Stephen Schnetzer will return to Days of Our Lives as Steve Olson on December 2, 45 years after last appearing on the show.
The actor, who made his daytime debut in 1978, was thrilled to be invited back to his first soap home. “I was very enthusiastic about it,” begins Schnetzer. “They had reached out on a couple of occasions to see if I’d be interested in doing limited roles and stuff and it just didn’t work out. But this time, I was really excited to go back and it was just great to see how many people were still there from when I was there.”
As Julie Williams’ (Susan Seaforth Hayes) younger brother, Steve comes home to Salem for the memorial for Doug Williams, played by Bill Hayes, who passed away in January. Though Schnetzer and Seaforth Hayes weren’t in touch, “as soon as I knew I was going back, I asked for her email address and reached out to her and we talked and chatted,” he shares. “I just reminded her how important she and Bill were to me. It was my first time on camera. I had done mainly classical repertory theater for eight years. That was the first time I did camera work and they were very gentle, kind, and supportive. It took me longer than any actor I’ve seen to get used to working in front of the camera. I was still projecting to the back wall of a 1,000-seat theater, but they were always very gracious, supportive, friendly, and warm and that didn’t change when I returned.”
Courtesy of Susan Seaforth Hayes
The on-screen siblings fell into an easy rhythm and Schnetzer reports that the character came back to him quickly, even though it had been over four decades. “It was like getting on a bicycle,” he relays. “Steve was a charming rogue, a schmoozer, a charmer, a manipulator, but there was a heart there and the heart showed up in the relationship with Susan’s character, Julie. It was so sweet to work with Susan again, and I really love that they gave me a couple of interesting episodes to play. I really appreciated that.”
Schnetzer is coy about whether his alter ego has changed since the ‘70s. “Well, that would remain to be seen,” he winks. “These two episodes will still have question marks about him and it will demonstrate people’s suspicions about him. Julie will remain steadfast in her feeling about his integrity. I don’t want to get any more specific than that.”
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As for Seaforth Hayes, Schnetzer marvels at her skills during the taping of the funeral scenes. “Susan gave such a great eulogy at Bill’s real memorial that they asked if they could build an episode around that and she gave the same eulogy [on camera], with minor tweaks, and she killed it,” he raves. “I mean, that woman has a mind like a steel trap. Totally impressed. One-take Seaforth Hayes.”
He also has high praise for the scripted goodbye to Doug. “They did it right,” Schnetzer opines. “They brought a lot of the legacy people back. Those are tricky episodes, especially when it’s a big cast, but the head writer and writing staff did a terrific job.”
Reconnecting with old pals when the cameras weren’t rolling was another high point for Schnetzer. “I love our business,” he reflects. “I love what I do. I have the greatest affection for most of the people I’ve worked with. I’ve been so blessed, cast after cast, so it was just warmth and love. When you’re still standing decades after you first worked with someone, there’s a commonality, there’s a bond that doesn’t need to be spoken and that’s what it felt like. It was great to see Deidre [Hall, Marlena Evans] and Suzanne [Rogers, Maggie Horton Kiriakis]. Josh’s [Taylor, Roman Brady] face lit up, he was so happy to see me. I didn’t know he cared [Laughs]. And then all the ghosts in the place — Bill [Hayes] and Jed Allan [Don Craig], Mac Carey [Tom Horton] and Frances Reid [Alice Horton].”
He also found some familiar faces who he worked with at his other soap homes — One Life to Live (as Marcello Salta from 1980-82) and Another World (as Cass Winthrop from 1982-1999). “It was great to see Judi Evans [Bonnie Lockhart; Paulina Cory, AW] and Matt Ashford [Jack Deveraux; Drew Ralston, OLTL]. Matt was on One Life for a moment when I was there and Judi, she hasn’t changed a bit. She brought her pet chicken by and it was great! She wants me to be on the show.”
Schnetzer, who is based in Florida, wouldn’t say no to another go-round in Salem. “I would certainly be interested in doing it,” he allows. “A 3-to-6 month story would be a lot of fun and I definitely would do that.”
Days of Our Lives, Weekdays, Peacock
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