have an idea of how you’re going to be saying this, how you’re going to be doing this, so you have the idea and then you just play with that.

Days of our Lives airs weekdays on NBC. Episodes are also available on Peacock TV. 

The post ‘Days of our Lives’ Star Lucas Adams Breaks Down Salem’s Latest Doctor appeared first on TV Source Magazine. TV Source Magazine - TV News, Spoilers, Recaps, Interviews

TV Source Magazine got to sit down with the Scottish-born actor to learn about how he approaches playing the twisted but damaged Kiriakis black sheep, Xander’s tangled up love life and even more about his exciting thriller film, Green Rush and going full dark.

Our time was spent full of laughter but also insightful conversation that will hopefully enlighten you all on all things Xander but more importantly, inspire you to learn on the incomparable Paul Telfer as well.

TV Source: You’ve just made it to your seven year anniversary at Days of Our Lives, congratulations! Do you mind telling us a little bit about your journey with the show, starting as Kiriakis henchman, Damon and then becoming Xander Kiriakis? 

Yes, actually, it’s funny. They say that every 7 years, your cells regenerate. So every 7 years you’re like a different person. So I’m a whole different guy now from when I first got this job!

Well, it’s been fun looking back. I watched the big wedding episodes yesterday with my wife Carmen. I don’t often watch the show on the day that it airs, but if there’s enough interest in it then she’ll watch it. But I was like, “Okay, you need to watch four more episodes first so it can make sense.”

It really was crazy to see how – not necessarily different Xander is, he’s still kind of the same terrible person – but to see how different his position in the show, in the town and his perception from everybody else is now. 

It’s almost like my early experience on the show very much tracked like Xander’s, in the sense that, you know, I was dipping my toe in when I played Damon. I really, really enjoyed it. And I thought that this is actually perfect, you know. Just a small side character that can do like one or two episodes a month, get my health insurance, pay the rent, it’s all gonna be great. That’s what was going through my head. 

Then they go, “How about a whole new brand new character, where you come on contract and do it for real?” I said great. And all they told me about him was that he was a charming psychopath that could flip on a dime. He could be so lovely in one scene and in the next be a different person, vicious and awful. I said, “Got it, can do, sounds great.” 

TV Source: Charming psychopath? That’s definitely Xander, for sure. 

That is, for sure. Especially early on, they don’t warn you what they’re going to turn you into. Know what I mean? They also may not even really know at that point. I come on, and I’m charming and I’m kind of mean to Serena, then I’m even more charming to Nicole and then I’m even more mean to Serena. It just keeps building and building up until I’m full-on wrestling around with her and throwing her around her hotel room.

It never quite crosses that line of full on, horrible abuse but he’s definitely a bad guy. I thought, “I can thread this needle for a bit longer. I don’t think everybody’s going to hate me that much. And I guess Serena’s a new character too, maybe they won’t mind so much that I’m so horrible to her.” But then they started having me sticking Nicole and Eric in a pizza oven to try and burn them alive. I don’t really know if I could come back from all this!

I remember going to Arianne Zucker who took me under her wing early on and asked her what was I to do, there wasn’t any coming back from this for Xander. I know I’m only on a year contract, I don’t see how the character can continue at this point. She goes, “We’ve all done terrible things! I was married to Victor and tried to throw a toaster in his bathtub to kill him.” I felt okay and then two weeks later, they fired me. To be fair at the time, they brought in a new writing team and let go a whole bunch of people on the canvas at the time. It hurt and was painful but I thought, maybe it wasn’t really my fault and they told me they’d try to get me back. 

From then on, it really felt like how Xander vies for his position within the Kiriakis family and some kind of respect in Salem, I was also vying for my slot on the show as a recurring villain. Every time I came back, I got a little bit more to do as a useful player until they gave me another contract.

For now, it’s been the best and longest job I’ve ever had. It’s the most consistent institution I’ve been a part of outside of marriage.

TV Source: Xander’s always been the type of character striving for acceptance from his family, always the black sheep (whether deserved or not). How do you usually approach his character? How do you relate to him?

