Days of Our Lives' Stars Talk Shakeup: 3 More Actors Out!
As promised by "Days of our Lives" head honcho Ken Corday the exits from Salem continue. Nadia Bjolin, Tamara Braun (Taylor) and Bren Foster (Quinn) have joined Louise Sorel (Vivian) and Crystal Chappell (Carly) on the exit train.
This weekend, MSN TV caught up with Lauren Koslow (Kate), Arianne Zuker (Nicole), Suzanne Rogers (Maggie) and Martha Madison (ex-Belle) at the Samantha's Friends fundraiser in Los Angeles and got a behind the scenes take on the ongoing shakeup.
With Deidre Hall (Marlena), Drake Hogestyn (John) and Matthew Ashford (Jack) set to return, new writers on board and at least one more exit expected, the cast finds itself in a swirl of rumors and mixed feelings -- just like fans!
"I'm going to be honest: It's never comfortable when there's a plan of letting people go," Arianne Zuker admitted. "You never want it to be you and you don't want it to be your friends. Most of the time, you don't want to comment on these things, but it's what everyone else is thinking."
Lauren Koslow chimed in on Sorel and Chappell, specifically. "My sadness with both of them is that I didn't have a chance to work with them," she said. "They are just wonderful actress, so on a personal level, I'm going to miss them, but on a professional level, I missed that opportunity... But it is actually the nature of our business."
Nadia Bjolin's exit hadn't hit the news yet, but the diva has already spoken out for herself.
Amid the goodbye tension, there have been several positive bits of news that have Salem locals cheering, including the new head writing team, Marlene Clark Poulter and Darrell Ray Thomas, Jr. "They were writing on our show during the 90s, which was a great time with great story and the characters were rich and full -- and all working!" Koslow recalls. "When was the last time you saw Kate in her office? Hello? We've lost that sense of character, so I'm excited to get back to that. When I first came to the show in '95, I was amazed by it. It was like heaven for an actor, because it was so rich. If we go back to that, it's going to be a bonanza."
Whatever comes from the new regime, Rogers doesn't want to see Maggie's current story to lose steam. "I hope the new writers like the new storyline as much as the old writers did, because we know the fans do," she said. "It's been a couple of years of good story and I've been enjoying that!"
Rogers also added that with a few more casting slots to fill, "There's a lot of rumors, so we don't know what's true. They're going to bring back or let go who they want to. I don't have any control, so I just enjoy every day that I get a script."
Koslow, for her part, would love to see ANY of Kate's kids make a return. She talks about that in the exclusive video below, but like fans, she'd especially love to see Bryan Dattilo (Lucas) hit Salem again. "He's wonderful and right before he left, he was doing the best work of his career," Koslow maintains. "There's so much to do with his character. Lucas is such a complicated guy. Tweet away about it!"
Zucker, for her part, has her eye on another former love interest of Nicole's. "Selfishly, I would like to see the character of Eric Brady back, and it would be interesting to see my husband [Kyle Lowder (Rick, "The Bold and the Beautiful," ex-Brady, "Days of our Lives")] do it!" she said. "He's Sami's twin. They don't look alike, but their coloring is so similar, with their platinum hair and the blue eyes. That would be cool!"
Since the Samantha's Friends event took place at Martha Madison's restaurant, Henry's Hat, we had to track her down to ask: With her onscreen parents Deidre Hall (Marlena) and Drake Hogestyn (John) set to return this summer, might Belle be interested in coming home too? "I got bombarded on twitter Friday, because Drake and Deidre are coming back," Madsen said. "If they ask, I would definitely consider it."
"Days of our Lives" has certainly gained some attention from the big shakeup up, but only time will tell how this all will affect life in Salem, so stay tuned!
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