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In recent months on Days of our Lives, Hope Williams Brady had been losing everything near and dear to her, and for the moment, life, as she has known it simply does not exist.   First, after nearly losing the life of another one of her children to a kidnapper, the strain in her 25-year marriage to Bo Brady began to crack.  Next, enter the return of one of Bo’s other great loves, Dr. Carly Manning, and then things really took a nosedive.  Between the jealousy, the angst, and more Hope and Bo broke up, and Carly moved into Bo’s life again.  Then came the loss of two key members of the Horton family, Uncle Mickey and then last month on-air, Hope’s beloved Grandmother, Alice.  It’s enough to make any one pill-pop, wouldn’t you say?  Except there is just one thing… something strange is happening to Hope when she takes her sleeping pills.  She becomes this empowered and embittered female wanting to exact revenge on the men of Salem.

Days of our Lives long time veteran, Kristian Alfonso (Hope) chatted with On-Air On-Soaps about her current intriguing storyline, that over the next few weeks is going to unravel more and more, as certain someone’s are going to begin to figure out that something is seriously oft-kilter with Hope.  Alfonso also reveals the sadness and the emotional toll the passing of Frances Reid (Alice) took on her and her cast mates in the on-air memorial services for Mrs. H, but also at the real life memorial attended by her and the entire DAYS family, just a few months prior.

And now, what will become of beloved legendary soap supercouple Bo and Hope?  Between pills, Carly, and deaths in the family, are these long time sweethearts broken up for good?  Read Kristian’s thoughts as she weighs in on this matter, and many more.

MICHAEL:

Kristian, I want to go back to a few weeks ago on the air shows of Alice Horton’s memorial service, and the scenes leading up to that with the characters in Salem learning of her passing, and how key a relationship Hope had with her Grandma, and how devastated Hope was.  How tough was it for you and the cast to perform scenes surrounding Frances Reid’s passing?

KRISTIAN:

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It was very tough.  When I found out about Frances, who I just so loved and adored, I was actually at the Pharmacy and I got a call from work, and I said, “Oh, it must be script changes or something.”  And then I get the news, and seriously, everything just fell out of my hands.  It was so sad and devastating.  Frances was such an amazing woman and working with her taught me so much.  It was such a joy to work with her.  She really was like a grandmother to me in so many ways, and a friend, and so lovely.  Working with Frances wasn’t work, because when Hope had to speak to Alice, I really was doe-eyed listening to her.  And her eyes without saying many words, told so many stories and expressed so many words that were not even there or written, and it was just so easy.

MICHAEL:

You had a significant moment that meant so much to long time viewers of DAYS, when at the end of the funeral episodes you went into the living room at the Horton house, looked around, and turned off the lights.  How amazing was that to be given that honor, or was it just beyond sad for you?

KRISTIAN:

Amazingly sad.  It was just disbelief for me, because it was the end of something so grand.  When I walked into that room, and even when the scene that had aired with Bo the week before that, and I had not been in that set for so long, but I could just feel her.  I felt such a sense of sadness in my heart and remembering so many memories.  I was a teenager when I started on Days of our Lives. And I remember my screen test was on that set, walking in and yelling up the stairs, “Julie, I am here.”  That is where it all first started, and touching the furniture and feeling it, and looking over always to the chair where she sat symbolized so much. We would always use her table for all our goodies and desserts and candies, and whatever else I would bring to the set.  We miss her so much, and reliving the loss was painful.  At one point we were on a five-minute break, and no one left the set.  And after the memorial we were all looking at the photos books going, “Oh, Missy (Jennifer), remember this?   Pete (Bo), oh my gosh, remember this?”  And Suzanne Rogers (Maggie) and Bill and Susan Seaforth Hayes, (Doug and Julie) and on and on, had so many memories and so much to share.  It was so wonderful seeing everyone back, but sad that it was for this particular reason.

MICHAEL:

The memorial was a five hankie moment. The entire cast was beyond choked up in the episode, and there were plenty of real tears.

KRISTIAN:

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You know even Ciara cried!  DAYS executive producer, Ken Corday came up to me on a break and said, “Oh, my God. You made little Lauren Boles (Ciara) cry with your eulogy to Alice.”

