Days of Our Lives Exclusive: Rachel Boyd Previews Sophia’s Dramatic ‘Labor Day’ and the Seismic Shifts That Follow
Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI
Ready or not, Days of Our Lives’ Sophia goes into labor this week, and to put it mildly, the scenario in which she gives birth is not what anyone would call ideal. “She’s all alone, not just specifically in that moment but kind of at this pivotal time in her life in general,” portrayer Rachel Boyd tells Soaps.com. “She doesn’t have the support systems in place that would be nice for her emotionally. She doesn’t have parents who are very supportive of her or a partner who is helping her through this.
“So for Sophia,” she continues, “there’s that pressure of, you know, the bomb’s about to go off, so to speak.”
Hitting the Mother Lode
As the pivotal episode drew ever nearer, Boyd was anxious, too. “I was very fearful of the character giving birth,” she admits. “I thought, ‘How am I going to play this honestly?’ Not just to portray the birth and the physical aspect but also to be able to conceptualize and relate to that bond that new mothers feel afterwards. That isn’t really something you can study in the same way.”
To prepare, Boyd spent months watching videos and vlogs. But what may have informed her performance the most profoundly was the 2013 movie Philomena, in which Dame Judi Dench’s title character has spent 50 years searching for the son she was forced to give up. “There’s a scene where she finds out he had died, and she’s talking to somebody who knew him,” Boyd explains. “And all they say is, ‘You know, he had a really strong handshake’ — and she’s so proud and emotional.
“For me, something clicked when I saw that,” she continues. “I was like, ‘OK, I think I’m starting to symbolically understand this bond.’”
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In fact, Boyd used the memory in the scene in which Sophia holds the baby for the first time. “And it’s baby prop, right? It’s not even a real baby,” she laughs. “But I remember looking at it and thinking, ‘I wonder if he’ll have a strong handshake.’ It connected that feeling for me.”
Moving forward, fans may want to brace themselves for sort of a Sophia 2.0. “She can never be the same again after this experience,” Boyd says. “The character will be changed forever on the other side. She is going to understand her power and her independence in a new way. And she also now has an emotional tie to another little person who she’s going to want to protect no matter what, in whatever capacity she can.”
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Especially with babydaddy Tate seeming more and more like he’s having second thoughts about giving up his and Sophia’s child, that may mean taking drastic action. “Sophia has had to learn quickly that decisions that directly relate to her life and her body are not always completely in her control in the way that they should be,” Boyd notes. “So the threat of somebody taking away her ability to decide what she wants for her life and for the baby’s life is very real. She’s going to be a bit more mama bear, for lack of a better word.”
