Alison Sweeney Q&A
(Early 1997)
As Days of Our Lives lovers know, demon seed Sami
Reed -- played by Alison Sweeney -- was accidentally
hit by a car being driven by her husband, Austin, and is
lying near death in the hospital. Are the Days execs
really killing off Sami, or is this merely one more
stumbling block in her reign of terror? We called up
Sweeney for the scoop on this wild story line.
Hey, Alison, were you nervous when you
found out Sami was going into a coma?
Well, it does cross your mind, especially when you
play a villain, that you may be disappearing. But we
had a meeting and they let me know they weren't killing
me off.
Well, of course not! You're one of the show's
main attractions.
Still, it's an actor's worst nightmare.
I think Sami will survive anything -- probably even nuclear
war.
Yeah, her and the cockroaches.
So, is a story line like this kind of like being on
vacation?
At first I thought it would be great. I was so excited! I figured I'd
come in to work, lay
down all day and leave, no big deal, no lines to learn, it would be a
breeze. As it turned
out, I've got a tube down my throat, a tube up my nose, IVs in each
arm, masking tape
everywhere, two brain things attached to my head, a bandage around my
head, my neck
is in a neck brace, and I'm not allowed to get up and take a
five-minute stretch like
everyone else. I do this for eight hours. Then at the end of the day,
the prop guy, Bob,
takes great delight in ripping the masking tape off my skin. It's not
what I imagined it'd
be. After several weeks of this, I miss my old job, I miss blocking,
I miss learning lines.
I actually look forward to the days when I get to do an eye flutter.
I miss wearing my cute
little outfits that torment people because they make me look like the
girl next door. I really
miss getting to do cute things with my hair.
How do you keep from cracking up while everyone's standing
around
weeping over Sami?
Laughing isn't the hard part. My problem is falling asleep. Luckily,
I don't snore -- at
least I don't think I do. But one time I fell asleep during a scene
and did one of those
weird things where you jerk awake suddenly. Austin Peck [who
plays Austin], who was
sitting next to me, grabbed my arm and held it down on the bed and
I'm, like, waking up
and thinking, huh?... wha'?... oh, I guess we're still taping.
Luckily the camera was on
Deidre Hall [Marlena] and Christie Clark [Carrie],
who were standing at the end of the
bed and I didn't ruin the take. Some of those voices -- especially
Austin's and Christie's
-- just lull me right to sleep.
Well, isn't that complimentary!
No! [fumbling] Um... I mean... Their voices are so warm and
caring and comforting....
Do you think anybody in the audience really thinks Sami is going
to die?
No. But a bunch of my friends who go to college -- where Days is a
very big attraction --
say there were resounding cheers when I got hit by that car. People
were throwing "We
hope Sami's dead" parties. No one felt sorry for me. But on the show,
where everybody
should be so sick of Sami, everyone is acting like my best friend.
Gimme a break.
Come to think of it, why is everybody being so nice? You'd
think
somebody would be glad the brat might be dying.
I think it's like one of those Catholic guilt things -- you don't
talk bad about the
near-dead.
I hear you did your own stunts in the accident.
It was sooo cool! A stuntwoman did the part where the car is actually
moving toward
Sami and hits her. But that was really me being thrown against the
wall and crumpling to
the floor.
Wouldn't Sami have been hit first by the bumper -- which means her
legs
would be injured?
No, no, there's nothing wrong with her legs! Don't go there. I'm not
going to play
paralyzed! I'm praying beyond all praying that I don't have to do a
paralysis story line.
Because that would suck.