STACY HAIDUK EXITS DAYS
■ Kristen and Brady are reunited with their daughter in
Paris, but realize that Kristen can’t go home with him. “They have this great moment with
Rachel,” sets up Eric Martsolf
(Brady), adding that he and co-star Stacy Haiduk (Kristen)
“were working toward this reunion between our characters and their daughter. We thought this was going to be the banana split sundae that we were finally going to be able to enjoy. But, sure enough, because of what Kristen has done to Victor, she can’t return to Salem.”
So the duo makes the difficult decision to let Kristen take baby Rachel and flee, which means Haiduk’s run has come to an end for now. “This was a rough transition for Stacy and me,” admits Martsolf. “I never say goodbye to anybody. I always say, ‘Aloha,’ because we’re always destined to meet again. So it’s, ‘Until we meet again.’ Ron [Carlivati, head writer] loves that revolving door. So our goodbyes ... we take them with a grain of salt.”
Martsolf shares that he will miss his leading lady. “I love working with Stacy,” he raves. “She’s so enthusiastic about her job. I think anybody who talks to her about her job can see that. She just lights up like a Christmas tree when she talks about working at DAYS OF OUR LIVES. She’s been on different shows and has had a very distinguished career, but she’ll probably tell you this has been one of her favorite acting experiences. Just the constant every day of churning it out suits her personality. She doesn’t want to be away from the studio. She wants to be there. She loves her job. And I’ll miss her.”
Yet, considering Brady’s track record with women and children, was Martsolf really surprised? “That is a loaded question,” he says. “I had different thoughts. A part of me accepts this as soaps need to have this conflict, so why not have the burden of the conflict placed on Brady? That’s fine. But when it’s continuously thrown at him in the way in which it is, I can’t help but feel slighted, a bit, as a character. I think, ‘Can’t this guy get anything right?’ He tries. He really tries. He just makes a lot of poor choices, and you need that in daytime television. It’s much more entertaining to watch someone kind of falter through life and existence rather than constantly putting on the cape and saving the day. It’s interesting to see people get knocked down and watch them get back up.”