All The Days Of My Life (so Far)

by Alison Sweeney

  Almost the whole cast participates in these special events throughout the year. From charity walk-a-thons to mall-signings…we travel throughout the country signing autographs and meeting fans from all over. The guys (hunks) have the busiest personal appearance schedule—sometimes they are out of town every weekend doing events. We all have gotten pretty familiar with the airports around the U.S. from all the traveling we do. But the whole experience just reinforces how unique the relationship is between our characters and the fans. And I like to think that Sami has certainly struck a chord with the Days audience. After all, when fans vote you an Emmy Award for Favorite Villain, which happened to me in 2002, you know that your character really is stirring up the passions of viewers and leaving some of them seething. Fans have told me that they’ve actually used their TV sets for target practice, throwing any object within reach at the screen during my scenes—or firing off an obscene word or two when Sami has really infuriated them (“bitch” seems to be a particular favorite among Sami haters!!).

  The chat boards can be just as amazing. When I check out the Days bulletin boards on America Online, for example, some fans really let loose on Sami (or as some of them call her, “Scami”). I guess they figure they’re completely anonymous when they’re online, and they don’t hold anything back! They have their say and can be pretty cruel, that’s for sure (I’m not joking about that!). But again, I realize that they’re just letting off steam about my character, not about me—and I know Sami can be pretty irritating at times. So I try not to take it personally.

  Because of the kind of person that Sami is—creating her own style of mayhem in Salem, year after year—I’m not surprised at the good-natured venom. (In a way, it shows that I’m doing my job well!) Sometimes, when I’m rehearsing or taping a scene in which Sami is being particularly bitchy, I’m sometimes thinking, “Man, Sami’s going to get viewers screaming at their TV screens today!” It makes playing her all the more fun!

  An International Following

  While it’s on my mind, here’s something else you may find interesting about Days fans. I’ve found that when I travel overseas, the interest in Days seems to tag along with me. The show is an international phenomenon, not confined just to the United States.

  During the Christmas holidays in 2002, James Reynolds (ex-James Carver), Matt Cedeno (ex-Brandon Walker), and I took part in a USO tour overseas, just months before the start of the war in Iraq. We flew from Kennedy Airport in New York to Madrid, and then traveled farther into Europe to spend time with the troops stationed in the Mediterranean before they shipped out to the Persian Gulf. It was an amazing experience. We stayed on a military base and slept in officers’ quarters (not fancy, but not bad!). It was so cool to hang out with the soldiers and sign autographs for them—and I was so proud of every one of them. We spent Christmas Day with them, and we even served them Christmas dinner. They were so appreciative—and they were also so young! I was twenty-six years old at the time, and I was older than most of them. We’re so lucky to have these men and women who serve our country, and I made sure they knew how grateful Americans are for what they’re doing for us.

  Jim and I went on a USO tour again in 2003, with Kyle Brandt (Philip) and Eric Winter (Rex). You’ll have to read about it on my website…. Oh, and I’ve got tons of photos from both tours posted on my site as well.

  In traveling to other parts of the world, I’ve learned just how universal the appeal of the show has become. Of course, Days is watched by millions of people in the United States each day, and it is taped in Burbank, California, at NBC Studios. But eyes around the world watch our show, with a little help from subtitles or voice dubbing. Days has fans in all parts of the globe, from Paris to Rome, from Melbourne to Montreal to Jamaica. It really is quite amazing, and we have huge ratings in some of these countries. In fact, I’ve been recognized in the most unlikely places!

  Here’s a funny example. In October 2002, Dave and I vacationed in Europe. It was a great trip, and we started with five days in Paris. It was the first time we had been to Paris and some of the sights just took our breath away. We spent almost an entire day in Versailles, where the gardens and the palace are truly stunning. We went to the Louvre and visited Notre Dame.

  I haven’t mentioned the Eiffel Tower yet because I’ve saved the best ’til last! It is so amazing to see it in person—even more magnificent than I had imagined—and when we went to the top of the Tower, the view was absolutely spectacular (What tourist could pass that up!). We even ate dinner in the Eiffel Tower.

