DAYS’s Peter Reckell on His ‘Deep’ Connection To Deidre Hall (Exclusive)
Learning the truth about his miraculous recovery – that John retrieved vials of the cutting-edge drug that saved his life, only to ultimately die for his brave and selfless actions – leaves Bo in a state of gratitude and guilt on Days of Our Lives. All he wants to do is pay his respects to his old friend and express his condolences to his grieving widow, Marlena.
Honoring A Hero
“After Hope tells Bo what happened and finds out about John’s memorial service, Bo has to convince her that he has to go to it,” says Peter Reckell (Bo). “He needs to go and talk to Marlena, because of the guilt he’s feeling. He has to tell her he’s sorry. John made an amazing sacrifice, and Bo wants to tell Marlena that he will be forever grateful to him. Because of John’s sacrifice not only is he going to live, but [the drugs he confiscated from the burning laboratory] are also going to save other people’s lives, too. So the character of John went out a hero. I think the writers did a good job with that.”
Although Hope argues against Bo leaving his treatment facility in Greece so soon, ultimately he gets her to relent and the pair head to the funeral. Bo and Hope arrive at John’s memorial service just as it’s winding down, and Bo gets to have a poignant face-to-face with Marlena.
“When he walks into the memorial service, everybody is about to leave. The service is about to break up,” recounts Reckell. Bo then makes his way to Marlena. “I go to Dee [Hall, Marlena],” the actor continues. “We have like two sentences, and it’s just us looking at each other. And, as always with her, the connection is immediate and deep and powerful. I’m looking into her eyes and seeing the pain in them, and she’s looking into mine.”
The scene reminded Reckell of one he’d shared with Hall decades ago that was equally as powerful and emotional. “It was when Bo had to tell Marlena that Roman had passed away in the story,” says Reckell, referencing a 1984 DAYS plotline. “That connection with the two of us has always been there, since the first time I met her [in our first scene together] and I gave her a kiss.”
Yet again, Reckell anticipates that the unspoken words between Bo and Marlena will resonate with viewers. “Since that’s what we’ve done together for 40-some years, I’m sure the audience that’s been around will recognize it too,” he notes.
For Reckell, portraying Bo’s grief over John’s passing was enhanced by his long history of working with Drake Hogestyn. “I think we’ve seen that with all the performances,” muses Reckell. “It was that way with me when I had to do the memorial scenes. There were all these images of Drake [running through my mind], the things we’d done together, the times he’d patted me on the back or given me a hug or yelled at me, because the first scenes we had, we were trying to kill each other. So we went through the gamut of emotions with each other. Even though it had been eight years since I’d seen him, it didn’t take away from the 25 years that we worked together.”
Nor did it take away from his many 0ff-camera memories of Hogestyn. “It’s not so much the work we did together, but the personal stuff that we did together,” explains Reckell. “As you know, Drake was just an amazing storyteller. You could start pretty much any conversation with him, and it would remind him of something. So you got another story or whatever. And there’s the athletic stuff that we did, playing softball together and seeing why he was such an amazing baseball player. And just the love that he had. I think that’s what touched people. So often on social media now I hear fans say, ‘Yeah, I met him once and he gave me a hug. And we were talking and then he gave me another hug.’ That’s just who Drake was. He just pulled you into his heart and [his being gone] is leaving a big hole in a lot of people.”
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