I think a lot of the charming psychopath stuff is mostly his attempt to cover and protect that he’s just a very vulnerable, sensitive, emotionally damaged little guy in a lot of ways. He’s very juvenile in a lot of his emotional reactions to things. Especially when he tries to be the big tough, international Man of Mystery there. “They seek him here, they seek him there”, you know? No one even knows where his accent’s from. 

He’s essentially what the fatherless child raised by a struggling single mother – who has no name. One day we will get a name at least!

He’s just someone who has always felt on the outside of everything and at a certain point, he made a little deal with himself that he wouldn’t mind kicking the windows in to get inside. Why should he have to jump through every legal, and moral hoop when everybody else seems to do what they want and not get judged to the same degree because of who their parents are or who their uncle is. 

Victor Kiriakis who is superficially respectable and legitimate but who Xander knows as a gangster being his closest male role model in his life. But he doesn’t have the resources or even mental resources to build himself into someone like Victor. He just does not have that same security. Victor is the most secure, solid and indomitable kind of guy but if you say the wrong thing to Xander, he’ll tear his hair out and run out of the room or lash out at somebody. 

That frustration between how he’d like to be or like to be perceived versus the kind of person he actually is, is the fun tension to play with Xander. 

TV Source: Did you ever imagine Xander would have his own romantic storylines after all the craziness he’s done? 

I have to say, I was surprised that the story we did was he immediately fell head over heels in love with Maggie Horton’s daughter. Not only that, but nobly stepping in to help raise his despised enemy, Eric Brady’s child. But oh, no, it’s not really his! 

It was not what I was expecting. I was expecting them to make him this ridiculous lothario. That had been my experience on the show. He’s supposed to be this hot guy who’s really confident with women and the women are often described as swooning over him. But he would never get any action. I used to start joking that he was like Pepe Le Pew, the old cartoon and then they literally made him start wearing patchouli. Now people are commenting on how he smells! I was like, “What have I done wrong that they don’t want me to be this romantic guy?” 

In a case of careful what you wish for, the process of semi-redeeming and turning Xander something a bit more vulnerable was to just put it through the absolute ringer. But again, it never crossed my mind. I always assumed that if I was to have a regular place on the show, it would essentially be as the black sheep of the Kiriakis family where I would slip into this Victor-lite mode. You know, potentially be his CEO or his business assistant by day and then by night, I’d be doing crimes for him that would help the business or would help his endeavors. We’d have little spots of that here and there but really that turned out to be more the thing of when I was a recurring villain. Once I was on the the show they wisely knew to turn Xander into his own thing.

I don’t think I’ve even seen John Aniston in over a year now. But I think it was really smart to break him off of the Kiriakis family and push him to the other side of the Salem world for a bit. I’ve also noticed that a lot of fans essentially watch their version of the show and fast forward the rest so if they hadn’t been interested in the Kirakis drama, then they might not even click into who you are until they see you with someone they actually like. So the more you can glob onto legacy characters, the more chance you have to get noticed by the fanbase who are understandably resistant to new characters. 

I think the shift towards Xander being his own person (even though he’s not very good at it), has done the character a lot of favors. If they do bring him back into the Kiriakis fold, he would come back as a different guy instead of the same stories of him vying for Victor’s affection. If he can build a life for himself, respect for himself, love and friendship then maybe he won’t be so needy and pathetic in the future. 

TVSource: Xander is currently caught up in an extremely complicated love triangle with Sarah Horton and Gwen Rizczech  – if it can be as simplified as that! How did you handle the fan reaction to losing such a popular couple to starting a new one? 

Paul: The main thing I always try to remember is that fan reaction is valid, right? They’re not getting paid to do it. Before I was a consistently working actor and I occasionally worked in restaurants and suc,  they would always tell those that a negative review will get shared a lot further than a positive review. If somebody has a bad meal at a restaurant, they’ll tell maybe 10 people. If somebody has a good meal restaurant, they’ll tell maybe two people. Just the way it goes. The most vocal are often negative. So once you accept that and don’t take it too personally – which is easy for me to say right now because I’ve been doing it for a while, but early on it isn’t that easy. Especially when you’re feeling secure, you’re not sure if you’re going to keep a job and how long it’s going to last, and you’re not really sure who even you’re trying to please. Is it the fans, the producers of the show, the writers? Eventually you realize that you’ve just got to forget all that and do your job and just enjoy it. 

