What were your thoughts moving into a Rafe/Nicole romance pretty soon after splitting from Eric? “I’ll always justify the reasons Nicole does what she does. Her relationship with Rafe has been long and ongoing. He did a lot of favors for Nicole when she asked him to pretend to be the father of EJ’s baby. They’ve been friends for a long time. Rafe was in her life and showing up when Eric wasn’t, so it made sense. What made it [bad] was Rafe wasn’t single. He was with Ava. And Nicole was coming off a relationship with Eric. Of course, that made the desire to be with him even bigger. It’s like the poisonous apple. Don’t take a bite.”
Are you sad that this has demolished Nicole’s friendship with Ava? “Yes, because I love Tamara [Braun, Ava]. It was like, ‘Oh, no! I’m not going to get to work with you.’ But by no means was this meant to be a betrayal to Ava. It’s not what Nicole meant to have happen. That’s not her m.o. anymore. Nicole’s a better person now. If she was an even better person, she probably wouldn’t have [slept with Rafe], but we need the drama. This story has moved relatively fast and can turn in any way. I try to stay open to that, that maybe we can revisit Nicole and Ava’s friendship again. I love having female relationships on the show, when we get a chance to interact and have some real things go on. There’s got to be a way somewhere down the line where these two [reconcile]. It can be time or there’s a situation where one of them is in trouble and the other one comes to their aid, that somehow they find forgiveness for each other.”
Let’s talk about the sex on the conference room table scene, which has become a daytime staple. “Or in an elevator [with EJ] or an air-conditioning duct. When Xander was trying to kill Nicole and Eric, he had us in a heating/air-conditioning duct and they [had sex].”
So the conference table was the last thing on your daytime to-do list? “Of course [laughs]. Just throw everything off. It’s the way to a girl’s heart. You know what I mean?”
That little tryst led to Ava beheading Nicole and Rafe’s stuffed bear, Duke. Thoughts on that? “The bear was the one thing Nicole had to hang onto Rafe, even though it was silly and drove Ava crazy. It felt like her relationship with Rafe was cut off, so it was sad. When Nicole found Duke, it was the turning point. It was either, ‘It’s going to be over between the two of us or I need to make something happen.’ It said so much. It was a threat. That, for her, was a bit of a challenge. Even though she may not show it, she’s still from the other side of the tracks. She still can get down and dirty, but she does it differently now.”
After years as the bad girl, you’re now the heroine viewers root for. What’s that shift been like? “At first I was like, ‘Are they making me good? What’s happening here?’ In the past, Nicole didn’t always make the right decisions. Having been married to Eric changed her a bit. She started to become better for her person. She’s learned some lessons. She’s pulled it together. She’s not switching babies anymore. I’m very appreciative of [DAYS] allowing me to show them what I could do. I’ve really worked hard on my acting chops and studying and going to acting class to show them that this character deserves to be in it.”
