DAYS Exclusive: Carson Boatman on EJ’s Shooting and Why Sami’s Return ‘Helps Johnny’

Reckoning Day: Sami (Alison Sweeney) and Johnny (Carson Boatman) have a long overdue conversation about her rape by EJ.

Furious with his father since finding out he raped Sami, Johnny has a slight shift in attitude after EJ is shot, put into a medically induced coma, ending up in a fight for his life on Days of Our Lives. However, the DiMera scion is not ready to forgive and forget all of EJ’s sins quite yet. Carson Boatman (Johnny) chatted with Soap Opera Digest about the show’s whodunit, his character being on the list of suspects, and getting to work with his TV mom, Alison Sweeney, who’s back for another run as Sami.

 

Soap Opera Digest: Johnny has been hating on EJ for a while. How does his father’s shooting impact him?

Carson Boatman: I don’t think Johnny’s too bothered by it. Johnny is a suspect, but it affects him, obviously, seeing his father [near death].

Digest: So Johnny’s not ready to forgive his father and move past what he did yet?

Boatman: No. Definitely not.

Digest: How did you feel about Johnny being a suspect in EJ’s shooting when you saw it in the script?

Boatman: Well, you’re never happy to be a suspect in a murder case in real life, but on DAYS it’s kind of fun. It’s fun to be a part of something with high stakes.

Digest: Did you take any extra time preparing for these scenes, especially all those confrontations between Johnny and EJ, since they were so important?

Boatman: Dan [Feuerriegel, EJ] and I did. We tend to frequently run lines for a bit the night before a day of work. We’ll hit FaceTime for 40 minutes or so just to kind of get fresh on our lines. For these [confrontations] we spent a lot more time, a couple of days worth of prepping, just getting ready, and making sure that we had all the lines down. That way we could just focus on the scenes.

Digest: How does Sami’s arrival during this crisis impact things for Johnny?

Boatman: Johnny has a moment with Sami where she kind of explains her side of the situation [of what transpired between her and EJ surrounding the rape]. That and seeing his dad [in the hospital] definitely softens Johnny a bit, but it’s not enough that he’s willing to change the fact that he doesn’t want to have a relationship with his father. He also doesn’t let the fact that he’s maybe softened a bit show on the outside, either.

Digest: What was it like getting to work with Alison Sweeney (Sami) again?

Boatman: It’s always a pleasure working with her. I’m always excited when I hear that she’s coming back for another Sami stint in Salem. She’s such a great actor, so it’s fun for both of us be able to kind of feed off each other’s emotions and just work together.

Digest: Do the scenes where Johnny and Sami talk about the rape make it easier for him to digest what happened between his parents?

Boatman: I think having his mom tell him that she’s okay now helps Johnny a lot. Seeing that she’s kind of recovered from this and is able to even almost justify it makes Johnny feel a little more comfortable about it happening. He knows that his mom hasn’t been [living with] some kind of emotionally agonizing pain over it for the last 20-odd years.

Digest: Does Johnny feel any anger toward Sami for not being transparent with him about the whole thing sooner?

Boatman: There’s some anger there, definitely, because she lied to him. She was part of a group of people who Johnny holds dear that lied to him about one of the most important things that there could be to lie to someone about.

Digest: The reveal of this secret has totally changed Johnny’s relationship with his father. Does it change his relationship with his mother in any way?

Boatman: I don’t think it does. If anything, he respects her more because of what she went through. She endured [the trauma of rape and Johnny’s subsequent birth] and made sure that it was about her kids. [She concentrated on] the happiness and safety of her kids.

Digest: Has there been anything particularly challenging about this whole storyline for you? Did anything stand out as a high point from everything you got to dive into?

Boatman: I had a lot of fun filming the confrontation scenes with EJ, and I had a lot of fun filming the scenes [discussing the rape] with Sami as well. There’s some good stuff that will come of this with Johnny and Chanel as well, some really heartfelt scenes. So I’m looking forward to [viewers seeing] those.