TV Source: What was the shift from working primarily with Linsey Godfrey’s Sarah to Emily O’Brien’s Gwen like for you? 

So I felt in terms of the shift from Linsey to Emily, I was fortunate in the sense that Linsey is more experienced on soap operas than I am. So again, just like Ari had, she was able to… not so much to take me under her wing because I’ve been doing it for a little bit by that time, but I never really played a romance on the show. So to have somebody that I was a good friend, I could trust and could really talk things through about how to place things and what might be happening, what might not be happening. 

Sometimes it’s hard, you know. If you know you’re going to be or you assume you’re going to be on a show for years and you’re going to have all this story, you never really know quite where you are in the story. And it’s very rare that the show gives us hints or even explicit facts about what’s coming down the pipe. So you’re kind of like the first audience for it.

In a typical job, you would have a script that has a beginning, a middle and an end or you might have between 12 and 24 episodes of a season. This is different. It’s a constantly produced narrative that you’re a part of the ebb and flow of. You’re not the center of it but sometimes you are, sometimes you aren’t. So sometimes it can be really hard to know where you really are in the story. And that’s when it becomes really important to just trust your partner. So shifting to Emily. I know she was struggling with the whole notion that she was playing this villain and it was very hard to make her sympathetic because of the kind of villain she was. 

She’s not holding the town to ransom or any crazy schemes, it’s all this very manipulative, personal, emotional stuff that she’s doing. There’s children, miscarriages, sisters and fathers and it’s just kind of deeply rooted and real. I know that she struggled with how was she supposed to make her likable. I said, you don’t have to make her likable, you just have to make her not boring. That’s the main thing, the main achievement we’re looking for is to not bore people. As long as you don’t give up on Gwen and as long as you fight for her to have a reason to be doing things she’s doing, just watch and it will take a while, but the audience will slowly, but surely start to shift where they get that they’re supposed to hate you. The fact that they hate you isn’t like some weird accident, it’s the point. You’ll hit a kind of critical point where so much of the right kind of hate comes your way, that it’ll turn into love. I feel like it’s actually happening now. It feels like now is the shift.

TV Source: Xander and Sarah was a hugely popular couple with a lot of fan support behind it while his pairing with Gwen had a rougher start. As someone very in tune with and a part of social media, how do you handle the fan reactions to Xander’s stories? 

As awful as the things that Gwen’s done and though it’s slightly different because Emily’s a woman and women viewers react differently to female villains than to male villains – but still, it’s so similar to the Sarah/Xander relationship. Similar in the sense that Xander was lying to Sarah for so much of it. You know, and he was doing it for love, he was doing it for Victor, he was doing it for Maggie. But really ultimately he was still lying to Sarah to maintain a relationship and that’s exactly what Gwen was doing about Sarah. So yeah, Xander doesn’t really have a leg to stand on morally but like I said earlier, that doesn’t really matter in terms of his natural reaction to what happened. 

But in terms of the audience’s ability to sympathize with Gwen’s decision, even if it’s super evil and mean and awful, but as long as you can relate to it or some aspects of the audience can relate to it, you’re gold. In fact, the more they hate you, the more powerful that tension is between, “But yeah, I get why she did it… but she’s so bad!” 

To be able to  talk to Emily and say, “Look, I’ve been through this.” When I was first on the show and people would say nasty things, it got to me. The longer I was on, when they say nasty things, I’d smile like, “gotcha!”. At that point, very often they’re saying things about stuff that I shot up to six to nine months ago and I know I’m still on the show. So all their complaining that Xander shouldn’t be there is like, “Well, tough titties! I’m on the show!”

That’s what I always say to Emily. The fans are fighting yesterday’s war. You know that you’ve already moved on to these storylines and these things, just keep pushing. I’m really interested to see what happens next because she’s going to go through a whole, you know – Well, that’s Emily’s story to tell. Stay tuned. 

But yeah, I really like that it seems that there’s no dead ends to any of these relationships. I guess there’s always the possibility of things being rekindled and coming back. And I should be so lucky to be caught in a love triangle between Linsey Godfrey and Emily O’Brien. 

