Days Of Our Lives Exclusive: Meet The New Sophia, Rachel Boyd

Rachel Boyd has taken over the role of Sophia Choi, the teenager whose surprise pregnancy has upended Tate and Holly’s blossoming romance on Days of our Lives. (The character was previously played by Madelyn Kientz, who opted to exit the soap.) The young actress, whose credits include Boot Camp, He’s Not Worth Dying For and Grand Army, spoke to Soap Opera Digest about playing a recast, acclimating to the daytime world and moving to Los Angeles.

 

Soap Opera Digest: How did you coming to DAYS as Sophia come about?

Rachel Boyd: I had auditioned for the role when it was first released [and cast with Kientz]. I had a callback session and then ultimately it didn’t go my way, which is still okay. Nine months later, I was working a serving shift at my job. I’m from Ontario in Canada, a small town called Newmarket. I was working my serving job there and had completely forgotten about this audition that I did, when my manager and agent called me. And I never get calls from them together. I hid under the POS stand where we put the orders in to answer their call, and they said, “Do you remember auditioning for Days of Our Lives?” I was like, “Of course I remember!” They said, “Well, you just got a great opportunity. You’re going to be moving to Los Angeles to film Days of Our Lives.” I was really excited. A few weeks later I had moved and was working on the show.

Digest: So many months later, it must have come as a shock!

Boyd: Oh, 100 percent. Obviously, they went another way [with the character]. But I didn’t know if maybe they just didn’t use the role. I didn’t know anything. So it was such a shock to me. It wasn’t even on my radar anymore.

Digest: What was your reaction when you learned you’d be playing Sophia?

Boyd: I had also auditioned for another role on DAYS a few months before that. So I wasn’t sure which role I was [getting]. My manager had to go back and see, and then she let me know it was Sophia. I didn’t know what they were doing with the character. What I auditioned with was a friendship scene between Sophia and Holly talking about Tate. So I knew nothing. Then my manager called me back and was like, “It’s for the character of Sophia, and you’re going to be coming on the show pregnant.”

Digest: What were your initial thoughts about playing a pregnant teenager?

Boyd: I was a little bit scared. Pregnancy is not something that I’ve experienced myself, let alone something like a teen pregnancy, which is very different. I wanted to do justice to an experience that so many women have without knowing it myself. I also felt an excitement and honor to be able to play that at a young age. When you’re growing up, you always think about motherhood and things that come with being an older woman. You think that you won’t get to play that until you hit those milestones in life. But in life things can happen to you at any age and those experiences can be universal. So I was excited to get to delve into something that I didn’t think I would so early in my career.

Digest: Did you watch any of Madelyn Kientz’s work as Sophia?

Boyd: I did watch her episodes while I was first transitioning into filming the role, but I didn’t want to watch too much. I wanted to make sure that Sophia was still going to be something personal to me, but I also wanted to see where she was coming from and her perspective of her character. Together we’ve both made Sophia a very well-rounded person, and I think it’s really cool that we both got to contribute to that.

Digest: What was your first day on the DAYS set like?

Boyd: I remember being really nervous, but Marnie [Saitta], the casting director, met me at the door and was like, “You’re not going to walk into this alone.” I had also just moved countries, so it was all very new for me. I had moved from this small town, where we lived next to a farm, to Los Angeles. I had never lived in a big city before, let alone worked on a lot other than the Warner Brothers lot. Marnie showed me around. I met everybody who was working that day, and they were all very nice.

Digest: Did any of your co-stars take you under their wing and help show you the ropes?

Boyd: A lot of my scenes at the beginning were with Leo [Howard, Tate]. He was really friendly and helped me [understand] the format of the show and how it’s filmed. He helped me out with picking up on cues and understanding which cameras were on me. I remember doing a scene with Deidre Hall [Marlena] where she taught me how to find my light in a scene so that I could be seen by the camera and how to make sure that people weren’t blocking me. That was really nice of her. Ashley [Puzemis, Holly] and I became good friends right away. She really took me under her wing in terms of being a friend to me in this new place that I’d never been before. Ashley was great at acclimating me [to life in L.A.] outside of work.

Digest: What kinds of things do you and Ashley like to do together when you’re not working?

Boyd: We like to go to the beach. We go out to restaurants or out for drinks together. We like going dancing a lot. We went to a hockey game together. It was an L.A. Kings game. We do a lot of fun activities. We have plans to do a waterpainting and wine class, but we haven’t gotten around to it yet.

Digest: Does being friends help the two of you play adversaries on DAYS?

Boyd: Absolutely. When we have scenes like that, it feels really safe, because obviously we’re friends outside of work. I feel like we can just have fun with the scenes and know that we aren’t trying to really hurt each other. It’s a safe space, and I like it like that.

Digest: Do you have any friends or family who are fans of DAYS?

Boyd: Growing up, my dad only had one TV in the house, and the bus stop after school was about a 10-minute walk home. My dad and my aunt would always race for the TV, because she wanted to watch Days of our Lives and my dad wanted to watch Battle of the Planets. She would usually win, and even if she didn’t she would say she was older so she got the TV anyway. Needless to say, my dad always kept up with the Bo and Hope storyline, and it made him a fan as well.

Digest: As a recast, are you feeling any trepidation about how you’ll be received by the show’s fan base?

Boyd: I’m aware that not everybody will resonate with or understand Sophia and her choices and motivations. But I think that what Sophia and I really have in common is that we are very sure of ourselves and what we want. We aren’t afraid to go after those things and be unapologetic about it. So the same way Sophia [behaves regarding] her decisions on the show, I will, as Rachel, be unapologetic about the way that I portray her. As the story goes along, you’ll get to see more complexity in Sophia and her story outside of [the pregnancy], and I hope people will be able to empathize with [her] more.

Warm Welcome: Boyd credits Leo Howard (Tate) with helping her to acclimate to life at DAYS.