Exclusive: DAYS’s Dan Feuerriegel on the ‘Really Juicy’ Drama Of Who Shot EJ

Dan Feuerriegel (EJ, r.) on the set of EJ’s hospital room with on-screen son Carson Boatman (Johnny).

After weeks of making enemies with almost everyone in Salem, someone finally retaliated and put a bullet in EJ DiMera. The Days of Our Lives storyline has put Dan Feuerriegel, who portrays the dastardly victim, front and center of the daytime whodunit. The actor spoke to Soap Opera Digest about the confrontations leading up to the big bang moment, how he feels about EJ getting his comeuppance and more.

 

Soap Opera Digest: People had been threatening EJ for weeks, so you had to see this coming. Were you warned ahead of time that your character was going to get shot?

Dan Feuerriegel: They did tell me how they were building up to [the shooting], so I knew it was coming, but they never told me who did it. I had no idea until they wrote it in the script. So I just had to play every scene with every character that became a suspect as genuinely as I possibly could to kind of piss them off.

Digest: EJ is usually invincible; he kind of picks himself up, brushes himself off and goes on no matter what he does. What are your thoughts on him finally getting his comeuppance?

Feuerriegel: I love it. I like doing something different. Also when it becomes a really strong storyline, you get to do a lot of fun stuff, and that’s fun for me as an actor.

Digest: What has been the most fun part of it for you?

Feuerriegel: Just pissing everyone off. I got to go full-on hardcore — I mean, as hardcore as you possibly can for daytime TV.

Digest: Was there any special choreography involved in the actual shooting scene?

Feuerriegel: Just fall to the ground. Don’t hurt yourself [laughs]. Generally, depending on where the camera angle is, they’ll put a mat down for you to kind of fall onto. Then it’s just bracing your full being [to be] as relaxed as you possibly can when you hit the ground, and not slamming onto it.

Digest: There was also fake blood involved. Did you have to wear those red dye packets beneath your wardrobe?

Feuerriegel: No, we didn’t use squibs or anything like that. It was all makeup.

Digest: Let’s talk about the three big confrontations EJ had before he got shot. Rafe sneaked into the mansion first and hid a camera, hoping to get EJ to implicate himself in the Rafe/Arnold switch.

Feuerriegel: Rafe wanted EJ to confess to kidnapping him and everything like that. As soon as he showed up, EJ immediately went on the defensive. He was like, “Why are you here? There’s no possible reason for you to be here. You’re not here to be my friend. You are here for some purpose.” So EJ was just like, “Nah, I’m not saying anything. Leave me alone.”

Digest: Belle arrived next.

Feuerriegel: That was probably the [confrontation] with the most, I guess, emotion behind it. That actually had a lot of layers.

Digest: EJ quickly assumed Belle might be wearing a wire. Do you think he was feeling betrayed based on their relationship?

Feuerriegel: Of course there was an element of betrayal, but he was just so suspicious at the moment. He was like, “I don’t really trust anyone.” And he had his back up big-time. Obviously, there’s definite disappointment [that Belle would turn on him], but he brought it upon himself. I think there’s a lot of self-sabotage.

Digest: EJ also went head-to-head with Kristen, who is furious about her mother’s disappearance and EJ’s part in it.

Feuerriegel: I mean, understandably. The dynamic between EJ and Kristen is kind of a tough sibling rivalry. EJ and Kristen are very, very alike. They both play games. They both play 4D chess, as they call it. They’ve both always got something up their sleeves and know what each other wants. So there was a little game of cat and mouse between them.

Digest: It all ended with a gunshot, Chad finding his brother’s body, and EJ being rushed to the hospital, where he was put into a medically induced coma.

Feuerriegel: When you’re in a coma, you do get the luxury of lying in bed for a bit. It’s actually kind of interesting being in a coma, because you have to not move and sometimes that’s hard. You know when you think, “Don’t look down, don’t look down,” and you look down? It’s like that [laughs].

Digest: Is there anything about filming this story that really stood out for you or that you particularly enjoyed?

Feuerriegel: It was kind of cool to have a storyline focused on EJ. I got to do some really cool scenes, and I got to work with a lot of people that I hadn’t really worked with that much before in order to build up the suspect list. And it was good to get into some really juicy dialogue and a juicy emotional space.

Takes One To Owe One: EJ owes his life to Chad (Billy Flynn), who discovered his bloody brother after his shooting and got him medical help.