MICHAEL:

So, was that the last time we will ever see the Horton house?

KRISTIAN:

That is something I cannot answer.

MICHAEL:

When you left the Horton set, were you Ok?

KRISTIAN:

It was very difficult, and yes, beyond sad.

MICHAEL:

I remember being with you, and all the other long time and current cast members of DAYS, at Frances Reid’s real memorial service at NBC that Ken Corday gave.  This was another very tough day.

KRISTIAN:

Frances was pivotal in all of our stories.  I chose to not to communicate with Frances’ family before the memorial, because I knew once I started talking to her niece, April, that I would start to fall apart.  After it was finished, we looked at each other and fell apart full of tears.  Then I felt a hand in my back and it was Ken Corday.  Ken and I looked at each other and then we started crying.  Frances meant so much to us and brought so much to our lives…professionally, and most important, personally.

MICHAEL:

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Hope lost her Uncle Mickey, and now her Grandma, and she is losing her grip!  Her life with Bo is seemingly ruined.  And, she had been pill-popping and whacking men on the head with a gun.  At least she took a break there for a while, during Alice’s passing.

KRISTIAN:

She stopped taking her sleeping pills there for awhile.  But the reason she started taking her sleeping pills was being under so much pressure and feeling so much angst with the way her life had spiraled out of control, trying to hold onto the reins as long as she could.  She wasn’t sleeping, as I am sure you have found yourself lying in bed, and I know I have, having your brain go from one thing to the other thing to another thing.  Going, “Stop, Stop.  I need to go to sleep.” And then you remember something, and you get a lump in your throat.  Then you go, “Oh, my gosh. I have got to take care of that, or do that.”  That is where Hope was and the tragedy of what was taking place in her life, and that was that she almost lost her child.  She almost lost Ciara in the kidnapping, and a lot of this also comes from when she lost her child, Zack.  It was happening again to her, plus the destruction of her marriage to Bo.  Also, everything that had taken place with Zack was never really resolved.  And now this is happening again, and Hope was thinking, “I cannot lose another child.  Just give the kidnapper the house. Give him everything.  Just give them what they want.”  And Bo said, “No.” We looked at things differently in this situation.  Hope was coming from a parent’s point of view, and he was coming from the detective point of view.  Hope is like, “Oh, my God.  If you had given him the money, these two other people would not have been killed.  The kidnapper killed his own girlfriend, and the girlfriends’ brother, and then all of a sudden he is in our house!”  Now, Hope and her daughter are being held hostage, and he is trying to kill both of them.  It was one thing after another, and things started to spin out of control.  The trust was broken and it was like, “Ok. Ciara is home.  Well, you can’t just wipe away everything that has just taken place.  And not that it’s just taken place in our home, which was our solace, it’s now our daughter who is waking up crying every night.”  So, Hope felt she needed to leave the house, not leave the marriage and the relationship, but take a break, and Bo took it as something else.  With the destruction and the spiraling, she needed time to think and to process and heal, and help her daughter heal. There were emotions that ran deep.

MICHAEL:

And then Carly entered into the mix!

KRISTIAN:

Then Carly shows up knowing that Hope is married, and next thing Hope knows, Bo is kissing her.   Then it’s, “What? You are sleeping with her… in my bed?”  That also is a slap in the face to Hope. “And don’t the 25 years we have had together mean anything to you?” And then she comes to find out this was the woman that Bo was engaged to, but Carly, at that point, ended up leaving Bo because she chose money over love!

MICHAEL:

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But Hope’s sleeping pills are causing her to have this alternate personality, who’s actually now a wanted criminal!

KRISTIAN:

She started taking the pills because she couldn’t sleep, and she wanted to be there for her daughter.  And she wanted to be able to function as a detective, because this attacker was on the loose and attacking prominent men in Salem.  Hope wanted to put an end to it.

MICHAEL:

This is really as you and head writer, Dena Higley, have stated in other interviews about female empowerment, and Hope needing to feel in control of something… right?

