Photo Credit: NBC, K. Hutchins

There is no shortage of young talent on NBC’s Days of our Lives.  In fact, over the last several years the show had had a knack for finding some stellar performers who have delivered and stuck a chord to its faithful audience.  And, as we finish the final weeks of summer and soon head into fall, Jen Lilley (Theresa), Blake Berris (Nick), Casey Deidrick (Chad) and Chandler Massey (Will) are taking a weekend break from the drama of Salem and heading to Chicago and Atlanta for a series of personal appearances, where you can meet them up close and personal … thanks to Elite Fan Events.  The foursome hit Chicago on Saturday August 24th, and Atlanta on Sunday August 25th!  And, DAYS fans take note: this may be your last opportunity to see Chandler and Casey in person at a fan event, since Casey has already finished up at DAYS (although he airs in the months ahead) and Chandler is set to wrap in December.

On-Air On-Soaps sat down with this self-effacing, irreverent, quirky, and yeah, sexy group, to get the lowdown on what will happen when these four travel across the U.S together, and put on a one-of-a-kind unique experience for their fans.  For more on how you can get tickets, click here!

So, what was it like for Casey to film his final scenes as Chad?  How does he feel about his exit story?  What does Chandler think about Will’s sudden jealousy streak?  What storyline does the group think was a missed opportunity to tell big story?  Was Blake Berris almost killed-off as Nick months ago?  What do the guys think of the character of Teresa?  Jen, Blake, Casey, and Chandler give some insightful and playful answers, and let us in on what it’s like for an actor to keep up the pace of the daily grind of a daytime soap.  Do soaps allow an actor to deliver their best work?   Read on for our chat with Jen and the DAYS Dudes!

MICHAEL:

So, Jen you are the ringleader who got these guys to come along with you to Atlanta and Chicago for this one of a kind opportunity to meet the four of you.  How did you entice these guys?

Courtesy/NBC

JEN:

I flashed them and said, “Hey, you guys are hot!  And, you can sleep in the same hotel room!”  (Laughs)  Actually, it was an open invitation to a lot of cast members, but I really get along with these guys. (Laughs)  Didn’t you see our tweets?  Blake is buying a shot for every person that buys a ticket.  

CHANDLER:

For every person who signed up, I was going to take a look at their car-radiator and see if I could fix it!

JEN:

No, that wasn’t the tweet.  What it was, though was every person that bought a ticket would get to sleep with Chandler! (Laughs) Well, obviously we are very fun group. 

MICHAEL:

Jen, you thought these three would be the fun guys to go with?  Any second thoughts now?  (Laughs)

JEN:

Ah, no not at all.  (Laughs)

Photo Credit: Kathy Hutchins

MICHAEL:

Is there structure, and an order to the festivities in Chicago on August 24th, and Atlanta on August 25th? (Laughs) Is there a schedule?

BLAKE:

There is a schedule, and Q&A, and a birthday party for me!  And my actually birthday is the Chicago date.  I am turning 40!  I just want it get it over with, and rip that band-aid off.   I have a had a lot of work done.

JEN:

If we sell 100 or 150 tickets, I will pop out of a cake and sing Blake “Happy Birthday!”  … Marilyn Monroe style.  All of us really love the fans.   There is Q&A, and then we are going to have a hot lunch, in which I oversaw the menu, which was actually Rosie “my inner fat kid” who people who may not know, but I have mentioned her on Twitter.   So, Rosie approved the menu.   Then at night during the event, we are having a pictures and autograph session.  We are also doing secret surprises.  And in Atlanta, we are going to stay an entire extra day to do more one-on-one time with the fans.  So people in Atlanta come to our event and you can have a private VIP experience!

MICHAEL:

When you meet the fans Casey, what do they ask you the most?

CASEY:

I can imagine the most asked questions this time will be, “Why am I leaving the show?”

MICHAEL:

We the viewers don’t know if Chad is actually dying of a brain tumor, or not.  The way this went down on Days of our Lives, we did not see what the doctor told him.  Can you confirm this?

Courtesy/NBC

CHANDLER:

We don’t even know if he has a brain, let alone a tumor! (Laughs)

CASEY:

You don’t know, and that is why people will have to keep watching to find out and tune in.

MICHAEL:

How was your last day on the set?

CASEY:

It was a pretty emotional day.   My last scenes were shot with James Scott (EJ) and Kate Mansi (Abigail).  They were so wonderful to work with.  I have worked with them for the last four and half years.  It was really hard, and I went into that final day thinking it would be really hard, and it turned out to be really hard to get through the scenes.  I am happy I got to work with those two on my last day.

MICHAEL:

Fans were not happy, Casey, to hear that you are leaving.  When you leave a role in soaps it’s different than when you step away from a role in any other medium.

