DOOL & Outfest: A Coming-Out Celebration

Last night, I was fortunate enough to attend an event co-sponsored by Days of Our Lives and the LGBT film and arts organization Outfest here in Los Angeles. Dubbed “A Coming-Out Celebration,” it was a panel discussion centering on the current Will Horton storyline.

The event kicked off with a screening of a clip reel highlighting the Will storyline. It covered his break-up with Gabi, that awkward conversation with a very supportive Justin, The Kiss and its fallout with Marlena and Sonny, the time he almost opened up to Sami when she was dressed like an anime schoolgirl, and the recent scenes with Will, Lucas, and Kate. It ended with Will’s declaration to Marlena that he thinks he might be gay, which aired this week. Then they spliced in some scenes from upcoming episodes, which I’ll talk about behind a cut because they contain spoilers.

First of all: how effing weird to watch a bunch of Days in a giant room not only with a bunch of fans, but with the actors themselves. It was clear that some people were only there because it was an Outfest event or because they heard Days was doing a gay storyline with a cute young guy, because they were laughing at everything about the show. And it wasn’t the “We’re in on the joke” laughter in which we indulge here — it was borderline-mean, “Soap operas are so bad LOL” laughter. I felt bad for the actors, especially Chandler Massey. Luckily the content was compelling enough that people eventually shut up and watched it. When you watch a bunch of big moments strung together like that, you realize how good these actors are. They basically do this stuff in one take. And when those scenes aren’t spread out over days and aren’t intercut with, like, Madison and Brady riding Segways or Abe and Lexie having a dull, nonsensical argument, they play really, really well. There have been a ton of powerful scenes in this storyline, and when they aren’t filtered through a million Internet comments of “OMG this is moving so slow!!!!11 Y aren’t Will n Sonny making out yet?!?!,” they truly are effective. Of note: when Deidre Hall first appeared onscreen, she got a huge cheer; when Kate, in the midst of her conversation with Will, said, “I’m your grandmother and I love you,” there were loud gasps from the non-viewers, like, “How in the hell can that woman be his grandma?!” And seriously, guys: she looks amazing. This woman is 59 years old and she looks so, so good. My friend Ira and I met her at the reception afterward, and she’s both very good-natured and very striking up close.

Then came the real meat of the evening: the Q&A panel with six actors and Co-Executive Producer Greg Meng.

Sorry, that was the best I could do. It’s hard out there for people with cell phone cameras who don’t sit in the front row. If nothing else, I’ve presented visual evidence that I have, at some point, been in a setting in which seven people sat on a stage, somewhere, in some chairs. From left to right, the blurry but well-dressed orbs are: Deidre Hall (Marlena), Chandler Massey (Will), Alison Sweeney (Sami), Bryan Dattilo (Lucas), Lauren Koslow (Kate), Wally Kurth (Justin), and Co-EP Greg Meng.

The most illuminating part of the Q&A, for me, is that the people involved in this storyline — both in front of and behind the camera — are absolutely invested in this storyline. I didn’t catch a single whiff of “We’re doing this out of desperation” or “This is a stunt and we’ll toss Will out when we’re done.” I’ve read a lot of commentary online about how the pace of the storyline has all been an effort to stall having to show actual affection between men, but I didn’t get that impression whatsoever. The actors seem so excited to play this material, and Meng seemed to have an attitude of “Yeah, we’re finally doing this storyline,” like it’s something they should have done years ago, not something that deserves praise. Someone in the audience asked if the recent soap cancellations and the ratings desperation have made Days more open to tackle “taboo” storylines that they haven’t been able to do previously. Meng’s response was, “We aren’t interested in ‘taboo'” — and clearly, no one at the show sees Will’s storyline that way. I also loved Wally Kurth’s answer, which was basically that he and Judi Evans (Adrienne) were thrilled when they were told that their son on the show would be gay, because it would finally mean getting to play scenes that they hadn’t played a thousand times before! That got a good, knowing laugh out of the audience and the other actors.

There were some other interesting moments during the Q&A (and a lot of evidence that people need to learn the difference between asking a question and telling a boring story with no point). Someone asked about the homoerotic subtext between Will and EJ. Chandler Massey did a lot of uncomfortable laughing before managing to say that James Scott is an attractive guy, so of course there’d be a bit of that on Will’s end, and he also admitted that Scott could be playing it like EJ is toying with Will since he knows about his sexuality. Someone asked Massey — who seems very enthusiastic but also a little embarrassed by all the attention — about the reception from his family, and he talked about it being largely positive despite the fact that he comes from a small town in Georgia. He did say that an ex-girlfriend’s mother mailed him a Bible, but he “never liked her anyway.”  There were some really sweet comments from older audience members who talked about having waited decades to see something like this on Days, because it was something they’d struggled with when it was less possible to talk about it with anyone in their lives — stuff like that always reminds me of why we watch Days, even through the boring and the ridiculous.

The affection between the cast, and their enthusiasm for this storyline, were really gratifying to see. Every actor took time to praise Chandler Massey not only for his acting but for being a joy to work with, and there were a bunch of cast members there who weren’t even on the panel; they just came to support the show and their coworkers. Kate Mansi, Patrick Muldoon, Casey Deidrick, Molly Burnett, and Schuyler Yancey (who debuts soon as Cameron) were all there for the screening/Q&A and mingled afterward. I thought it was odd that Freddie Smith (Sonny) wasn’t there, though.

And now for the SPOILER-y stuff — you’ve been warned!

• In the scenes from upcoming episodes, Will has come out to Marlena and is openly referring to himself as gay. Very sweet scenes. He also comes out to Sonny, who is very supportive and doesn’t immediately lunge over the bar to make out with him.
• Alison Sweeney hedged when asked about Sami’s reaction, because it’s been shot but not aired, but someone from NBC spoke up to tell her it was okay to reveal it. Apparently, Will tells Sami that he’s gay, and she runs away from him. Like, “I can’t deal with this right now!” This should be good and messy.
• One of the audience questions was about whether everyone in Salem is going to be as accepting as what we’ve seen so far. The cast and Meng emphasized that there will be varied reactions. Not everyone is going to be okay with Will coming out. Roman? Caroline?

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Tags: Behind the Scenes, Days in Real Life

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