KRISTIAN:

She went after men who had done something crooked.  She went after Brady because he stayed loyal to Nicole.  But as I investigated, there was a reason people do have these adverse effects from sleeping pill.  They do get up and do things, and for some you can actually have a conversation with them, and there is no memory or recollection of the conversation the next day, which is so frightening!  There is a report on the news of this gentleman whose bank account was depleting.  He was taking sleeping pills, but what he was actually doing was going to a casino every night, and they caught him on the casino camera.  He would have sworn on a stack of Bibles that there was no way he could have been doing this.  But the reason that Hope decided to not take her pills for awhile was that she found out that Alice was at the end of her life, and she did not want to miss a moment.  She wanted to be the best that she can be, and that meant she wanted to be on her toes and on point.

MICHAEL:

So now she had slid back into the popping again, and it’s only looking to escalate!

KRISTIAN:

Then she is so exhausted.  So she did fall back and take the pills again, and what is so ironic is that people who are sleep walking actually get a good night’s sleep, believe it or not.  It was so funny.  When I started telling people that I was doing this story, they would tell me, “Oh, my God.  I know someone who would get up in the middle of the night and would play the banjo, and eating, and going out.”

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MICHAEL:

Would you have preferred if the power-that-be at DAYS chose to do this as a true multiple personality storyline, or Dissocialize Identity Disorder alter-ego, instead of Hope’s erratic behavior coming from a pill popping thing or an abuse thereof?

KRISTIAN:

I loved what they have written, because it gives you the opportunity to see the vulnerability within her, and trying to understand where she is coming from.  She is this very hurt and broken woman who takes on this persona of strength, but in reality she is actually very broken.  She needs a little anger management here, but imagine going through what this woman has gone through, and then finding another woman sleeping not in the guest room, but on the side of the bed you sleep on!  She is trying to process what Bo had done, thinking, “Wait a minute, you just said this woman is on the run and in danger, and now you want our daughter to come visit you, and now you are sleeping with her!”  So the layers of this just kept mounting and mounting, and of course with Carly, there are no apologies.  She does not resent being in love with Bo.  She had a love with Bo.  But, Hope also feels there must have been an agenda, because Carly brought a few things back with her as well, so they can reminisce about their past.

MICHAEL:

Do you have any issues that this storyline with Carly and Bo is a real serious threat to Hope and Bo’s long and storied past?  Do you have any issue with this being a triangle?

KRISTIAN:

No, I have no problem with it whatsoever.  It’s another challenge and another story.  I have never done this, and this is a story I have never played. This is really refreshing and a road I have never traveled before.  I think the writers have done a really exceptional job.

MICHAEL:

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How is working with Crystal Chappell (Carly)?

KRISTIAN:

Working with Crystal is great!  I did not work with her back in the 90’s, so it was completely new.

MICHAEL:

Do you think we will see a catfight down the line?

KRISTIAN:

I think they have had a few already, haven’t they?  I am sure there will be more!  By the way, it’s not so much that Hope is so infuriated with Carly; it’s that she is
mad at Bo for opening the door, and that he was being so disrespectful to Hope.

MICHAEL:

How is working with John Callahan (Dr. Baker)?

KRISTIAN:

He is such a great guy, and what is interesting is John would be a great director. He gives great notes. Working with him has been great.  He loves to work hard and make it the best we can.  I love that he will say, “Hey, what do you think about this?”  He is dealing with two crazy broads, Nicole and Hope! (Laughs) But Baker has a soft spot for Hope. It’s kind of nice.  I like how they have written their scenes, because at first he was demanding that she do this and that. Then he realizes that Hope is really hurting, and then he softens up.  She touches something inside of him, also.

MICHAEL:

So with this new wrinkle and twist in the history of Hope storylines, does the Princess Gina still remain one of your all-time favorites?

KRISTIAN:

Princess Gina was a phenomenal storyline.  I got to play great characters with prosthetics, wigs, and played so many different personalities.  What I loved about it was I got to work with so many different people.

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MICHAEL:

Does this new storyline remind you of that?

