Two years after sailing off into the sunset with new hubby Brady, Chloe Lane Black has returned to the Salem fold older, wiser — and shockingly — divorced. Nadia Bjorlin is back to tackle the popular DAYS OF OUR LIVES role and looking forward to the next chapter in Chloe’s life.
Soap Opera Weekly: Are you excited to be back at DAYS?
Nadia Bjorlin: I am. I really am. It’s fun around here. I missed it.
Weekly: Was it difficult re-acclimating to being on a soap?
Bjorlin: My first day, I went, “Hmmm,” because things have changed around here. Management has changed, so to speak. I wasn’t sure what it would be like. But it was kind of like riding a bicycle. I just started doing it again. I got in there and had such a good time.
Weekly: Were there are lot of happy reunions on-set?
Bjorlin: It was so much fun to see and be able to work with Jay (Kenneth Johnson, Philip) again. I’d seen him here and there while I was gone, but it wasn’t the same.
Weekly: Did the two of you fall right back into place as far as Philip and Chloe’s relationship goes?
Bjorlin: Definitely. It’s sort of undeniable. Jay and I have always had a really great time working together. We sometimes can’t keep it together and be serious, especially now that Philip is so serious. He’s a man now, so angry and stern. We’ll start cracking up and we can’t stop laughing.
Weekly: Will you give us a rundown of what you were up to since you left DAYS?
Bjorlin: The reason I left DAYS was because the pilot I did for UPN — SEX, LOVE AND SECRETS- — got picked up. Once they changed the title to that, I knew it was doomed. (Laughs.) It sounded like a rip-off of Sex, Lies and Videotape. It was originally called WILD LIFE and was actually a good show, but it was on the wrong network and wasn’t advertised well. Nobody knew it was on the air. I did do some guest-starring things on other prime-time shows, like JAKE IN PROGRESS and OUT OF PRACTICE. Then I did this quirky independent film called If I Had Known I Was a Genius with Whoopi Goldberg, Sharon Stone, Della Reese and Tara Reid. I got to meet Whoopi and Sharon, but I didn’t get to do any scenes with them. Still, you sort of feel like, Wow! This is something, just to be working on something they’re working on. That hasn’t come out yet. I also did that fun, crazy movie Redline, which I really enjoyed.
Weekly: Was it fun playing in other acting arenas?
Bjorlin: Definitely. It was nice to see what else was out there and work with other people and travel a little bit. Not going to the same studio every day was fun, but it was different. I was so used to working in one place while I was on DAYS.
Weekly: Is there anything different about being on DAYS this time around?
Bjorlin: I’m getting to work with people I hadn’t gotten to work with before. It’s funny, as many years as I was here, I never got to work with Deidre Hall (Marlena) or Alison Sweeney (Sami). I just had a little scene with both of them, so that’s interesting. I guess now that Chloe is considered an adult, I’ll get to have more scenes with the actual grown-ups. That will be fun. Obviously, I love working with the people I used to and [who] I know, but it’s also fun to work with new people, because you don’t know what they’re going to do in a scene.
Weekly: Can you cite something you’re trying to inject into Chloe this time around?
Bjorlin: Obviously, we all put a little bit of ourselves into our characters. I definitely put a little bit of myself into Chloe. If anything, what I’ve put into Chloe, so far, is humor. You feel like you want to put humor into daytime; otherwise it just becomes so straight across the board. At the end of the day, there are many serious subject matters but we want to have a good time, too.