  Now the reason for this story: Dave and I were waiting in line to take the elevator up the Tower. The line was very long, and it snaked back and forth so you saw the same people again and again as you gradually moved closer to the elevator. And one by one, people started to recognize me (I wasn’t wearing much makeup that day, and I would have preferred to have remained totally anonymous—it always seems to happen that way, Murphy’s law or something). A couple of German tourists recognized me first. Then people from Singapore. And Frenchmen. And several Americans. Well, all of them had their cameras with them because they were visiting one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world—and a lot of them wanted their picture taken with me. That was fine with me, of course—although things did take a rather unusual twist. As the line wound back and forth, and I kept seeing the same tourists again and again, even those people who didn’t have a clue who I was began asking to take a picture with me. (None of them asked, “Who are you again?” but they might have been thinking it!) They figured they’d take a picture with a celebrity—even if they had no idea how or why I might be well known. It was a little embarrassing—but pretty funny!

  Now, one piece of advice: If you’re going to be traveling to Paris, I don’t recommend that you spend a lot of time in your hotel room, switching the television dial, looking for Days of Our Lives. (Even though I love Days, I have to acknowledge that there might be more exciting things to do if you ever get to Paris!!) But if TV happens to be your thing, you’ll definitely be able to watch the show there. I did some press interviews with French magazines, so I spent a lot of time thinking and talking about Days. I found out that it comes on at 8:30 in the morning—and it airs without commercials. The last day we were in Paris, I watched the show in our hotel room, and there all of us were—speaking French (thanks to the art of dubbing). It was actually hilarious. (I even taped it on my camcorder for posterity!) In the episode I saw, there was a scene at Johnny Rocket’s with Sami, Austin, Roman, and Carrie, talking in voices that weren’t ours, and in a language that none of us spoke. To add to the entertainment value of the experience, French television doesn’t air the most recent Days episodes—I saw a three-year-old show that day. Actors no longer on Days were in the episode. And we all looked so young!! Totally weird!

  Chapter 8

  Back to show memories: 1993–2002: Sami and Austin. Austin and Sami. Lives intertwined, for seemingly forever.

  Almost from the beginning of my life on Days, Sami was obsessed with Austin Reed. He was her true love. She wanted desperately to have a life with him. She dreamed and schemed and was determined to have him for her own.

  So who was this guy Austin? And why was Sami so preoccupied with him?

  I think answers to questions like these will help you understand Sami a little better and will certainly show you the kind of character I’ve been playing for all these years. You can find so much of what makes Sami tick in the enduring relationship (or obsession) she has had with this one man. So let’s spend a few pages unraveling the Sami–Austin relationship, and learn something about Sami in the process, including the challenges I’ve encountered and the fun I’ve had playing her for more than ten years.

  The Austin Saga Begins

  If you’re a longtime Days fan, you know that Austin (played first by Patrick Muldoon, then by Austin Peck) came from a difficult background—a divorced family and an abusive father who was hooked on drugs. Somehow, Austin emerged c
arrying very little emotional baggage (at least it seemed that way) when he showed up in Salem in 1992, about a year before Sami returned to town. Over the ensuing years, their lives became entangled in one intriguing plot line after another.

  (OK, here we go again—more story lines. If you’re already up to speed on everything you’d ever want to know about Austin and Sami, just fast forward to Chapter 9 and spare yourself the smallest details.)

  Early on, from the time she was only fifteen, Sami fantasized about being a part of Austin’s life. It became a fixation. It became her obsession. But almost from the start, there was a major obstacle in her way, coming from someone who also had the last name “Brady.” Sami’s sister, Carrie, had fallen in love with Austin, and in fact, Carrie and Austin planned to be married.

