Days of Our Lives is going to have an emotional week as Salem pays their respects to John Black (Drake Hogestyn). The grief is real though because viewers are still processing the real-life loss of Hogestyn, who was beloved by everyone in the daytime community.
The funeral begins on Tuesday, June 10, and there is one face fans might be looking for but won’t see this week, Alison Sweeney. Sami Brady will still get to mourn John, but they are going to have to wait. Sweeney promised Soaps.com that it will be a true-to-life opportunity for the show to express how grief doesn’t have a timeline — John’s death resonates long after his funeral.
“I don’t know if it was meant to be a secret — so I don’t want to step on their toes — but I came back a little bit later because I couldn’t be there for those scenes,” Sweeney revealed. “They arranged for me to do it a week later, maybe two weeks later. I do come in and have scenes about John, but my timing was a little bit off after all of that.”
Sweeney admitted that it was “hard” not to be with her Days of Our Lives cast to film the poignant scenes, and seeing the previews for John’s funeral has been tough.
“We knew when we were filming the scenes that it wasn’t going to air [until] six months from now and we’re going to have these feelings all over again and that’s sort of what’s happening,” she said. “I’m watching these scenes on TV and seeing all the comments on social media. And we’re reliving it, so that’s really hard.”
Still, Sweeney thinks that Sami’s later moments with Marlena (Deidre Hall) will feel realistic to fans because “mourning doesn’t always happen [when] everyone gets together on one day.” She added, “Sometimes, that’s an ongoing thing. Having Sami come back and share those moments with Marlena, like a week later or something, allows us to tell that story.”
It also gives Sami a moment to honor the man who was a second father figure to her even though their beginnings were rather rough. He was the love of Marlena’s life, and those tender mother-daughter moments might be exactly what we all need to process the loss of not only John, but the sweet presence of Hogestyn on our screens.
Sweeney said tenderly, “I’m really glad that I got to be a part of it in the way that I was, it felt very real.”
For a photo-filled preview of John Black’s service, check out the gallery below.
