DAYS’ Suzanne Rogers on saying goodbye to Frances Reid and…a ‘Mactor’ coupling??

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Suzanne Rogers has played Maggie Horton since 1973

While the spotlight on most daytime soaps usually falls on the young and the restless (pun intended), it’s always refreshing when a long-running serial takes stock of the characters who have been around a little longer. Case in point, Suzanne Rogers has played Maggie Horton on NBC’s Days Of Our Lives since 1973 and this past year her character has seen a resurgence of visibility first as the wiser voice to help the younger characters but now there are subtle hints that Maggie could end up having a romance with Victor Kiriakis (John Aniston). Of course, this entire month on the show Maggie is standing by as matriarch Alice Horton (who had been played by Frances Reid from the first Days episode until she passed away in February) slowly slips away and past characters (and, in most cases, the actors who played them) are showing up to pay their respects.

I had chatted with Suzanne a few weeks back about her experience as Maggie but I ended up getting on the phone with her again to ask about filming the scenes surrounding Alice’s death as well what she knows about what the future holds for Maggie and Victor.

Jim Halterman: As an actor, how has it been doing this trip down memory lane as former cast members return to pay their respects to Alice?

Suzanne Rogers:  First of all, with each person that comes through the door even if it’s a recast like the Bill Hortons it was lovely. It wasn’t the original or the second Bill because both of those gentlemen have passed away so it was recast to another talent. But you’re saying “Bill” and so you immediately see the face and scenes you did with that person and  it was lovely but the reason for it was sad. That’s the only sad thing about it. It’s lovely to see all these people and catch up but then the reason that we’re all there is because we lost someone very dear to us.

In a past scene with Frances Reid as Alice Horton

JH:  It also seems to be a great tribute to the fans who have watched for decades and who know and remember these past characters and the actors who played them.

SR:  It’s wonderful. I went to an event on Sunday that was a memorial that the fans wanted to set up. It was so nice because Frances meant so much to them and she got them through so many things in their personal life, I think. They could relate to the things she told her kids and grandchildren and there was a wonderful fondness there for her and will always be. Her name is said with reverence, no doubt about it.

JH: Can you share any favorite memories of working with Frances?

SR: I’ve been working with her a long time! She really took me under her wing when I first came on the show. I had just done musicals and theaters before I came onto the show so I dind’t really have any experience whatsoever with doing a soap opera. She was very absolute. She took me into her room and said “Now look, you come into work prepared, don’t keep people waiting and be a professional and you’ll get along just fine.” When I came on the show there had not been any new cast additions for quite awhile so I was the new kid on the job. It was important to get me straightened out right away! [laughs]  She was very helpful and at times she would say “Oh, you’re not going to say it like that, are you?” so I’d rethink it. She was a lovely lady always.

JH:  What is going on with this potential Maggie/Victor romance? There seems to be hints that something could happen there.

SR:  I don’t know! I get the scripts and I go ‘Uh-oh!’  The scripts are complete when I get them so you can see what other people are doing in it and I see that Vivian is going through and I say ‘I don’t think she’s happy about that!’ But I don’t know. I’m as surprised as you are. When Louise [Sorel, who plays Vivian] and I talk we say ‘We’re the actors, they give us the scripts and that’s all we know.’ I guess it’s going to depend on how the reaction is going to be by the audience. If they like it, then we’ll see.

JH:  I’d love to see a catfight between Maggie and Vivian!

SR: [laughs] I think it’s really nice because you also get to see another side of Victor and I think that’s rather interesting because all the other women who have been in his life have been connivers, including the one he’s married to now! I think it’s interesting to see another side of him. That’s what I’m finding – a softer side.

Who does Mark Hapka's Nathan go to for advice? Maggie! Who else?

JH: Talk to me about how the business has changed since you’ve been on the show and where you think it’s going.

