DAYS’s Linsey Godfrey Says ‘Xander Is Putty in Sarah’s Hands’ (Exclusive)
Xander and Sarah have emerged as one of Days of Our Lives’s strongest couples. The unlikely pairing of the former thug and the aboveboard doctor started out as a one-night stand, but somehow blossomed against all odds — and actress Linsey Godfrey, who plays Sarah, thinks she knows a thing or two about why the twosome works so well together.
Opposites Attract
“They’re the odd couple,” declares Godfrey. “They’re yin and yang. I think it works because of the dynamic that Paul [Telfer, Xander] and I have established. We both kind of thought early on that Xander is this very tough, scary and intimidating character except with two people [Sarah and Maggie]. That’s what makes Sarah and Xander so special: Xander is putty in Sarah’s hands. He always has been. From the second that she was gentle with him, he just immediately kind of melted. And the fierceness in which Xander loves is what makes Sarah so adoring of him. They’re also very attracted to each other.”
It’s an imperfectly perfect match, the consummate pairing of complete opposites — and the physical disparity between Godfrey and Telfer mirrors this, she points out. “The comical difference in our size is also quite funny. Paul’s very big, and I’m not, although I’ll say a lot of our male cast members are absolute giants! Actors aren’t typically very tall, except for our cast.”
The characters not only complement one another well via their differences, but represent something aspirational to each other. “There’s a part of Sarah who wants something a little bad and dangerous,” notes Godfrey. “And there’s a part of Xander that wants something good and innocent.”
Godfrey believes her off-camera relationship with Telfer enhances the dynamic they’ve created once the cameras start rolling. “Paul and I love working together and happen to be best friends,” she shares. “It carries this ease and this kind of shorthand that we have with one another. That bleeds into the characters and into our performances.”
In the past, Godfrey has observed that viewers tend to take Xander’s side over Sarah’s when things go wrong between the couple. Considering that Sarah is actually the one behind their latest problems – she kept the secret about the forged letter that enabled Philip to acquire half of Titan Industries from Xander – has Godfrey been feeling the heat from fans on social media?
“I actually do not know how the fans feel about it,” shrugs Godfrey. “I had said a long time ago that I prefer to not know.” Of her conscious choice to avoid the online comments about the latest “Xarah” developments, she explains, “For me it is [better], just because people say things that are really, really unkind. It’s hard for me to not take it personally and to not absorb it and not get in my head about it. Paul’s much better at it, but we don’t really talk about it. I don’t really want to know. I just like doing my job. I want to do the best I can and hope that the fans like it.”
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