Rex has played an instrumental role in the orchid drama with Marlena, Kayla and Kate, and his portrayer, Kyle Lowder, couldn’t be happier. “This past year, 2022, has been glorious,” he begins. “They’ve just been giving me a lot. I’m so grateful that Ron [Carlivati, head writer] has been giving me such great story. I’m shooting episodes well into February, air-wise.”
Being a part of the canvas after more than two decades since he first joined the soap means a lot to the actor. “I started on this show 22 years ago [as Brady], when I was 19 years old,” he marvels. “It was the first job I ever had. I’m so grateful to still be working on it 22 years later. I love the history of the show and the people who work there. Every time I get a phone call that says, ‘We want you to come in and do this,’ I’m so overjoyed about it. I was on contract three years ago. Then they took me off contract. Ever since, Ron has very much kept Rex integrated within the fabric of the show, and I really appreciate it.”
Lowder has thoroughly enjoyed playing out this latest beat with his family in peril. “That is a hoot,” he says. “I hadn’t been on set with Drake [Hogestyn, John] and Deidre [Hall, Marlena] in 17 years, and I worked with them on the regular when I was playing Brady. Drake and I had some fun moments where I would look at him and be like, ‘When was the the last time you and I were on set together trying to save the day?’ That’s what we used to do all the time. I had some really good nostalgic, feel-good moments doing this story with Deidre and Drake. And I’d never gotten to work with Stephen Nichols [Steve] before, so that was a blast.”
When he’s not toiling at DAYS, Lowder is exploring a new career in real estate. “It was during the pandemic when everything shut down,” he explains of his pivot. “I was like, ‘What am I going to do?’ I didn’t know when the entertainment industry was going to open back up again or what was going to happen if and when it did. I had some really close friends who were real estate moguls and started asking them about their careers. The real estate industry was booming during the pandemic. I ended up getting my license in late 2020.”
But acting remains his first love. “This is something I really enjoyed getting my license for and enjoy doing right now, but I do it alongside my career in entertainment,” he notes. “This is not a new career that is replacing my much-beloved career in entertainment.” Plus, his schedule allows for both. “Residential real estate is very much an entrepreneurial type thing. I can make my own schedule. It’s not a clock in, clock out, 9-to-5 type thing. In this day and age, very rarely are people working every single day, all hours of the day on set. I might have a few days of those a week. Sometimes my schedule at DAYS OF OUR LIVES is I am in at 6 in the morning and out at 6 at night, which is fine, but very rarely is that an everyday thing. So the days I’m not on set, I’m at the brokerage.”
Lowder appreciates learning the new skill. “It’s a fascinating industry. I’ve always liked real estate. You look at these shows over the past decade or so, MILLION DOLLAR LISTING and SELLING SUNSET and whatnot. That’s obviously a very glorified dramatization, but a lot of it is still very accurate. It’s a very exciting business. It’s fun and obviously can be very lucrative at the same time. I’ve been meeting wonderful people within the industry. Ultimately my skill set, being in entertainment, really translates well. I have the ability to paint a picture for people, tell a story, create a vision and interact with them in a way that I feel has crossed over very well from my career in entertainment to my career in real estate.”
And he has been recognized on the job. “That happened one time,” Lowder relays. “I met with a lovely couple at Rosewood Miramar resort in Montecito [CA]. They were actually fans of THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL. They were from Italy, which makes a lot of sense. The show is huge there. They had just moved to The States, to Los Angeles, and wanted to look around up in Santa Barbara. I met them, sat down, and the wife immediately was like, ‘Oh, my God. Are you Rick Forrester?’ That’s only happened once. It was kind of funny. Other than that, it doesn’t happen that much.”
Though he’s happy with his current situation, Lowder says he would welcome a more permanent return to Salem. “I’ve worked on prime-time television, done film, stage work and Broadway,” he sums up. “I’m very proud of the career that I’ve had, but daytime drama is my favorite. When I’ve come back the last couple of years, it’s really only been with Josh [Taylor, Roman] and Lauren [Koslow, Kate] because they play my parents, and Linsey [Godfrey, Sarah], for obvious reasons, and maybe Paul Telfer [Xander] a little bit. This time around, now through next year, I’ve had the opportunity to work with so many people because of the nature of the story I’m in. To have the opportunity to be on the show on a more permanent regular basis is something that I would absolutely love and be very grateful for.”
