DAYS Exclusive: Paul Telfer on Xander’s Quandary and ‘Sticking It to EJ’

More Than Meets The Eye: According to portrayer Paul Telfer (l.), Xander’s interest in employing Johnny (Carson Boatman) comes with an ulterior motive.

While Xander tries to manage the fallout of Philip’s betrayal and struggles with keeping the truth from Titan’s shareholders on Days of Our Lives – namely, that his brother lied about being a legal heir to the Kiriakis empire – he finds his usually honest spouse, Sarah, encouraging him to move forward and leave Philip’s lie in the past. Paul Telfer (Xander) discussed his character’s quandary and his on-screen wife’s odd behavior with Soap Opera Digest. Plus, he weighed in on Xander’s furor toward Philip and plan to bring Johnny into the Titan fold as the company completes its takeover of DiMera Enterprises.

 

Soap Opera Digest: Xander’s seeing a totally different side of Sarah. She’s suddenly okay with lying, since she knew about Philip’s deception. Does it pique his suspicions about his wife?

Paul Telfer: Sarah’s like, “That’s fine. You can keep lying. Some lies are okay.” And that’s never been the way Sarah is. It’s all just adding to this weight of evidence against Sarah that Xander is just not ready to perceive or even acknowledge yet.

Digest: What happens when he is ready to acknowledge it?

Telfer: When he finally is, the evidence against Sarah — or the case against her — is going to be kind of monumental. When it all comes out, Xander will know [the truth] all at once, because all these little pieces will slot into place. It will make sense that, “Ah, she knew, too.” This makes it all the worse, that she’s had all these opportunities to tell him and didn’t. So obviously the longer this goes, the more pressure.

Digest: Do you think Xander might have accepted Sarah keeping Philip’s lie from him if she’d come clean sooner rather than later?

Telfer: If Sarah had just told Xander months ago, he would’ve been angry, but I think he would’ve [understood] it, especially this version of Xander. This current Xander is very measured, trying very hard to be the head of the family and be a real corporate mover and shaker. He’s really trying to do it for once without sabotaging it with his own instincts to be a criminal. And he really has done it. Even the DiMera takeover was totally above-board. They were sneaky, but no laws were broken. They did it on the up and up. It’s a new type of story for Xander.

Digest: He seems to have embraced his role as the new leader of the Kiriakis family and the respectability that comes with it.

Telfer: And he massively prefers it. In the past, he would get the things that he wanted, but something that he had done in order to get that thing would also doom it. He hasn’t done that this time. He has been good and maintained being good, and it’s things outside of his control that might doom it, which is kind of new territory for him.

Digest: It’s hard for Xander to move forward and leave Philip’s lie in the past. He’s too hurt and angry. What were your thoughts when he demanded Philip move his office to the basement?

Telfer: It was more like, “Well, I can’t fire him, so how can I make everything so awful for him that he’ll just quit?” Philip doesn’t have the gumption or the tenacity to deal with or be treated the way Xander was treated his whole life. Xander wants Philip to [experience] some of that treatment. Fortunately for both of them, Philip is in a place where he kind of wants to be punished or at least gets and understands Xander’s rage.

Digest: The irony is that Philip is protecting Xander by not outing Sarah’s part in all this, but Xander doesn’t know that.

Telfer: Philip feels that he is protecting both Sarah and Xander from this situation that he put them into through his life. As much as he would like it all to be out in the open, Philip’s actually doing something relatively selfless. If he did want to be a bastard, hurt Xander, and lash back at him, whilst Xander is treating him so poorly, all he has to do is say Sarah knew. Philip knows how bad that would be for them, but out of the goodness of his heart, he’s protecting Sarah and Xander from that lie. I think it’s really crucial that Philip is doing this selfless thing and just taking a lot of it on the chin. Instead of throwing Sarah under the bus to get himself out of it or to distract Xander, he holds that secret for them both. Although it’s just making it worse, because the longer it goes, the more angry Xander’s going to get.

Digest: In between trying to understand Sarah’s behavior and trying to punish Philip, Xander makes an interesting move: He offers Johnny a job at Titan. Why?

Telfer: It’s part of the ongoing attempt to solidify and make permanent the DiMera takeover. Also, it’s very specifically a way of sticking it to EJ, because concurrent to all of this, you have the fallout of the EJ/Sami/Johnny storyline that’s been playing. Johnny has become less than enamored of his father. So Xander sees a little angle there to drive another wedge into DiMera, because as soon as they do the takeover, all the DiMeras start circling their wagons trying to work out how to get their company back. Xander has to find a way to shut down that momentum. One of those tactics is to bring Johnny into the Titan side of things. Johnny’s eager to do it, because he’s a little bit rudderless with the breakdown of his relationship with his father, his mother not being in town, and just not really having much to do.

Digest: How did you enjoy those initial scenes with Carson Boatman (Johnny)?

Telfer: It was funny, because in those first scenes, Johnny keeps asking Xander what the job will be, and Xander’s always a bit evasive. He’s like, “Oh, we’ll work something out.” Xander clearly just wants Johnny out [from under the DiMera influence] and over [at Titan], but he doesn’t really have any details as to how it’s going to work or anything. And Johnny’s just like, “Okay. Cool.”

The Games People Play: Xander has reason to be suspicious of wife Sarah (Linsey Godfrey).