KRISTIAN:

To be honest with you, every storyline I have been involved in I have really loved, because they have all been so completely different.  I mean, if you think of the way they have rolled them into another story, and expanded on them.  I get excited to know where the scripts are going to take me.  I would say the Princess Gina storyline was the hardest I have ever worked.  I did not know if I was coming or going, because I was playing the characters opposite of each other.  There was Hope, there was Princess Gina, and then Princess Gina as Hope, and then Hope as Princess Gina.  So one character would know one thing, and the other character would know another thing.  I would have to remember where I was at, and it was really something. The way the writers have always written things were one story maneuvered itself into another, I can really appreciate that.  This story they must have thought about a year ago, because that is when the kidnapping started.  So kudos to the writers!

MICHAEL:

How is Wally Kurth (Justin) to work with now that he is in Hope’s romantic sphere?  Will Justin and Hope become a bonafide couple at some point?

KRISTIAN:

First, it’s been great working with Wally.  The thing with Hope is, she had never loved another man other than Bo.  She has always stayed loyal to her feelings.  And, she has always trusted that.  Then Bo would say, or Carly would throw in Hope’s face, “Well, you slept with Patrick!”  Well, hold on a second.  You don’t know the dynamic of that? Hope found Bo in bed with Billie, the night they buried her son.  Hope took off for an island, and who knew Patrick would be showing up there.  Next thing she knows, she gets a message from Bo that Bo is asking for a divorce.  It was not exactly like, “Oh Patrick, you are here.  Oh, how wonderful.”  It’s not like Hope always turns to a man and jumps into bed with him.  She may turn to a man as a friend and talk, but she is usually honest with her feelings, and up to this point, she has been with Justin telling him this isn’t going to happen.  She loves Justin and she has feelings for him, but her heart and her soul is with Bo.  There is 25 years of history with Bo and Hope.

MICHAEL:

Then, for Bo and Hope fans, do you think there is still hope for their all-time favorite super couple?

KRISTIAN:

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I don’t think that after everything that has taken place, that they can just throw them back together.  I think Bo still loves Hope.  Oh, absolutely, I think he does!  And undeniably, Hope, as angry and devastated as she is at him, and really broken, she still loves him.  She can’t erase that from her heart.  She knows they shared so much, and Alice was one relationship they shared together.  Bo’s relationship with Carly years ago, after Bo thought Hope was dead, plays into this, too.  I am sure there are a lot of things Bo is angry with Hope about.

MICHAEL:

Well, they have driven a mighty big wedge between Bo and Hope.  Do you really think it will take a good deal of soap opera time for them to recover?

KRISTIAN:

It could, but you know as they say, time heals all wounds.  I think they have a long road. And initially here, Hope did not turn around and jump right away into bed with Justin.

MICHAEL:

Your jewelry line Hope, Faith and Miracles, what is happening with that?

KRISTIAN:

My jewelry line is doing very well. You can still find it at www.hopefaithmiracles.com. Of course, there are a lot of actors on the show that wear the jewelry, as well.  Alison Sweeney (Sami) has been so incredibly supportive, and Judi Evans (Adrienne) has been so supportive, too.  Peter keeps asking me, “When are you going to start making jewelry for men?” (Laughs)  Jewelry is forever.  You can grow out of the style of the clothes you are wearing for a particular season, but jewelry is forever. 

MICHAEL:

You wear your jewelry in every single scene of Hope’s.  Do the directors ever tell you, “Kristian that is way too much accessorizing today?  Please take some of that off?”

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KRISTIAN:

It’s always my jewelry in a scene, but it’s really her character, which is why she wears it. Hope comes from a lot of money and always tries to dress appropriately.  I would accessorize Hope according to what the scenes are.  She always has her jewels on.  So no, that has not been happening with the directors.

MICHAEL:

In closing, the next couple weeks are going to be pivotal in the ongoing pill popping saga of Hope and her, shall we say, anger issues with men.  Wouldn’t you say?

KRISTIAN:

You will have to stay tuned.  Let’s just say the last two weeks in July is a very busy time for Hope.  Certain people better watch their backs, if you know what I mean.  As far as Hope/Bo/Carly, I don’t know what is going to happen with that.  But, they found a way to really break Bo and Hope up, which is not easy to do!