LINDA DANO ON DAYS VISIT

Linda Dano (ex-Felicia, ANOTHER WORLD; ex-Rae, ABC) wants to make something clear about her short-term stint as DAYS’s Vivian.

“It’s interesting because a lot of people on the Internet reached out to me and said, ‘They’ll never be another Vivian; I don’t know why you’re playing it,’ which for me, being in the business forever, was a bit shocking,” she admits. “I know Louise [Sorel, ex-Vivian]. We’ve been friends over the years. She’s even been to my house. When they called and said, ‘Would you play the character of Vivian?’ I didn’t take it as I was taking over a character. I took it as a two-week fill-in for her. It would be like someone playing Felicia and it’s not me. And I hope the fans of DAYS won’t feel that way about it. I want them to think about it as a friend doing a friend a favor.”

Once she agreed to come on board, Dano realized how happy she was to be back in the mix. “I have had a love affair for 35 years in daytime,” she points out. “It’s my family. And it’s not just my family on ANOTHER WORLD or ABC, you become friends with people that aren’t on your show and it becomes one huge family and that family understands each other. We know the labor it takes to pull off an hour show. We know how difficult it can be and how tired you can get. And it becomes a safe haven, if you will, for actors because we’re part of this giant family. For me, it was, ‘I’m going to go to California. I’m going to see some friends of mine who I haven’t seen in a long time. I’m going to have fun.’ I have a lot of friends on DAYS. I spoke to Deidre [Hall, Marlena] before I even left for California. I just spoke to her yesterday, in fact.”