DAYS Exclusive: Ashley Puzemis Says Holly And Tate’s Split Feels ‘Kind of Final’

Leo Howard (Tate) and Ashley Puzemis (Holly)

Holly and Tate’s rocky relationship has hit another obstacle — Tate breaking Holly’s confidence by telling Julie that it was Doug III who stole Alice’s necklace —  resulting in another breakup for the on-again, off-again Days of Our Lives duo. Ashley Puzemis (Holly) spoke to Soap Opera Digest about the young couple’s trials and tribulations, the roles Sophia and Doug III’s are playing in their woes, and her thoughts about whether this time, the duo has parted for good.

 

Soap Opera Digest: Things were already tenuous between Holly and Tate before he blabbed to Julie. How would you describe their situation prior to their latest split?

Ashley Puzemis: I would say pretty heated, just because of the whole baby drama. I mean, Holly’s an 18-year-old girl and she still is choosing to be with her boyfriend after finding out he got her best friend pregnant. So I feel it’s definitely complicated. And to add Doug III into the drama — he’s been in the whole mix, and Tate’s been jealous about that. So just dealing with him and dealing with Sophia, Holly and Tate have definitely been on edge.

Digest: Were you initially surprised by Holly’s decision to stay with Tate and her maturity in dealing with Sophia’s pregnancy?

Puzemis: I was very surprised. I was even shocked when I found out that Tate slept with Sophia. I remember reading the script, I was like, “No way! He actually slept with Sophia? What?!” Then I could see from a mile away that the whole baby story was about to happen. When I found out that Holly was deciding to stay with Tate… I mean, he’s her first love. It’s that type of love where you would do anything for that person, and you want to make things work. That’s where her head space was. I was a little surprised about Holly’s maturity level, but not really. She’s come a long way from crushing over Johnny to the overdose to everything else. She has had time to mature, and Tate’s kind of stuck with her through all of that. So her staying with him made sense.

Digest: There was a Sophia switch in the middle of this story; Madelyn Kientz left, and Rachel Boyd took over the role. How did that affect things for you?

Puzemis: Honestly, it was a little difficult. I haven’t had as much scenes with Rachel as I did Maddie. They’re two different personalities, and the way they play the character is completely different. With the first Sophia, she was kind of the villain of the story. She wanted to sleep with Tate, she was getting under Holly’s skin, and you didn’t feel bad for her whatsoever, [whereas] the way Rachel plays it, she’s very vulnerable. You get to see a side of Sophia where she is scared of her mom’s decisions and all of that, [and] you do feel bad for Sophia. She’s dealing with all this by herself, essentially, so you kind of can’t be mad about it anymore. At least that’s how I perceive it.

Digest: As if Holly and Tate didn’t have enough problems with Sophia, enter Doug III. How did you feel about his addition to the mix?

Puzemis: Working with Peyton [Meyer, Doug] is so much fun, and it just adds more drama. There are multiple layers going on with everybody’s relationships. It’s been kind of fun to have Tate and Sophia going through their whole storyline together and dealing with the pregnancy and all that. And Holly and Doug are dealing with the stolen necklace story, so they have their own storyline, then it overlaps with Holly and Tate.

Digest: Which brings us to Tate going behind Holly’s back and telling Julie that Doug stole Alice’s necklace. Obviously, Holly sees this as a major betrayal.

Puzemis: Oh, absolutely. She is so pissed. They had multiple conversations where she asked Tate not to tell Julie, because Doug was going to do it himself. Holly’s learned this firsthand when she had to admit [the truth] about her overdose. Eric was the one who advised her, “Hey, you need to be the one to tell everyone what happened. That’s the only way you can get forgiveness and move on from it.” So Holly understood where Doug was coming from. He did a wrong thing and was trying to own up for his mistakes. He was even trying to get the necklace back for Julie, but that wasn’t working out. So his next step was to confess to Julie. Holly told Tate, “Hey, let him do it himself. Please don’t say anything.” But Tate’s jealousy made him do it anyway, and it is a complete betrayal.

Digest: It all leads to another Holly/Tate breakup. What are your thoughts on how it all went down?

Puzemis: Well, they get into a huge fight and Holly ultimately breaks up with Tate, but the conversation is about a lot of things. Again, I don’t even think the breakup has to do with Doug, specifically. Holly is just so hurt by Tate’s betrayal and his audacity to be jealous when he’s having a child with her ex-best friend, so all these emotions come out. Doug is really Holly’s only other friend right now besides Maggie. They’ve been there for her through all the stuff with Tate and Sophia, so for Tate to hurt Doug in this way is also hurting Holly. It ends up in a whole blowout breakup fight.

Digest: What was it like filming that scene?

Puzemis: Leo [Howard, Tate] and I had so much fun fighting. We both were like, “You know what? This is fun, yelling at each other! The fans are going to like this, because it’s so different from what we’ve had in the past.” I don’t think we’ve ever really had scenes where we were super-angry and screaming at each other. It showed how much the characters love each other. They’re so angry because it’s fueled by love, but they don’t understand that.

Digest: Were you surprised or did you see this coming?

Puzemis: We knew it was coming. Leo and I would talk about it a lot, because there was a period of time where we hadn’t really filmed a lot together. He was working a lot with Rachel, and I was working with Peyton. So we were like, “Oh, no. The breakup is about to come, because we’re not having any scenes together anymore.”

Digest: Are you sad about Holly and Tate’s split or glad that it means meaty storyline?

Puzemis: I wasn’t sad about it, because [Leo and I] both know that we have this thing where Tate and Holly are the end game. We both know that they’re going to get back together eventually — at least we hope so. So we were excited to venture off with these other characters and have these other storylines. And, again, working with Peyton and having the whole Doug storyline has been a lot of fun for me. It’s also led me to have more scenes with Suzanne [Rogers], who plays Maggie. It’s been a lot of fun to get work with her more and other characters along the way.

Digest: Holly and Tate have endured a lot of obstacles and breakups since they got together. How does this one rank among them?

Puzemis: Honestly, this is probably the worst of their breakups, because it really doesn’t feel like there’s a resolution to it all. With their previous breakup, there was a lot of miscommunication. The reason Holly broke up with Tate was because she thought his dad [Brady] drunk drove and ran over her aunt [Sarah], and Tate was defending him. But then they found out that wasn’t true, so it was easier to move forward from that. Now they’re dealing with [Sophia’s pregnancy] and bringing another human being into the world. They don’t know if they’re going to be able to give the baby up for adoption or if [Tate and Sophia] are going to have to raise it themselves. And that’s obviously going to bond them. So this breakup that they’re having right now feels very final.

Tattle Tale: Holly was none too pleased with Tate (Leo Howard) for ratting out Doug III to Julie.