flyboyla
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Post by flyboyla on Jul 2, 2022 3:25:55 GMT
DAYS of Our Lives actor Lamon Archey has slammed the show over how they handled his exit from the show.
The 41-year-old has been starring as Eli Grant on the soap opera since 2017.
Not only did Friday’s episode of Days of Our Lives say goodbye to Lani Price (played by Sal Stowers) but also to her husband, Lamon’s Eli, as well.
Lani has been written off the show with a jail sentence in Maryland, after she recently confessed to killing her biological father, TR.
Lamon's character, meanwhile, is leaving Salem with his and his wife’s kids, Jules and Carver, and moving to be closer to where she’ll be serving her time behind bars.
Speaking with Soap Opera Digest about leaving the daytime show, the actor revealed it didn’t all go as he would’ve liked.
To start with, he didn’t necessarily want to leave the series but said DAYS had issues with keeping him on in a recurring status.
As the actor has also been starring on The CW’s All American and keeping his eyes open for other opportunities, he only wanted to be on DAYS part-time.
That ended up not being enough for the show.
Lamon told his agent that he “didn’t want to do a contract anymore” with the soap but would be “down to do recurring.”
He continued: “I just didn’t want to be tied down and not have the freedom to pursue other jobs, play other characters.”
In the end, the actor said, “it was something [DAYS] couldn’t deal with.”
“They ultimately made the decision that they couldn’t keep me on recurring status and that was that,” he added.
With how his character was written off the show, Lamon said he definitely “would have done something different.”
He said the show had to move “quicker” with how they sent him off but ultimately “understood” the difficult position they were in because of his schedule and Covid protocols.
Sal, who played Lamon's onscreen wife Lani, also opened up to the outlet about her departure.
She had a different reaction to their exit plot and said she “loved the whole story.”
The actress continued: “This is hands-down probably my favorite story of my seven years being there.
“I think my last episode is probably my best work. I felt very ‘leading lady’ in those scenes.”
*********Actually, I agree with Sal. She has a healthy view of it. I’m disappointed in Lamon’s statements. He chose to go recurring and focus on other opportunities. Well, you can’t have one half of a leading couple be recurring. It’s not fair to the co-star and especially not to the fans. He’s being a bit of a diva over this. I’m sad because I really like Eli. But, I’m happy for his other opportunities and I don’t blame DOOL for writing him off. Look what they did with Marci! At least he has more chances of coming back to Salem.***********
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Post by stargazer1682 on Jul 2, 2022 20:51:18 GMT
I don't know, if I hadn't read a title saying "Lamon "slams" Days for how his exit was handled, his actual statements sound pretty even handed. It's hard to tell just from the text just what sort of emotion was behind what he said, which could very well change the context and make negative if he was bitter, but it reads just as plausible that he wishes it could have gone a different way; which is a perfectly valid response if he wanted to stay and they just couldn't work it out. This even says he understands that between his schedule, the shooting schedule and everything else that they simply may not have had other options. Hardly sounds like he's being a diva.
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Post by leafs27 on Jul 4, 2022 15:28:32 GMT
I don't think SLAMS is the right word either. He didn't want to be on contract, they couldn't use him on recurring, so they had to make a move. I agree their exits felt rushed but I also really enjoyed the goodbye scenes with everyone. Abe adopting Lani was a really nice touch. I thought was Julie said to Eli was great as well.
I am sad he is gone as I really like him on the show but also, he wanted the best of both worlds - and that doesn't work for an employer sometimes. So what can you do...
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flyboyla
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@flyboyla
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Post by flyboyla on Jul 4, 2022 15:46:59 GMT
I agree that the word SLAMS was overstated in that article as well. He sounded unhappy with the way things turned out. And, maybe diva was the wrong term for me to use above him. But, in an interview with Soap Opera Digest, Ron said it’s becoming too difficult to accommodate the actors that want to be recurring because of the way the production films. So, he said that they wrote several characters out recently because they are part of couples on the show that usually have full time stories. It’s unfortunate, but he did say that the door was always open to their returns. I’m happy for Lamon that he’s got many opportunities in Hollywood but sad for the fans. I think it was great to have more representation on the show of minorities.