BLAKE:

Courtesy/IMDB

What is cool with soaps is that it’s a sort of strange phenomenon, that you get to witness on television, where the person who has actually been on the show for a long time (and you rarely gets this on primetime television) is leaving the show.  And, if for example, your character is leaving town it’s like this coinciding thing where you actually get to say goodbye to everyone on camera.  Soaps are very good at capitalizing on it, which is a cool thing to witness … somebody actually saying goodbye to someone and doing it on camera.  It has a heightened reality to it.

MICHAEL:

Casey, were you happy with your exit story?

CASEY:

The writers did the exit storyline justice.

MICHAEL:

And Chandler, as of now you will be exiting soon at the end of the year!

CHANDLER:

The second week in December is when my contract is up.  I am looking forward to having a couple of weeks to go home and have Christmas with my family.   I think they will recast the role.  I think the reason the fans are attached to me is that they are attached to the character of Will.  As long as Will and Sonny are still there, it will be OK.

MICHAEL:

Photo Credit: Kathy Hutchins

Are you really ready to step away from this popular role of Will Horton, in which you have won two consecutive Daytime Emmys?

CHANDLER:

Recently, I had to shoot three episodes in a row, and that was 23 scenes.  Honestly, if my answer is “Yes. I am ready to step away from the show,” I think it’s because, as much as I love it and everyone there are my friends and like family, I have been on there for four years… And, (a) I want to go to school, and (b) if I want to grow further as an actor.  I need a situation where I have weeks not days and hours to look at a script.  Maybe I am shooting two or three scenes a day where I can discover and explore, rather than 23 scenes in day where you are just basically trying to keep your head above water and trying to remember your lines.

MICHAEL:

Do you think that actors, producers and writers who are not in soaps, understand the exhaustive nature of it?

BLAKE:

I think people acknowledge it. 

CHANDLER:

Would you agree that with your work on a soap, that what airs in a way, is what could be your worst work?  I feel like the first time you do a scene, it could be great, but …

BLAKE:

Courtesy/NBC

I have different feelings on that.  Sometimes when I do a movie, and you do have time to do things over and over, there is a feeling as an actor that it gets better every time, or potentially it can get better every time.  But, often I think there is magic to the first time you do it in front of people.  There is sense of it happening for the first time.  Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.  I see both.  I see work where I watch myself and say, “I could have done that so much better if I had four more takes.”  And, sometimes I see things where I go, “Wow, that was so spontaneous.  I don’t know if I could re-create that.”

JEN:

When I was growing up, I always thought soap opera actors had Teleprompters.  I think that is a common misperception.  I think people don’t realize we don’t do that anymore. Well, I hide my scripts when I am in Theresa’s apartment.  I hide them behind the cushions on the couch, and hopefully get to look at them in between scenes.

CHANDLER:

I tape them to Freddie Smith’s (Sonny) forehead, and rip them off every time I have to talk to him in a scene, and put it back up and say my lines!  (Laughs)

CASEY:

Courtesy/NBC

I leave all my scripts on the floor near the cameras!

BLAKE:

That’s why he seems so ancy all the time, and so amazing!  He is actually just looking at the floor at his lines!

MICHAEL:

Have all the men here had the opportunity to work with Jen Lilley since she started at DAYS?

JEN:

Blake and I only got to work together once, and the audience is digging us, and it’s not going to happen.

CHANDLER:

You both place nutso characters. That would be great!

BLAKE:

Our producer Lisa de Cazotte said, “I think if you two paired up, it would be like Bonnie and Clyde.”

JEN:

You know, at our Atlanta event we are silent auctioning off sex with Blake! (Laughs)

Courtesy/NBC

BLAKE:

Protective, of course!  (Laughs)

CHANDLER:

Well, my experience working with Jen Lilley was fun, and brief on DAYS.  She comes up and is super drugged in a scene … as Theresa, of course.  (Laughs)

JEN:

I am at this club, and I am looking for someone who is my date, and I am high as a kite.

CHANDLER:

And she says, “Hey!”

MICHAEL:

Theresa was at a gay club?

JEN:

No!  But I am not opposed to that!  I think before Chandler leaves the show, we should do a love train with me and Freddie!

CHANDLER:

Courtesy/NBC

We are related though!

JEN:

I know, but there is a way it could be situated.  It would be Chandler, Freddie, and Jen.  I am talking about a dancing love train in a gay club.  I don’t know where you guys minds are going? (Laughs)  Come to our event to see all of this zaniness!

MICHAEL:

You know, at one point, I originally thought they were going to kill-off Nick Fallon! I thought there was a murder story “whodunit coming”!  Did you?

BLAKE:

I did, too!  I think if I did not extend my contract they were going to have Nick blow his brains out, or something.

MICHAEL:

Chandler, why is Will jealous of Brent … and worried about him and Sonny?  I don’t recall Will acting this way prior to this.

CHANDLER:

I think when you are on a soap opera there needs to be drama, and if there is not an obvious source of drama, they have to create it by creating character flaws.  So they have made Will very insecure, and now he has some angst.