SR: Well, when I first came on the show it was only half an hour and there weren’t as many soaps on the air so that in itself changed when it went from a half hour to an hour. That was shocking and yet very exciting and wonderful. Then there were more soaps that came on and it almost too many for everyone to watch. As in most cases, years ago more women stayed home to take care of the house and the kids and the man went to work. Nowadays, everyone is working and in some instances the men have lost their jobs. I think it’s a shame that they can’t figure out with all the technology how they can’t figure out who is taping the show and watches it later. I don’t know why they can’t figure that out because I think a lot of people still watch the show but they don’t have the means of finding out how many.

JH: More people keep up with the shows that we realize, right?

SR: They come home and put it on while they’re having dinner or when the kids go to bed. They  get the kids to bed and say “Now I can sit down, relax and watch my soaps!’

JH: You’ve had great storylines along the years. With the whole Salem Stalker storyline when you were killed off, were you surprised at the fan reaction?

SR: Well, of course I was shocked because at the time when two people were killed off like bam bam I thought oh my God and then the next person was ME! I was like “Oh my God!” It was shocking. I think it was good television as far as getting people to watch the show but I think after awhile the fans got upset and they re-thought the premise of what they were going to do with the 10 of us because they had killed us off the show. It was shocking and it was a surprise when we were told that we were coming back because as far as we were concerned we had died and put in the ground! It was shocking to find out that it was like a dream. [laughs]

JH: I was trying to remember what storyline helped you win the Emmy?

SR: I had lost my daughter…we had adopted a little girl and her mother decided she wanted her daughter back so she came to town and was sort of stalking Mickey and Maggie and she had a lawyer to dig up some dirt that Mickey had been in an institution and that was a black mark against him. Becauwse nobody believed me when I said to Alice that I felt like someone was watching me – and of course someone was watching me – so I started to drink and the audience was very upset about that but that’s what gave them the ammunition to take my daughter away from me. The scene where they take my daughter away is one of the scenes that I submitted for the Emmy. It was quite shocking at the time for the upstanding lawyer and his wife to lose their daughter.

JH: I was watching the episodes when the character of Mickey died. How was that to shoot?

SR: That character was in the original pilot of the show. It was very hard. The character hadn’t been on-camera for about three years even though they’d refer to him and said where he was whether he was on a trip or there but ill. I was concerned because the actor who played the character was very much alive and I didn’t want him to hear about it. I called he and his wife and someone had already sent him some scripts so he knew it was coming so I didn’t have to bring up the subject himself. He was already aware of it. I was hoping I would do him justice and do the character justice with him not being there anymore. That’s what was hard. It’s hard to take another Horton that’s died and the group is getting rather small. I just wanted to do a good job.

At a DAYS event with co-star James Scott

JH: How does it feel to have Maggie be in the mix of things in Salem again?

SR: I love what she’s doing now with the young kids. I love Melanie, Mia and Nathan. I’m enjoying being a Grandmother, being a confidante, being a mother…I’m enjoying all of this because I’m enjoying working. It’s been awhile since I’ve had a lot of story and now I’m working with everyone. It’s like Yeah! It’s like they found me again after all these years!

JH: I think for the longtime fans it’s such a reward to see some of you put on the front burner of the stories again!

SR: I’m so happy. It’s like ‘pitch me!’

Days Of Our Lives airs every Monday through Friday on NBC with re-airings nightly on the cable channel SoapNet. Check local listings for air times in your area.

Related Posts

1. DAYS OF OUR LIVES at 45, the future and the loss of Frances Reid
2. Rewind: DAYS’ Peggy McCay on her prime time gig and memories of Frances Reid
3. VIDEO: DAYS OF OUR LIVES’ Melissa Reeves & Ty Treadway talk possible coupling
4. In-N-Out of Coffins: Hanging out with DAYS’ Maggie/Victor/Vivian at DAY OF DAYS
5. VIDEO: Jay Kenneth Johnson on the (baby) s*#% hitting the fan on DAYS OF OUR LIVES

Tagged as: Days of Our Lives, Frances Reid, Jim Halterman, John Aniston, Louise Sorel, NBC, Suzanne Rogers