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Post by stargazer1682 on Jul 4, 2022 19:59:27 GMT
I agree that the word SLAMS was overstated in that article as well. He sounded unhappy with the way things turned out. And, maybe diva was the wrong term for me to use above him. But, in an interview with Soap Opera Digest, Ron said it’s becoming too difficult to accommodate the actors that want to be recurring because of the way the production films. So, he said that they wrote several characters out recently because they are part of couples on the show that usually have full time stories. It’s unfortunate, but he did say that the door was always open to their returns. I’m happy for Lamon that he’s got many opportunities in Hollywood but sad for the fans. I think it was great to have more representation on the show of minorities. I think something's going to have to give, particularly for Days' production. Their shooting schedule has always been ridiculous, and I'm amazed it's gone on for as long as it has. I mean, how long have they been shooting this far ahead? Gotta be at least a decade at this point. So far that before the pandemic, they had to halt production and take everyone off contract to wait and see if they were renewed, because they had reached the end the maximum amount of content to produce. Sure, it was a saving grace for them during the pandemic to have that much banked material to air without hardly missing a beat, but then it turns out they're leaving so much stuff on the cutting room floor - how is any of that productive? Now it's getting harder to keep people around and they wonder why? They've been putting quantity over quality for so long now and it's starting to come back to bite them in the ass. I get that their schedule allows them to go dark and consequentially save costs by not having expenses during those times of essentially a hiatus, but I have never understood how they benefit from getting so far ahead. Why not be more precise? If they were to say, shoot for two months and take a third off, why produce significantly more than three months worth of content? I can understand giving yourself a little leeway, but there's no reason or benefit for it to be exponential, let alone the demand it puts on the actors and the crew to shoot at that speed, with only one or two takes and no longer having a proper rehearsal. And the pay may not even be worth some of their time. I've thought for a while that a more effective move would be to reduce the number of episodes a week, if they really need to. Have it be Monday through Thursday; and maybe air classic episodes on Fridays, if you want to maintain Days' presence in the timeslot. That'd be about 50 fewer episodes a year to churn out.
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Post by leafs27 on Jul 5, 2022 13:00:04 GMT
I agree their schedule is too much and I am sure it is what is turning off people - there is no flexibility. I assume they work long hours for several weeks then they go dark for however many weeks then pick it back up again. So not enough time to work on other projects during the dark period. All of them have side jobs now - Ari and Shawn started a life coaching business! They also can't story correct at this pace - which is exactly that happened with Stefan being killed and why Jake was invented. The fans loved Stefan and Gabi together when Brandon took over the role but it was too late to unmurder him so they had to create a twin. I remember when Charity Rahmer came on as Belle, she only lasted a few weeks because she was so awful but they had time to recast quickly and it didn't impact the show too much. Can you imagine if we had to sit through 6-9 months of her? If they are leaving so much on the cutting room floor, they have too much content. The show sometimes makes no sense. Monday everyone was preparing to go to the funeral but then I saw the funeral is not until Thursday?  What? |
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glozone
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Post by glozone on Jul 19, 2022 3:56:25 GMT
I don't know, if I hadn't read a title saying "Lamon " slams" Days for how his exit was handled, his actual statements sound pretty even handed. It's hard to tell just from the text just what sort of emotion was behind what he said, which could very well change the context and make negative if he was bitter, but it reads just as plausible that he wishes it could have gone a different way; which is a perfectly valid response if he wanted to stay and they just couldn't work it out. This even says he understands that between his schedule, the shooting schedule and everything else that they simply may not have had other options. Hardly sounds like he's being a diva. These are my thoughts exactly. This feels like something SOD did to sell magazines. He's disappointed by the exit, which is fair, they could have just written them off HEA and instead they chose to end it with one of this couple incarcerated for murder. Meanwhile, Ben and Ciara have the same situation going on with VK, they literally sail off into the sunset. And rightly or wrongly it probably didn't escape his notice that it was the Black couple that wound up with one of them going to prison. But ultimately his verbiage in the piece sounds totally restrained. I see no slamming, I see no indication he's never willing to return.
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Post by leafs27 on Jul 19, 2022 18:30:16 GMT
I don't know, if I hadn't read a title saying "Lamon " slams" Days for how his exit was handled, his actual statements sound pretty even handed. It's hard to tell just from the text just what sort of emotion was behind what he said, which could very well change the context and make negative if he was bitter, but it reads just as plausible that he wishes it could have gone a different way; which is a perfectly valid response if he wanted to stay and they just couldn't work it out. This even says he understands that between his schedule, the shooting schedule and everything else that they simply may not have had other options. Hardly sounds like he's being a diva. These are my thoughts exactly. This feels like something SOD did to sell magazines. He's disappointed by the exit, which is fair, they could have just written them off HEA and instead they chose to end it with one of this couple incarcerated for murder. Meanwhile, Ben and Ciara have the same situation going on with VK, they literally sail off into the sunset. And rightly or wrongly it probably didn't escape his notice that it was the Black couple that wound up with one of them going to prison. But ultimately his verbiage in the piece sounds totally restrained. I see no slamming, I see no indication he's never willing to return. I agree I think it was totally done for shock factor. I am sure this wouldn't help to lure Lamon back to daytime when they seemed to twist his words and create drama where their is none (?).
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What?