Days of Our Lives News: Drake Hogestyn Opens Up About Playing John In Salem

Days of Our Lives news says that if there’s anyone that knows everything there is to know about John Black, it’s most definitely his portrayer, Drake Hogestyn. The actor recently opened up to Soap Opera Digest about all of the reasons why he loves playing his character so much! Here’s what he has to say.

Days of Our Lives News: Drake Hogestyn Opens Up About Playing John In Salem

When asked about his favorite thing about playing John, the actor told the publication, “What I like about John Black goes all the way back to when I read for [former DAYS Casting Director] Doris Sabbagh. She started describing the character and I said, ‘Doris, time out.’ I reached into my satchel and pulled out Robert Ludlum’s book The Bourne Identity. I said, ‘This is the most riveting character. I’m on pins and needles.’ Doris said, ‘Oh, my God. We talked about [Jason Bourne]. We can’t license the name, but we’re going to take the initials JB, and call him John Black.’ That was the reason [I took the job]. My manager and agent fought me. They did not want me to do daytime. But I said, ‘It’s an amazing character.’ Just the whole idea of this guy who didn’t know who he was. How did he find himself? And, of course, that was all because of Marlena.”

And of course, you can’t talk about John without mentioning Marlena. Drake said that he absolutely loves playing alongside actress Deidre Hall. “She’s beautiful. She’s brilliant. She’s respectful. She’s talented. It’s only exceeded by her big heart. We work totally different, though. Me, I come from that baseball background. And what is it? Practice, practice, practice. I am always studying, making little adjustments, and thinking about [the work] all the time. Deidre can be just the opposite. She’ll come in and look over the arc that we’re going to be doing, so she knows where we’re going. But she would rather come in and be fresh; pick it up, build on it, and bring it up to speed when we’re on the set. We’ve learned to play off that together really well. We’ve said it before: We’re a safety net for one another. We protect each other. We catch each other. We complete each other’s thoughts. What I take away from Deidre is trust, and with that, the finished product will be there at the end of the day,” he said.

Days of Our Lives News: What’s Next For John?

He also said that one of his memorable location shoots was when the cast and crew went to Greece back in 1987. He said, “The night we got there, my buddy John Aniston [ex-Victor] grabbed his wife, Sherry, me and [my wife] Victoria and said, ‘Okay, stay with me. I know this town like the back of my hand. I’m going to show you the best places to eat and everything else.’ We shot in The Acropolis and at the Temple of Poseidon. I remember being miked up and standing on this cliff overlooking the Aegean Sea, and there were 20 different shades of colors. I was talking to myself, rambling on and on, ‘This makes Malibu look like dog meat.’ It was beautiful. We couldn’t shoot inside any of the temples.”

He continued, “At one point Al [Rabin, former co-executive producer] came up and said, ‘They had a guard change down at the shack. I went down and flipped the guy some drachmas. So we’re going to do one shot really fast. Drake and Genie [Francis, ex-Diana], get all the way at the end of the Temple of Poseidon and walk slowly to the columns. The wind will be blowing and then, boom, you take her into the romance novel kiss.’ It was their first kiss. We went up to the Poseidon and started walking. Then the other guard returned to the shack, saw us, ran down and jumped in from of the camera, but after we got the shot in.”

Of course, let us know what you think by leaving us a line in our comments section below. In the meantime, let us know what you think by leaving us a line with your thoughts in our comments section below. Days of Our Lives airs weekdays on the Peacock network. Check your local listings for times.

Be sure to catch up with everything on DOOL right now. Come back here often for Days of Our Lives spoilers, news and updates.