  The thing is, Sami started out trying to encourage the two to be together. See, Carrie was horribly scarred when a loan shark tried to throw acid on Austin—it hit Carrie instead. She was so insecure about her scar that she tried to break up with Austin. Sami did everything she could think of to get her sister back into Austin’s arms—I know what you’re thinking: “Sami? Trying to help?” But, yes…it’s true! And it worked, Carrie and Austin eventually reunited, and Sami was happy for them, though she never got over her teenage crush.

  So when did it all go bad, you ask? Well, this creepy guy Alan came on the scene. He was obsessed with Carrie, and tried to kidnap and rape her on several occasions. When Austin rescued Carrie from Alan’s clutches, he turned his evil attentions on Sami as a consolation prize. With no man to rescue her, Sami became a victim of Alan’s obsession, and was date-raped by him. (I’ll write more about this in the next chapter.)

  Skipping ahead a little, Lucas finally discovered the truth about what had taken place and helped Sami tell her family what had happened to help her. Carrie was determined that Sami seek justice, even though Sami was violently opposed to airing the whole story in public. Carrie promised Sami that justice would be served and Alan would go to jail. But that’s not what happened. Just as Sami had feared, Alan got off, and the end result was Sami’s name (and photos) splashed on the front page of the tabloids. Humiliated, Sami held her half-sister responsible for not keeping her promise—forcing her into the spotlight and embarrassing her. That was the beginning of the end of Sami and Carrie’s sisterly bond.

  Don’t you love how I’m telling the story lines as if these are real people? In some ways, Sami, Lucas, Austin, and Carrie are like real people to me—I don’t know, maybe like in an alternate universe or something! I’ve been a part of Salem for so long now that sometimes I forget how outrageous some of this stuff can sound to other people. (Maybe I should talk to Dr. Phil!)

  Sorry for digressing. Now back to our story: With Austin committed to Carrie, most sisters would have backed away. But did Sami? After the Alan experience, Sami decided Carrie wasn’t “good enough” for Austin and decided to pursue him herself. As you know, Sami’s on her own planet when it comes to dealing with love.

  Maybe you remember that both Sami and Austin lived in the same apartment building on Guilford Street (I didn’t know Sami lived on Guilford Street. I had to look it up!) and—forever scheming—she used every opportunity to win his attention. When her air conditioner broke down, she convinced Austin to fix it. When her plumbing needed repairs, Austin got the call. She’d call him to claim that Alan was after her again. You get the picture, she stopped at nothing.

  But Austin wasn’t a fool. He figured out what Sami was up to. Yet that didn’t stop Sami’s conniving—of course not. Her devious actions only got more creative. Sami certainly wasn’t about to allow Austin to spend too much time in someone else’s arms, particularly her sister’s. And anyway, she simply wasn’t very fond of Carrie…Okay, she detested her! Blood just hasn’t run too deep in the Brady family, and the battle over Austin was enough to drive Sami toward behaviors that bordered on the bizarre. She wanted Austin all to herself, and she’d do whatever it took. It was all so crazy.

  The Chase After Austin

  Here’s one thing all of us have learned during the years that I’ve played Sami: When she sets her mind to something, she won’t let anything stand in her way. She even slipped a drug into Austin’s drink at the Cheatin’ Heart, and then tricked him into having sex with her at her apartment. Poor Sami, she was actually convinced that after sleeping with her once, Austin would fall in love with her. Well, that didn’t happen. Just to show you how complicated things got, a heavily drugged Austin thought he was actually making love with Carrie instead (Sami even doused herself in Carrie’s perfume to help lure him into bed!). Once Austin realized what had actually happened, he ran back to Carrie, and made Sami promise never to tell her sister that they had made love.

  Well, Sami was devastated by this turn of events. No one was better at self-pity than Sami, and feeling that her world was collapsing around her, she fled Salem.

  As for Lucas, he and Sami went way back (to 1993, to be exact), and had a rather auspicious beginning when, at a rock concert, Sami and Carrie stumbled upon Lucas getting out of bed with a rock star named Cherish. Later, Sami ran into him when he was dressed in full military-school uniform, appearing as preppy as it was possible to look. But Sami had his number from the start; she remembered him very vividly from their encounter at the rock concert.

