Allison Sweeney’s Interview About R-2 Storyline

If you’ve ever wondered, like I have, how Alison Sweeney feels about this story line, here’s her interview with SOD, which is a little long, but worth reading.  I think it’s great.

On What It’s been Like Playing This Story:

"Extremely difficult. I think Galen [Gering, Rafe] has done a really amazing job of not tipping his hand, which would’ve been the giveaway of the whole story and made Sami look really stupid. He’s done a really good job of being just convincing enough that she has every reason not to be suspicious of that, of what really is happening. And Dena [Higley, head writer] did an amazing job of giving Sami the out of the accident to blame herself and blame the accident on his changes, which explains a lot. It really does happen. There are head traumas that could completely change your personality. For her, it’s not completely unbelievable. And obviously, given her history and her feelings and her guilt of what she did yet again-hurt the man she loves and wants to spend the rest of her life with-it’s going to certainly color how she looks at the situation. She’s not going to be objective. I think the story is an interesting one and definitely fun to play and challenging. I think it’s one of those delicate instances that if Galen wasn’t pulling his weight and doing such an amazing job, it would have flopped. It’s definitely riding on his shoulders and I think he’s doing a killer job with it. I think the way they wrote it is a big part of why it has been a success for us to play and I hope the audience feels the same way, but it’s definitely hard for me because it’s weird. You are still working with the same person-it’s still Galen-but it’s a very different dynamic that you have to have, and I was really nervous about it going into it. It’s always something I have to remind myself: It’s not Rafe. You have to play that. Deep inside, she feels it. She’s not attracted to him the way she was and that’s the story we tell of true love in soaps; some part of your heart does know. Sami’s never been super-great at listening to her inside voice, though." 

On Feeling Pressure To Not Make Sami Look Stupid:

"Of course. I definitely don’t want to make her look stupid, but more than that, I feel a responsibility that Sami has always been this person who had a plan. Whether it’s good or not, she always had an active choice and I feel like it’s been hard to play this storyline for a while, because she’s not that character right now, and I’ve definitely had to adjust that. With this story, she’s finding a little of that personality again in a way, even though she doesn’t know what’s going on. She’s still making choices, trying to fight her way through it, which is more the Sami you know and the Sami I’m used to playing. The distance she feels with Rafe is going to help her maybe not lean on him so much and maybe depend on herself more like she used to when she was alone."

On What Will Happen with Sami and EJ At The End Of This:

"Ultimately, I think this story has a lot of potential for where it’s going to go and what’s going to happen when she finds out EJ’s role in it. I don’t know how she won’t feel guilty that she didn’t know. As an actor, you’re waiting for the script because you don’t know how they’re going to play it. It’s so funny, because we’re sort of like the fans, except we get to see it before they do. We’re still trying to interpret what we see on the page and that’s complicated, because for me, I worked really hard not to play that she was getting raped. I don’t think she feels like she’s being raped. So I was working really hard to play against that in scenes. But I feel very strongly that when the truth comes out, that’s certainly going to be a big part of it."

On How She Feels Going Down That Road Again:

"I have been sort of famously Switzerland in trying to stay out of it from the story that happened a long time ago [where EJ forced Sami to have sex with him in 2006), because there were people feeling very passionately one way or the other. But in the end, if you’re going to say that Sami is an attempted murderer for shooting EJ, which is absolutely the crime she committed, whether she got convicted for it or not, that is what charges would have been filed for; if EJ was facing charges, they would be for rape for hiring this guy. There is no question in my mind. Certainly, the argument that they’ve done terrible things to each other is valid, too, but it doesn’t make the crime not true."

On Rafe as Rafe II:

"It is so annoying. I like Galen a lot and he’s fun to work with and always makes me laugh. He’s been walking a very delicate balance and doing a great job on camera, but this isn’t as natural for him as the other character, so he holds on to it a little bit more and works on it between scenes in rehearsal in a way that he isn’t when he’s Rafe. So for me, it’s good, because it keeps me in that place as Sami of not being super-comfortable with this guy and forcing herself to touch him. But when we’re done with our scenes, I’m like, ‘Can you stop being Rafe II now, please? It’s annoying.’ And he knows that. We have had more fights because of this than we ever had, but I totally get it. I want to be a good scene partner and we work together as well as we ever have to make it the best we can, and I totally support his process and what he has to do, but a part of that is me being contrary, and to that point, these people are at odds and in some ways that has translated to the dynamic between us. For example, he’s make a joke bigger than what you could ever really say on TV, an inappropriate slimy comment that Rafe II would say in rehearsal and he’ll get the crew all snickering and I’ll get all indignant like, ‘It’s not that funny. Stop it.’"

On Looking Forward To How It’s All Going To Play Out:

"It’s something that sits in your mind the entire time you’re playing the storyline-the ending and how it’s going to unfold and how she’s going to think and feel."