Alison Sweeney Family, Alison Sweeney, who played Sami Brady on ‘Days of Our Lives’ for the past 21 years, has decided to leave the soap opera. Hollywood Life reports that Sweeney made the decision to leave so she could direct episodes of ‘General Hospital’.
The 38-year-old, mother of two, actress who is currently the host of The Biggest Loser, made her debut on ‘Days Of Our Lives’ back in 1993. She said that the move to ‘General Hospital’ would be necessary so she could spend more time with her family, and be able to have flexible hours.
“The head of it was wanting to be more available for my family and have more time to spend with them and be more flexible with my hours. I still have a lot of big stuff I want to work on and projects I want to be a part of, and if I want to make all those things happen there would be something I’d have to give. So I decided to take some time away from Days and see what else is out there.”
Sweeney said she will miss her ‘Days Of Our Lives’ family that she has grown to love over the years. Fans shouldn’t fear too much, her character Sami Brady, could make an appearance when ‘Days Of Our Lives’ has its 50th anniversary.
“Well, gosh, I’m going to miss these people! I’ve been friends with these people for a long time and they’re like family to me and so that part is really hard for me. I grew up with them!”
“Shooting those scenes with Nick (Blake Berris), getting drowned in the river [was] so fun and different,” she recalls. “That fantasy scene where he drowns me, that was super fun and adventurous and I had never done anything like that before. But in terms of storylines and challenging…every year, I feel like they gave me such great storylines and such great opportunities to stretch myself and to, hopefully, do the best work I could.”
“I talked to Ken [Corday, executive producer] about it, and was like for the 50th, if he has a big plan, I would love to be invited back,” Alison said. “I’ll be honest, anything is possible in soaps right? You can come back no matter what. I would come back for weddings and funerals or whatever. It was my way of trying to help minimize the chance of them killing me off!
Both Days Of Our Lives and General Hospital film in West Hollywood, California, so it would be easy for Sweeney to return if she ever reconsiders it. Alison Sweeney’s character, Sami Brady, will depart the show by leaving the fictional town of Salem to write a tell-all script in Hollywood. Sweeney posted an emotional farewell to her Days Of Our Lives fans on her Facebook page.
Sigh. We’ve been through a lot together, haven’t we? As many of you may know, when I first found out I was auditioning for Days (in September of 1992), I flipped out!! It was quite literally a dream come true for me because I’d been a mildly obsessed Days of our Lives fan for several years. A die-hard Jack & Jennifer fan, I so desperately wanted Hope to not be dead in that vat of acid, I loved her sassy spunk and bad-boy lover.
I could go on and on… the point is, I’ve never forgotten what it felt like to tune in every day, anxious to find out what was going to happen to my favorite character. Yelling at my screen at Stefano, crying when Isabella died in John’s – wait, Roman’s (???) – arms, grinning ear-to-ear when Frankie & Eve sang Heart & Soul on the train. (why were they on a train??) What I’m trying to say, is that I took that fan experience into every storyline I was involved with over the last two decades. I always felt the audience watching at home. It has always mattered to me to tell the story as best as I possibly could. Whether it was #Ejami, #Lumi, #Safe, #Kami or … #Sole, or somewhere in between, whether I personally liked the story or not, I did my best to keep Sami true to herself, and played every scene as honestly as I could. I look back through all of it, and am proud of what I accomplished. Proud of the memories, the hard work and the fun times. I’m proud of who I’ve become as a result of my 21 years in Salem.
No question – I am #teamSami. I have always rooted for her… to finally stop putting her foot in her mouth, being her own worst enemy, eternally needing her parents approval, oh, this list could go on and on. It’s impossible to miss Sami’s faults. But I loved her more for them. And I loved playing her faults and her character flaws as much I loved playing the scenes when she persevered! And now it’s been only 5 months since I’ve stopped getting scripts in the mail, and I MISS HER. I miss Sami, her insecurities and her agendas.
I miss my friends in the cast and crew who are as close as family to me. And now that you’ve shared with my Sami’s final goodbyes, I will miss all of you. Your compliments and your criticisms. Those of you who loved sami, loved to hate her, and even those of you who couldn’t wait to get Sami off your screens (though, those people probably aren’t reading my FB page, I guess. lol.) I hope you all keep up with me at Biggest Loser, and the other projects I work on. I look forward to staying in touch with all of you here and on Twitter. I’m still going to be around okay?! so this isn’t really goodbye. At least it isn’t goodbye for me. This is just my opportunity to say a great big, sincere, tearful, THANK YOU. For everything. Every cheer, every tear, every tweet, post and letter. Thank you for investing in me and my character.