TV Source: Xander, Gwen, Leo and Craig’s double wedding was the talk of Twitter! How was it like filming such a big dramatic moment and did everyone hold it together during Leo’s entrance?

We shot it over two days. It really was one day was the Leo and Craig wedding and one day was for Xander and Gwen. We had all this heavy, dramatic, build-up about losing Sarah, and kind of saying goodbye to Maggie as well. I didn’t expect it to play as well as it did both when we shot it and when it aired. Xander doesn’t really have a reason to be friends with Maggie after he cut ties with little baby Sarah and also, he’s marrying this person everyone hates that’s done terrible things to people that other people care about so it’s going to be tricky to maintain the friendship. 

It was all kind of just emotionally heavy stuff and so to come in on Thursday for the wedding, having a little mini-reunion with Leo Stark was a lot of fun. Because what can Xander really say to Leo? There’s a lot of that sentiment amongst the fans – as there should be – on who is this guy to think his poo don’t stink and then here’s Leo to explain exactly how it really is, and it’s pretty great. 

But on a bigger television show or movie, that would take days to shoot but on DAYS we move so fast and cover things all at once, you really do sometimes get to watch the show. That was such a fun day! I hadn’t seen Leo’s costume for his entrance until he stepped out. So I got to react as myself and then as Xander which is always kind of delicious. 

Then I didn’t realize until it was happening that Emily O’Brien and Greg Rikaart have a longstanding friendship when they were a couple on another soap opera years ago! That was kind of mindblowing and lovely as well. Nadia Bjorlin, Eric Martsolf and Wally Kurth were absolutely killing me! They were doing all this business stringing along the ceremony. Just getting to do a bunch of explicit comedy stuff they don’t get to was just so much fun.

I only had maybe one line in that first episode but I still got paid! But then the next day was like, now here’s the real work. 

I kind of loved the two weddings in two days as fun as they were in different ways and as satisfying as they were for each audience to get to see this guy get his comeuppance and this girl get her comeuppance. No matter how different the two days were emotionally, they still had cohesive energy to them. 

That’s just really got to go to Greg, Emily and Marci Miller, honestly, because they had the lion’s share of the dialogue. And Jackie Cox too, Jackie looked amazing. To just march into the show — and we move fast, we don’t get takes and, you know, it’s just whatever you do is going to go on TV. So for her to come in and just nail it like that was so satisfying.

TV Source: There should be a ruined wedding support group in Salem. Soap fans are used to wedding fallouts but this one was definitely new, unique and fun to watch. We even had a full on drag queen on daytime TV across America! That was unheard of until now!

Paul: Sometimes I have to make my wife watch the show but she kept saying these episodes were really fun, she loved it. I was like, “This aired at 1 o’clock in the afternoon in America! It’s really cool to be a part of.” And then we go into the next day, for a more traditional soapy disaster wedding which was cool too. It felt like a real, great piece of work.

TV Source: You mentioned before that these relationships don’t have any dead ends even after such a big bust up at the wedding. Where do you think Xander’s heart truly lies? Where do you hope that Xander finds himself with love?

For me, for Paul, I’ve always maintained that he loves Gwen and he loves Sarah. He loves them in different ways and for different reasons because the love grew in very different circumstances. But Sarah was first, you know, We’ve never seen Xander be in love with anyone until her. He was kind of obsessed with Nicole but much of that was about the fact that she didn’t want him than it was that he was really into her. So much of it was when he first came to town and he had a crush on Nicole and she kind of messed him around a little bit, not knowing that he was crazy and violent. So what happened happened. But he’s not really that guy anymore. 

With Sarah, there was never any maliciousness or conniving aspect to how she treated him. She was always very upfront and he loves it when she’s like telling him off. She’s so little and she’s screaming up at him, and he finds it so adorable, you know. 

But the major difference between the two loves is that one is aspirational, right? Like as much as he loves Sarah the person, Sarah also represents a lot to him. She represents a different kind of life to the one that he had, one of legitimacy and security, she’s leveraged into a very important Salem family outside of his own. He’s already a very disrespected and alienated part of the Kiriakis family, but then here’s Sarah with the proper Horton thing too. Then also there’s the analog between Sarah/Xander and Maggie/Victor. To Xander, here’s a template for how it could be. Wouldn’t it be wonderful having that, being the patriarch and Sarah’s his Maggie and all of the things that we could do.

