Exclusive: The Iconic DAYS Scene Louise Sorel Improvised
Louise Sorel has enjoyed some classic storyline moments during her run as the fiendish Vivian Alamain on Days of our Lives. Some of them have been scripted, while others have been improvised. One memorable impromptu moment happened after the classic scene where Vivian buried Carly alive back in 1993 and then celebrated the success of her diabolical scheme.
Dance It Out
“I don’t know if you know the back story of that,” begins Sorel. “They wrote this thing where it said, ‘Vivian does a jig on Carly’s grave.’ I don’t know why I remember this, but I guess it’s because it was so funny. I went upstairs to the producer at that time and said, ‘Excuse me, Vivian doesn’t jig. I don’t jig.’ So he said, ‘Well, what do you want to do?’ I said, ‘I have no idea. I’m going downstairs, and I’ll figure it out on the lunch hour.’ ”
Sorel proceeded to return to her dressing room and concoct a figurative victory dance that would be befitting of Vivian. “I was by myself, nobody was there, and I came up with this ridiculous thing thinking of Ophelia,” recounts Sorel, referring to the character in the Shakespeare classic Hamlet. “I did this sort of walk around the grave saying, ‘She loves me. She loves me not.’ I don’t know where that came from.”
When the time came to film the scene, Sorel marched onto the set ready for action. “They said, ‘Okay, what are you going to do?’ Then they said, ‘Pull the camera back. We don’t know what she’s going to do.’ So I did that, and they liked it. I think they’ve shown [that scene] a few times [over the years], and that’s how it happened.”
The memorable moment happened because of Sorel sticking up for the creative integrity of her character. “Sometimes people think you’re a pain in the ass because you go up and talk about things and ask questions,” says Sorel. “They don’t really want that. But I can’t help it! I’ve always been annoying [laughs]. I mean, you don’t want to inconvenience people or cost them money or time. But sometimes you just have to say, ‘Let me do something here that I can create.’ And they did let me do it. I was very grateful for that and that they allowed it to happen.”
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