When you heard Marci Miller (Abigail) was leaving, what was your first reaction? “I talk to Marci. We’re always pretty open about where our heads are at with stuff. Marci’s such a free spirit. I think the idea of being in a contract and not being able to do other stuff is hard for her, although I don’t want to speak for her. So I wasn’t surprised, but I was sad, because I love Marci. I love working with her and think we work really well together.”
How do you feel about the show’s decision to kill Abigail? “It’s very sad. I didn’t think they were going to do [that] to Abigail. That being said, I think it’s the only way to do it moving forward. You can’t just keep writing her off. I would rather have them do this than continue to make her go crazy and torture her in all these crazy ways.”
From a storyline standpoint, is it a good or bad thing for Chad? “As an actor playing Chad, if Abigail’s around, it’s going to be tough for the audience to want him to move on. And you can’t really tell story for Chad, if Abigail’s in limbo all the time. So, selfishly, I haven’t gotten a whole lot of story over the last few years, because it’s tough to know what to do with Chad when Abigail is coming and going. Ultimately, I’m excited for the potential of what’s to come. But I love Chad and Abigail. They’re a great love story.”
What was it like playing Chad’s reaction to Abigail’s murder? “It’s been one of the hardest storylines I’ve had to do. There have been a few reasons why it’s been tough. They’ve had the Abigail’s death storyline before, and I poured so much of my heart into that story. It took a lot out of me. So it’s been a little difficult. It’s nice that people have said I’ve done good work. It’s been hard. I’m having a harder time with this storyline than I’ve had with storylines in the past. I don’t know whether that’s because I miss Marci or personally how I feel about them killing Abigail. Or it could be 100 different reasons. Part of the reason the storyline is hard is because you feel like you have to do it justice. It’s a lot of stress to put on your shoulders. And how do you grieve? And there’s not enough time. It just all happened so quickly. Marci made the decision that she didn’t want to stay permanently. I thought she was going to recur and then all of a sudden [Abigail is] dead. Then you’re just thrust into this storyline.”
How would you assess your performance? “I’ve done my best to just try to keep up. There wasn’t a whole lot of time to prepare. On top of that, there’s a part of me who just wants to move on to whatever the next storyline is. Like I said, telling the Chad and Abigail love story has been kind of draining, just not knowing what’s going on with them, when they’ve been in limbo. So ultimately, I’m excited for the next chapter. It’s like, ‘Okay. You’ve got to get through this, and it’s really hard stuff, but hopefully you’ll get to some really interesting story.’ I think that the writing has given me a ton of stuff to play and to do. I hope that I’m living up to what they’ve given me.”