To me, there’s this hugely aspirational part of Xander’s love for Sarah even though it is genuine. Early on when he was courting her, that was clearly a big part of his motivation was to basically marry into a certain kind of decency and legitimacy, so maybe a rub off on him. He did not realize all the work he was going to have to do to actually become a little bit more decent and a little bit more respectable.

But with Gwen, there was no chasing. He tricked himself into thinking he’s just helping out his best mate’s daughter who’s having a bit of a hard time and yeah, she’s gorgeous, but he’s just doing it to be a buddy. He couldn’t let her get into trouble. Then as things go along, you just can’t help but notice that well, they both seem to be unexplained British people and very similar criminal reactions to things, an instinct to lie and sneak around, dark humor with difficult, murky family origins. There was just a lot of connection there. So as opposed to Xander chasing after somebody, this was a discovery of somebody right in front of him with whom he shared all of these similar traits. 

But I don’t want to have to walk between them because the Xander that can be with Sarah forever is a very different guy to the Xander that can be with Gwen forever. Andd it’s a soap opera! As long as he’s on the show and the show is on television, I don’t see him being with anybody forever. I’m sure he’ll end up getting drugged and forget who either of them are or his evil twin will come to town to seduce someone. Something will happen because we can’t just be happy, that’ll be dull. The last thing we want is to bore you guys, we’d rather torture you than bore you.

TV Source: What about throwing Leo into Xander’s dating pool?

Oh! That could work too. But they might need a bit more counseling but yeah, I could see it.

TV Source: What sort of new direction would you like to see Xander go in the main show or even on another DAYS digital spin-off series? 

What I would love to win back is some of the danger of the character. Outside of scaring Dr. Snyder to death by accident – I was really pushing for Xander to just murder him but they were like no, you can’t just rip his throat out in the middle of the Horton living room, Paul. It’s one in the afternoon on NBC.

But there’s a big unresolved thing for me and I would love for them to address it just because it would give me more time with these actors. But you know, Xander did shoot Marlena. And Marlena and John kind of took it in their stride. I know I was like a recurring villain when I did it and it’s just like a bit of a retcon at the time because I’d been off the show for a few months and they told me when I came back. It just feels like at a certain point, John should’ve tried to get revenge but they always have so much going on. I’ve never gotten to work with Deidre Hall much but I have with Drake Hogestyn, and he’s a lovely guy. 

I’ve always loved the idea of Xander’s mercenary, soldier for hire past and I think it’d be fun to pull him into the spy world like the ISA. I think it’d be kind of fun with his criminal connections from the past, it would be a way for him to be respectable on the surface. For instance, if he’s with Sarah, she’s not gonna let him go off and smuggle diamonds. But say John comes to him and asks for help to take down a diamond smuggling ring or something, and have Xander be slightly seduced to do the naughty thing while doing the good thing. Things like that would be fun. 

I’ve also always wanted a full on Kiriakis and Dimera family war. A united front of the Kiriakis family against the Dimera family for a couple months where we just fight. There’s so many fun actors on both sides that don’t really get to interact with each other. 

I would like while maintaining the semi-redeemed aspects of the character, for him to still indulge in his edge now and then. I think a simple way of doing that would be to allow him to get revenge on some other baddies. If he’s being presented as a semi-redeemed character, he shouldn’t be allowed torture good people but there’s no reason why he couldn’t get a little bit of revenge on Orpheus or Clyde. That’s the kind of thing that could get him into trouble! 

Oh, and one more thing! The storyline I’ve always wanted to do is – Remember the whole thing when Xander and Sarah got together and he gave her Dr. Rolff’s diary to save Will? I’ve always thought it’d be really cool if in order to cure somebody, Sarah used Rolff’s research and kind of gets pulled into the dark side of dark medicine and magic, like necromancy. Whatever is that Rolff does! Then it kind of darkens her a little bit, you know. As long as she thought she was doing it for like good, solid, soap medical reasons. 

But as long as they put the pages in front of me, I’ll keep saying them. I’m happy. 