  Lucas and Sami became close friends (he also happened to be Austin’s half-brother), and initially Sami saw him as a way to make Austin jealous. As great comrades, Lucas and Sami often schemed together. In fact, they worked together to break up Carrie and Austin—Lucas wanted Carrie, and Sami wanted Austin. Perfect, right? Wrong! Lucas (in his full military uniform) agreed to take Sami to a local dance, where she knew that Austin would see them together. In her own clueless imagination, she pictured him becoming furious, and demanding to have Sami for his own.

  A side note: Bryan (Lucas) took me to a real school dance—which I’ll discuss in more detail later.

  Back to the story: In the aftermath of Sami’s sexual liaison with Austin, Lucas did more than soothe her emotional pain and help her in her scheme to win the attention of Austin. While Lucas and Sami were plotting together, he had become a true friend and confidant of Sami’s, and—you guessed it—Lucas and Sami ended up sleeping with one another. (That sure took her mind off Austin, at least for the moment!) Here’s how it happened:

  Sami had tried to seduce Austin before resorting to the “drugged drink” routine. When he turned her down flat, she began to beat herself up over it, telling herself that she wasn’t pretty enough and that no one loved her. To console herself, she headed for a bar (at the tender age of seventeen), was turned down when she tried to order a drink, and then became the target of some heckling (and a spilled beer on her shirt), courtesy of a group of unruly guys at the bar. Sami was becoming frightened when Lucas unexpectedly appeared and came to her rescue, escorting her from the bar.

  Poor Sami.

  She and Lucas ended up at the Titan Photo Lab, where she put on Carrie’s bowling shirt since hers was drenched with beer. And then Sami proceeded to cry a river—with Lucas as her audience—telling him how no one’s ever going to love her. Lucas began to console her, saying, “I love you; you’re my best friend.” Well, in the ensuing minutes, they became very friendly—and ended up making love. It really wasn’t a romantic thing (believe it or not)—it was more a show of friendship and demonstrating how close they were.

  Well, guess who walked in on them? Austin showed up, saw Sami’s blonde hair and a shirt with Carrie’s name on it, and assumed that Carrie and Lucas had slept together. He was mistaken, of course, but the confusion of identities couldn’t have made Sami any happier! Sami became immediately revitalized, convincing herself that Austin would leave Carrie and (of course) want to be with Sami. Now, she had a chance with Austin—or at least that’s what she thought. So she put the drug in his drink, fully expecting him to fall madly in love with her after realizing they’d made love.

  Y
ou can almost imagine what happened next, right? Sami had become pregnant. But who was the father of the baby? Lucas? Or Austin?

  Sami convinced herself that Austin had impregnated her—and she was absolutely thrilled. Still, the question lingered in Salem: Could it be Lucas’s baby instead?

  I’ll discuss Sami’s incredible pregnancy in a moment, but suffice it to say that she was quite content believing that Austin was her baby’s father, and never sought any tests to prove it one way or the other. Even after the baby was born, she lived with the belief (or was it a fantasy?) that her beloved son Will was Austin’s.

  Now, I know what you’re asking: If you didn’t follow Days when these episodes aired, you’re probably wondering whether—in the insane world of Sami—was Austin the actual father of her baby? Well, not really! Sami’s world began to turn upside down when Will was two years old, and he and his stroller accidentally ended up in the river. Carrie leaped into the water and saved his life, and he ended up in the hospital (don’t most kids in Salem spend time hospitalized with a serious illness or trauma?). While he was in the hospital, Sami saw the results of routine blood tests conducted on Will, and was stunned by the results. She realized that Austin was not Will’s father—Lucas was.

  Well, Sami was determined to perpetuate the lie. She promised herself that no one else would ever learn who the father of her child was. No one would ever know that Austin was not the real father. Absolutely no one.