Last week we brought you a sneak peek of Deidre Hall and Drake Hogestyn’s return to Days of our Lives, but were you wondering what they’ve been up to this whole time and if they even recognize the show they’ve returned to? Well, wonder no more as we had another chance to sit down with them and discuss what brought them to this reunion at this juncture in their lives. And be sure to check out the video clip to the left where Hogestyn gives us a sneak peek at what it will be like to watch John and Marlena reunite on-screen again and discusses who else needs to return in order to complete their family!
“Greg [Meng] had been talking to me about [returning] for a while, and we had been on book tours, and we just kept flirting with the idea. At one point a woman came up to the autograph table and said ‘What would it take to have you come back?’ And I said ‘Well, it would take being invited.’ And because I trust him so, I thought this wasn’t an off-handed remark,” Hall, who took time to write her own books, in addition to spending time promoting the DOOL coffee table photo book, shared.
But sometimes it's easier said than done. After all, both Hall and Hogestyn took time away from acting when they were away from their soap opera, and coming back to the genre now is like stepping into a whole new world. No longer are there hours in the day for blocking and rehearsal; actors are expected to show up, know their lines, hit their marks, and do it all perfectly in just a few minutes. It's a crash-course in television, and not all who remember the "old" way of doing things has been so quick to embrace the change.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” Hall continued, candidly. “I’d heard it was much faster paced. [But] the truth is that there hasn’t even been a wrinkle. We come on set made-up, wardrobe, camera-ready, prepared. We’ve gotten our notes, and everybody’s on their game. They’re on their tiptoes and ready to shoot out of the gate. More often than not, it’s one-take moments and then we move on. And they’re good one-take moments!”
The medium has changed a lot since Hall and Hogestyn last stood under the bright lights of Studios 2 & 4 in Burbank, CA, and admittedly a lot of the players have, too. Hogestyn, who spent the majority of his time “off” with his family, pointed out that having DOOL be such a big part of his life for so long was hard to completely walk away from because his cast mates there, too, were a part of his family.
“When I was at the gym I would say ‘No, no, no, I’m not, I’m not, I can’t take my eyes off this show!’ I’d stop my workout, and I’d stand there in front of the TV set, and a lot of the people at the gym knew that I used to be on the show, so they’d ask me what’s going on, and I’d say ‘I don’t know; I’m trying to figure out who this person belongs to; I’ll figure it out’,” Hogestyn laughed.
“Now, I was doing a scene with Patrick Muldoon the other day, and he just stopped and stepped back: “Aaaahh! This is like acid man!” He just looked up and there’s Drake and there’s Deidre and there’s Christie.” He went into this time warp.”
Who else needs to return for Hall and Hogestyn to feel their on-screen family is complete? Check out our video chat to the left!
Hall and Hogestyn aren’t the only two familiar faces returning, being thrown into Salem Place with the new kids on the block, which certainly has to add to the comfort factor of “going home.” Hogestyn admitted to having a blast playing around with his “pumpkin,” Christie Clark (who is a mother of her own now!), but Hall hopes to get to work with Molly Burnett, who kept her cracking up on the book tour. It is the true mingling of generations and characters classic and contemporary that is going to set DOOL apart and offer it an even greater shot at longevity past the two seasons NBC has currently committed to.
“I sit there with appreciation, looking at everybody, saying ‘Wow, I really missed you all’,” Hogestyn certainly knows what magic they are making and isn’t ready to let it go any time soon.
Days of our Lives airs at 1pm every weekday afternoon, only on NBC, and Hall’s first book, “Kitchen Close-Up,” a cookbook for the modern (busy) woman, is available now with another one (all about health and beauty) coming in just a few weeks, timed with her on-screen return to the soap opera that made her famous.
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