It’s already been a year since Dan Feuerriegel walked into Salem, taking over the role of the notorious EJ Dimera, and what a year it’s been!
In that time, EJ has had his heart broken by his beloved Samantha, had a brief dalliance with his ex, Nicole Walker, and is now in the midst of a torrid romance with Sami’s sister, Belle.
So what’s it been like for Dan to step into the role created by James Scott, who played EJ for eight years? What does the Aussie actor think of working in the U.S.? Who does he have the most fun with on the set of Days of Our Lives? And who was that making themselves known in the background of this interview? Read on.
You’ve worked as an actor for several years in Australia and now in the US. What do you find the most different when it comes to filming in the two countries?
Well, one of the biggest things, obviously, is the audition process. For my time in Australia, the audition process was a lot smaller. They gave you more time. That wasn’t as much, say, like, dialogue that you had to learn.
Whereas in America, it’s like the night before, sometimes the day of maybe. If you get a couple of days, that’s a bonus. It’s a lot quicker, a lot faster.
But when it comes to production, Australian productions obviously have way less money, American productions have way, way bigger budgets, a different union, where they have certain requirements that Australia doesn’t necessarily, I think, have, or at least it’s they do have that, but it’s just a different way.
That’s kind of the biggest difference that I’ve noticed. It’s just more money in America. The audition process is a lot quicker because there are so many more people. And in Australia, you don’t have the entire world going for roles, whereas in America, you’ve got the entire world as well. So that’s the biggest difference that I’ve noticed.
How long have you lived in the US?
Since 2013? So eight years. Yeah. This will be the ninth year.
What do you miss most from Australia?
It’s a much more laid-back lifestyle. I miss my friends and family, obviously. And the beaches. The beaches are a lot nicer in Australia, I’m sorry to say.
Okay, now I’m jealous. What was the biggest challenge you faced when taking on the role of EJ on Days of Our Lives?
Well, first and foremost was getting an idea of the character. The character had a lot of history. And the fans knew this character, played by James Scott. They knew his version of it. So I had to bring my own version to the role. I had to pay respects to the role. I had to pay respects to the fans and the production.
But also, I had to kind of keep in mind that this is my version of the role. And it’s not going to be exactly like the previous actor’s version. And so that’s a power that I had. For me, it’s like, I’m in control of my performance and not trying to replicate somebody else’s.
But the other challenge was the amount of dialogue. The speed of the production. Just the monumental size of some of the weeks where you are learning over 100 to 150 pages worth of dialogue or scenes. It can get pretty overwhelming, pretty brutal. And it takes up a lot of your life.
So there were the biggest things that I had to get used to.
EJ was on the show for about eight years. Did you know much about his previous storylines before you started?
I intentionally kind of kept myself in the dark about that. I wanted what was written on the page to inform me.
Obviously, my fellow actors filled me in on certain storylines that I would bring up in the show. And the producers as well, the writers, they gave me like a brief breakdown of where he came from, to where he would be going.
But I didn’t go and research or anything like that. I wanted to find it organically rather than coming in with a preconceived idea.
So far, EJ has been paired with Sami, Nicole, and now Belle. If you could choose a partner for EJ for a long-term relationship, with whom would it be?
I’, not getting into this one. There are too many factions! I enjoyed every single character. I just enjoyed working with all the actresses. They are all sorts of lovely people and helped me along the way.
But I say for the sake of this question, I’m going to say somebody new that’s normal. Just purely because then there’s going to be no infighting with any of the groups or the fandoms or anything like that.
It’s like, alright, all of them can then team up against me and someone else rather than them all fighting amongst themselves. Because I can’t answer that. I can’t pick out of the three because I love them all.
So far, who have you had the most fun with on the set?
I love Billy Flynn (Chad). He’s so much fun. We laugh a lot. Also, with Galen (Gehring, Rafe). He’s hilarious. It’s always an interesting time whenever I work with those guys because we just laugh and screw up. Ari (Zucker, Nicole) is always a good time. She’s hilarious.
Like, everybody has their own qualities. I’ve enjoyed working with every single person on that show. And there’s been no one that’s stood out.
I guess Galen and Billy just have my sense of humor. And Brandon Barash (Jake). They all have my humor. So we just kind of get along that way. You know, like a bunch of boys just kind of laughing over fart jokes and stuff. So yeah, I’d say all those guys.
Which actor have you not worked with much that you wish you could work with more on Days of Our Lives?
Let’s see. Raven (Bowens, Chanel). I haven’t really worked with her a lot. She’s a lovely person.
Rob (Scott Wilson, Ben) I’ve only done a brief scene with him. I think it’d be cool to kind of work with him and do some stuff.
Let’s see. Linsey Godfrey (Sarah). She’s lovely as well. I guess, basically anyone I haven’t worked with.
I’ve worked with so many people, and I would just love kind of like to just pop into other people’s storylines, just for the hell of it. I think it’d be kind of hilarious.
Now switching gears a bit. Looking at your graphic novel, fractured shards. How did you become interested in graphic novels? And what was your inspiration for this one?
So I’ll be honest, I was never really a massive comic book fan. I did collect comics to the degree of Mad Magazine and Simpsons comics. And, and I remember the first graphic novel I got was the Tim Burton. Batman; the first Batman. They made a graphic novel out of it. And I remember seeing that at school and buying it.
