Lindsay Arnold (Allie) wouldn’t call her decision to leave DAYS easy, nor would she call it hard. “It was a mix,” begins the actress. “I really love everyone who works on DAYS so much. It’s such an amazing set to be on. It genuinely feels like a family, from the actors that I worked with to the producers and the directors. That was the hardest part of leaving for me. I knew I was going to miss everyone so much. I really care about the show, and I really value the people who work on it.”
On the other hand, Arnold felt compelled to go when her three-year contract expired. “I came to the realization that I knew it was time,” she explains. “I had been thinking on it for pretty much a year. It wasn’t a last-minute decision. It was something that I really thought about. I felt like it was time to take a break for a while, explore some other things, and reevaluate what I wanted to do in general.”
Arnold acknowledges that the soap was a major turning point for her. “Oh, yes, 100 percent,” she admits. “DAYS was a huge step in my career. It was so important for my professional and personal life. It’s something that gave me a lot of confidence and showed me how much I can do, because of all the storylines I was given and working alongside all the talent I got to work with.
“The biggest change has been my confidence,” Arnold continues. “It has made me a lot more confident in my acting ability. I was able to show myself that I can really do so many different things that I didn’t think I was capable of before the show. I would also say that I’ve really come out of my shell being on DAYS. Having to move to a whole new state at 20 years old and make all new friends was so daunting. Three years later, I look back and am so in love with the friends I’ve made out here, and I had the best time being on the show. I feel like I came into being a young woman on the show. When I joined, I felt like a kid. So that’s been the biggest shift. I really grew up being on DAYS. I’m coming out of it confident, knowing myself a lot more and feeling a lot more capable in my abilities as an actress.”
So many things stand out for Arnold from her three years on DAYS. “Not to be cheesy, but I love everyone on the show so much, so that was definitely a highlight,” she says. “Especially working with Carson [Boatman, Johnny], Raven [Bowens, Chanel], Lucas [Adams, Tripp] and Victoria [Konefal, ex-Ciara]. They’ve become some of my best friends in L.A. That was really special, going to work with them every day.”
As for storylines, Arnold cites one you might not expect as her favorite: getting to play the devil. “That was the most fun I’ve ever had on a set and on DAYS,” she raves. “I was so creatively fulfilled. I was having a blast. I was getting to be ridiculous.”
Arnold, who delved into some complicated plots, from portraying a pregnant rape victim to a young woman grappling with her sexuality, believes the possession twist stands out “because a lot of my other stories were quite heavy. I felt like the devil was the first time I had three or four months where I was not going to set and crying. I was going to set and having fun. I got to be evil. I felt there wasn’t a ton of heaviness for me, because I was playing this emotionless entity. A lot of my other storylines were really intense and wonderful in a lot of ways, but also extremely draining on me personally.”
Since leaving the soap, Arnold has been “auditioning. I’ve been back to the grind,” she shares. “I’ve also thought about other passions I would like to pursue, other hobbies. It’s been good to have the time and the freedom to audition, but also to figure out what I want my future to look like. The goal right now is not to be on contract with anything, to just to have the freedom to pretty much be available for anything that comes up, seeing what else is out there. I’ve always loved movies. A big thing for me, being in my early 20s, is to travel. Anything that involves traveling or filming in different locations has always been a goal for me, especially while I have the ability to have that freedom.”
Arnold would consider a return to DAYS at some point. “I think the door is open,” she shares. “I would definitely like to pop in and say, ‘Hey’ every once in a while. Again, I love that set so much and love everybody who works there so much.
Meanwhile, to her devoted fans Arnold says, “Thank you so much. I felt extremely supported from the first day Allie turned up on her Uncle Eric’s doorstep. I really appreciated that love and support; the ‘Challie’ fans’s especially. I see everyone’s tweets. I see the ‘Challie’ tweets. They’re hilarious and have meant so much to me and Raven. Thank you for the constant support and love.”
