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You Can Go Home Again: Louise Sorel on the DAYS set with Brandon Barash (ex-Stefan, l.) and Ivan G’Vera (Ivan).
Louise Sorel is back at Days of our Lives as the outrageous Vivian Alamain, who is up to her old tricks. After a visit to challenge her late husband Victor’s will last September, Vivian is stirring up yet more trouble in the house of Kiriakis, this time teaming with Philip to dispute Xander’s claim to his father’s inheritance and Titan.
Still Crazy After All These Years
For Sorel, the character she initially played from 1992-2000, reprised from 2009-2011, 2017-2018, and again in 2020, hasn’t changed much over the decades. “All she does is grab for things and manipulate things, which she’s been doing since the very beginning,” proclaims Sorel. “Of course, so much has happened over the years. The stories change. The needs of people change. So there are adjustments being made, but hopefully she still has the same annoying personality. She’s the same person with the same sort of desperation and humor.
“Actually, the last few times [I’ve been back], it’s not been funny,” Sorel quickly corrects herself. “It’s been hard to find the humor. [Former DAYS head writer] Jim Reilly used to write some wonderful stuff… Wonderful, zany, crazy stuff.”
Much of that zaniness happened opposite actor Ivan G’Vera, who has played Vivian’s devoted servant, Ivan, throughout the decades and is by Sorel’s side this time around. “I’m mad for Ivan,” beams Sorel. “The work we did way back was so much fun, and I felt like we were so well paired. We still speak [when we’re not working together]. He’s in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I loved being back with him. I just loved seeing him, because he’s such a character. He’s just a very unusual human, and it works for us. He’s a bright spirit.”
Some of Sorel’s favorite DAYS moments were with G’Vera. “I tend to want to do comedy,” Sorel acknowledges. “So I really enjoyed all that. I think it was Reilly who wrote something where Vivian flew out of a plane and landed in a tree with Ivan hanging onto her ankle or something. I don’t know what it had to do with the storyline, but I just loved that stuff!”
While comedy may be lacking during Sorel’s current DAYS stint, it was still a wonderful experience. “I have to say, it’s the sweetest group in terms of makeup, actors, everybody, there,” raves Sorel. “They work so hard, and they’re all so responsible. That to me is the most important thing, because I grew up in the theater and that’s what you do — you are ready and prepared. Everyone is very professional, and it’s a very warm atmosphere, which is lovely to come back to.”
Nevertheless, Sorel notes that her first day on set wasn’t without its fair share of jitters. “It’s a bit nerve-racking when you’re not doing it day after day,” she contends. “I get very nervous. I do a lot of preparation, because I don’t want to let anybody down, including myself. So I sit with [the material] for a long time and kind of let it spring out.”
Finding the character again wasn’t terribly difficult for the actress, who explains that “the essence of Vivian “is there. It’s sort of tucked away [inside me] somewhere, because I’m really not like that at all. I’ve just sort of created something, and I’m trying to bring it back.” In a more compressed time frame, as soap production has sped up. “We used to have some time to rehearse or fix things, but now you have to just come out and spit it out,” she says.
Still, Sorel has delivered, and she’s quite content with her DAYS return. “I mean, you want to come back and make some kind of impression. You want to move things on and make a statement,” she says, referring to Vivian’s mission to get a chunk of the Kiriakis fortune for Philip and herself. “Of course she’s doing it for Philip, but she’s also that kind of woman. She wants what she wants, and she feels justified because she was married to Victor. She’s very myopic that way. It’s all about her. She has to have all of it.”
Along the way, viewers will see a revival of Vivian’s long-time feud with Lauren Koslow’s Kate. Is there a classic rivalry from film or television that Sorel might liken it to? “Well, the obvious one is [Joan] Crawford/[Bette] Davis,” says Sorel. “We’re not those two people. I’m not saying that we’re anything like those two, but the relationship is sort of predicated on something of that nature. And, historically, you just say Crawford/Davis and everybody knows what you’re talking about.”
Of course, Vivian and Kate’s feud started with an affection for the same man, Victor, before branching out to include a son, Philip. “I stole her embryo. I gave birth to her son,” recounts Sorel with a chuckle. “I feel he’s mine, even though he’s not mine. So there’s a little tension there. And we have fun working together. [Lauren Koslow] is very professional, and we like each other. At least I like her! And I think she likes me.”
Sorel is also is quite fond of John-Paul Lavoisier, who is back as Philip. “I just love this guy,” smiles Sorel. “He’s such a nutcase in a wonderful way that I enjoy. He’s very unexpected in certain ways as a person, lovely to work with, and very professional. We rehearse and rehearse, because he cares. You can’t not like him.”
Unfortunately, Sorel didn’t get to know or work with her real DAYS son, Brandon Barash (ex-Stefan). “He was [unconscious in our scenes], so I didn’t actually work with him,” says Sorel. “Basically, Ivan put a needle in his neck. That was so charming. What mother does that?”
Nor did Sorel get the chance to connect with Barash behind the scenes. “There was not much chatting,” she reports. “He went in, sat on the couch, and Ivan knocked him out. Then I was shocked because he got up and said, ‘I’d like to thank the crew.’ And I went, ‘What?’ I didn’t know it was his last day. That was a shock. Unfortunately, you miss people that you would have liked to have been friends with, because [things move] so fast. But that’s just the way it is.”