MICHAEL:

Courtesy/PacificCoastNews

Casey, what do you think of working with Kate Mansi?  Do you think she was one of your favorite female scene partners over your time at DAYS?

CASEY:

Over the last six or seven months, Kate Mansi and I became really close friends, and any time I get a chance to work with her it’s a blessing.

BLAKE:

We were hoping we could be love interests, but I think there is a familial thing, because Abby and Nick are cousins!

MICHAEL:

Jen, how are the fans responding to your new Salem bad girl, Theresa?

JEN:

I am shocked.  The DAYS fans have been amazing and loving her.  One review I saw was, “She is deliciously naughty,” which I liked.  I am super grateful, because my feedback was so harsh my first time around on a soap, when I was on GH.

MICHAEL:

Courtesy/Facebook

What is this rumor about there being a doppelganger for Nick?

BLAKE:

Yeah, I found this out through the fans of the show, and it has been out there. They told me a casting call went out, and I am very excited to see who this person is!

CHANDLER:

If there is a casting call for a “Blake Berris look-alike,” you know you have made it!

MICHAEL:

They’re not going to have you play a dual role?

BLAKE:

No, he is not supposed to look exactly like me, but apparently it confuses people! (Laughs)

MICHAEL:

Well, you know what they did with Rafe?  He had a doppelganger, but Galen Gering (Rafe) played both roles!

CHANDLER:

Photo Credit: Jenn Hoffman

Rafe 2!  It was ripped straight from the headlines.  Stefano and EJ kidnapped the real Rafe.  Then they had someone get plastic surgery to look like the real Rafe.  They put him in Rafe’s place.  So Rafe 2 would go live and have sex with Sami, meanwhile the real Rafe is in the prison.  It was fun for Galen.  And I had to go, “Rafe, you are acting strange. You are not the Rafe that I know.”

JEN:

I want to have a split personality on the show, because Theresa is mentally so unstable, and she is Kimberly’s (Patsy Pease) daughter who battled with mental illness.

MICHAEL:

Casey, did you feel that DAYS did not delve into enough, and explore, the fact that Chad is a DiMera?

CASEY:

They kind of shelved Chad for a little bit, and put him on the back burner for awhile.  They could have done so much with EJ and my character.  I feel like I missed an opportunity to work with James Scott a lot, and I also loved Chad working with Will and Sonny, that got dropped, too.

CHANDLER:

I understand as fast as we have to put things up, the writers have to write them. They are not perfect. We only have 38 minutes a day to tell all the story we want to tell.  We have 22 minutes of commercials.  It is a shame.  I really wished I could have worked more with Casey.

BLAKE:

Courtesy/NBC

I always felt unresolved about our story.  We had this great rivalry going.  They have this great set up at Nick and Gabi’s wedding, and Nick threatens Chad and says, “You won’t even see me coming!”

MICHAEL:

What happened with that?

BLAKE:

Well, he just never saw me coming, because I didn’t come. (Laughs) Those shows were fantastic.  Those were some of my favorite episodes.

MICHAEL:

What has been each of your favorite scenes so far on DAYS, off the top of your head?

THERESA:

The café scene with Daniel …where Theresa gets a twinge in her back.

CHANDLER:

My very first scene!  My first line was “Huh?” with Taylor Spreitler, who played Mia. It was a glorious entrance. (Laughs)

BLAKE:

Courtesy/NBC

I think the wedding episode was the best episode!  I loved all the stuff with Chandler on the island, where Nick had to come to terms with everything that happened to him. It was exhausting, but very fulfilling.

CHANDLER:

I had a great opportunity to hide behind a cabinet or something, and just watch Blake pour his heart out to this creepy murderer guy.  It was some of my favorite scenes from DAYS that I have ever seen.  My God, Blake was amazing!

CASEY:

The wedding stuff was cool, like Blake said.  I got tackled at the alter, and I got to ruin a wedding! (Laughs) My last scenes that I shot were very fulfilling for me as an actor.

MICHAEL:

Will we need hankies?

CASEY:

Courtesy/NBC

If you are fans of mine or Chad, you might.

JEN:

If you are not a fan of Casey yet, then come to Atlanta or Chicago, and I will make you one!

CHANDLER:

Come, it will be really fun!  I am from Atlanta and I will bring my grandparents, and so you can come meet them, too.

MICHAEL:

Have you all been to Atlanta and Chicago before?

BLAKE:

I have never been in Chicago before, and I am very excited to go there!

JEN:

The last time I went to Chicago, the fans were so awesome there.  So, I am looking forward to seeing them again!

MICHAEL:

The big final question: Do you think the four of you will all get along sharing hotel rooms, and hanging out together for three days straight? (Laughs)

BLAKE:

Courtesy/Elitefanevents

Oh, I doubt it.

CASEY:

I give us ten minutes tops!

CHANDLER:

Two of us are going to be dead.

JEN:

I am easy going … until we get there! (Laughs)  But come and join us, and see Chandler and Casey at their last hurrah!