TV Source: Other than Xander who got married on 4/20, you play another baddie known as Ticker in Green Rush, a thriller about an attack on a cannabis farm that you also co-wrote! Can you tell us a bit about the film, the writing process and what it was like going full villain, outside of daytime? 

It’s been a little bit tricky. You know, it’s hard to get financing for independent movies and that’s only getting harder and harder, especially for ones that aren’t horror films or have somebody famous in them that’s doing it as a favor to the filmmakers. My buddies and I had almost gotten multiple projects at different budget levels off the ground multiple times over the years and we just got to a point of frustration, especially our director Jared. He basically said let’s just do something. If we can just put something together that we can show people what we can do, whether it’s a short film or short. Just something done very high quality like something of a calling card. 

I was lucky enough that I was pretty busy – I don’t think I was on contract but I was busy on DAYS. It was right around the time I was first working with Leo. I think that was when we were putting it together. We had toyed with this idea of a Scottish gangster, a Scottish criminal – well, really a Scottish debt collector. Someone who reminded us of people from our neighborhoods growing up. These quite nasty debt collectors that fill in the gaps where poor people can’t get loans and go to these criminals then if they don’t pay back, they get hurt. Very nasty people do this for a living. 

We thought it would be nice to take this charming, funny and really vicious character and put him amongst typical American characters. We toyed with that for a while until our director’s friend took him up to his body’s place in Northern California to see his large legal weed farm. He was kind of blown away by how it all worked, not just how it looked. A big problem they have, the whole premise of the film is based on how  cannabis is illegal on a federal level but legal in California. Which is fine within the state. But in state to state commerce, if you move it in any direction without it being illegal. Plus, you can’t put the money that you earn from it into federally insured Banks. So there’s all these weed farms all over California and I guess, other states too that essentially have to bury all the money they’re making in a hole in the ground. There’s nowhere to put it.

So it seemed like a fun premise for a home invasion thriller that will be relatively inexpensive and just go for it. So we wrote the script very quickly, only because we did it as kind of team enterprise. And like I said, some of the elements had already been worked out in terms of characters and it was more about finding them a place to all meet. 

But I have to say the experience of it was the best thing I’ve done since I very first started as an actor. The pure experience of doing it. I’d had all this bottled-up. I get to let loose a lot as Xander, especially early on but this is still within the standards of what you can do on daytime. 

So to let rip and be this sexually ambiguous, equal opportunity creditor. Who was like, sleazing and threatening and menacing literally everybody gets his hands on. But doing it all with this little twinkle in his eye, where he was enjoying himself. If I can pull off this Xander flavored character in an R-rated project, it would be really cool. And I’m really proud of how it came out. He’s nasty, horrible, horrible, vicious character but I think he’s enjoyable. He’s an enjoyable, hateable villain.

TV Source: What can you tease about what to expect next for Xander? 

Well, you know, he’s absolutely devastated in the aftermath of yet another failed  April wedding.

He already did the big drunken spiral the first time that he lost Sarah. So now he gets to try to rebuild himself in the aftermath of this heartbreak. But now we’ve got tons of romance coming from… well, just cross your fingers and hope that Sarah starts to recover from what was apparently an unrecoverable brain injury. Maybe there is some hope that she’ll be more like her old self sooner, rather than later. 

As much as the wedding was some chickens coming home to roost for Gwen. You know, like the comeuppance for a lot of the things that she’d set in motion. It also was for Xander in the sense that what she did to him is very similar to what he did to Sarah. So there’s a certain amount of comeuppance there too. And so now, there is an outstanding issue between Xander and Sarah that has to be reconciled before they can get back together. So the fans can look forward to that being worked out in a slightly different way than they might expect. 

I remember when we got the script, Linsey was kind of mad about it but I wasn’t. I said you’ll see, we need to earn this. We can’t just run back into each other’s arms. 

So like I always say, expect it’ll be the usual mix of treats and torture.

Days of our Lives airs weekdays on NBC. Episodes are also available on Peacock TV.

The post ‘Days of Our Lives’ Star Paul Telfer Goes In Depth on Playing Salem’s Most Charming Psychopath appeared first on TV Source Magazine. TV Source Magazine - TV News, Spoilers, Recaps, Interviews