But what happened was — I’ve always had all these ideas for TV and movies. And one of my buddies, Sean Keenan, is big in the comic book world. And with his business partner, Steven, they create graphic novels and comic books and release them.
I told Sean, at a convention one time, one of my ideas, just as a movie. And he came back to me a couple of weeks later with his business partners and said, Hey, do you want to do this? And I was like, Absolutely! It’s something I’ve never done before.
The inspiration is just bits and pieces of all the types of films that I love. I basically created a character that I would love to play in a movie or TV series.
He’s a grizzled detective. He’s got this kind of dark power where he can see what a victim has gone through based on how traumatic it’s been. And that makes him a really good detective.
It’s set in the future. It’s, it’s kind of very post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk, that kind of thing. Steampunk, as well. So that’s kind of the inspiration. It’s like Judge Dredd and all these other graphic novels. And that’s kind of where the storyline came from.
So we’ve all worked together, and we’ve just released Volume Two. We’re going to do a spin-off soon. And then Volume Three and just keep going until there’s no more demand. People seem to be really enjoying it. So I’m very excited to be a part of it.
Now Volume One is out, and Volume Two is coming out. Is that correct?
Yeah. So Volume One is out. Because it’s self-publishing. It’s a slow process. We’re in the process of getting it out to comic books around America. We’ve got it in libraries and schools in Australia. It’s on Amazon here in America. It’s on Amazon in Australia. And www.BookDepository.com, which is like a worldwide shipping kind of a place.
So, Volume One is available. Volume Two, we’re just sending out now to all the Kickstarter people who backed it. And then once that’s all sent to them, we’ll release Volume Two on Amazon and all those kinds of places, and then we’ll do a Kickstarter for the spin-off and Volume Three.
Do you have any other future projects in the works?
I’m in the process of creating a kids’ book with my Mom. So that’s a lot of fun. That’s a slow process because she’s busy doing her own thing. And we’re just kind of doing stuff back and forth. But once that gets going, we’ll I’ll do a Kickstarter for that, which would be a lot of fun.
I’m very excited about that because Mom’s fantastic with that. She’s been a teacher and at a childcare center for 40 years. So she knows everything about kids. And it’s been something that she’s wanted to do for a long time.
I’m dabbling and writing movies and things like that. But you know, when they come along, they’ll come along. But at the moment, it’s all just very kind of early days with a lot of that stuff.
And I have to ask. Who do I hear in the background there? (There’s lots of meowing.)
You are hearing Quint. I just got two new kitties a couple of days ago, on the fifth of July. That is Quint that you’re hearing. He is a very vocal cat, especially when he’s not getting any attention. And Ripley is in the other room, probably asleep or something.
But they’re both very vocal cats, but he’s just very vocal because he’s warmed to the apartment a lot easier than the other cat. So she’s just taking a little bit longer, but he’s like, a little bit of a terror already.
Are they cats or kittens?
Kittens. Three and two months old. They’re so cute. I love them.
Just because I’m curious, did you adopt your kittens? Where did you get them?
So I’ve got one Bengal, which I’ve always wanted a Bengal since I was a little kid. So I got a Bengal from a special breeder.
And then I got the one that you’re hearing, which is Quint. He is a little Siamese, and I got him from Kitt Crusaders, which is a cat charity that I’m a part of.
So it’s KittCrusaders.org, and they are a fantastic group of people. Every Sunday, they have their adoption event, a kind of meet and greet. So if you want to go and check that out, definitely go to their website, or donate because they do some amazing stuff.
Okay, as much as I love kitties, let’s get back to acting. What’s your dream job? Not counting Days, which TV show would you love to be a part of, past or present?
I just finished watching Stranger Things. That’s definitely something I’d love doing, that kind of stuff.
But I love comedies like Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Brooklyn Nne-Nine, Parks and Rec, The Office, that kind of thing. I love that. I would absolutely be so excited to do a TV series like that.
And then maybe something darker, what would it be? What’s popping in my mind? It’s from the people who did The Haunting of Hill House. They did Midnight Mass. It’s a bit more of an actor-y kind of film where it’s lots of monologues. It’s very slow, but I just love that stuff. I would love to get my sink my teeth into kind of thing.
But comedy, I love. I would love to do Always Sunny in Philadelphia and that kind of dumb, irreverent kind of comedy. I think that’d be fantastic.
And back to Days, EJ is at a pretty low point right now. Can you give fans any spoilers for what’s going up for EJ on Days?
Let’s see, why am I in a low spot! (Laughs)
That’s true. It’s probably been quite a while since you filmed it.
Yeah, like four, five, six months ago.
Well, EJ just went to the police station to confess that Clyde threatened his family, so Chad is furious with him. EJ feels like Chad will never forgive him, and he’s not sure where he stands with Belle. So he’s not feeling overly confident right now.
This is something that EJ does consistently. He’ll think he knows the right thing to do, or at least he’s kind of arrogant enough to go, No, no, I know the best thing.
And then, obviously, falls on his face. I guess (spoiler) it’s more just a lot of self-discovery for him. He kind of does this. He does silly things, and then he has consequences, and he self-assesses and tries to be a better person.
So, it’s more about the self-discovery of what he’s doing and trying to be a better person. I can’t remember specifically what I did. It’s been about six months since we filmed. But I’m sure he is going to try and do something to get the company back.
Days of Our Lives airs weekdays on NBC and streaming on Peacock.
C. Orlando is a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. Follow her on Twitter.