Days of Our Lives Star Eric Martsolf Opens Up About Working With The Late John Aniston

There’s always been just one legend living in this fictional town of Salem and he knows it. Days of Our Lives star Eric Marstolf recently opened up about working opposite the late John Aniston. Here’s what he has to say.

Days of Our Lives Star Eric Martsolf Opens Up About Working With The Late John Aniston

Speaking to Soap Opera Digest in a new interview, Eric says that he could always count on John, who was best known for his role as Victor Kiriakis, to be the wittiest man in the room. He recalled, “You could see his eyes light up when he threw a zinger at you, when he knew he had a good one in his holster. I’d be like, ‘Oh, boy. He’s going to kill me on this one.’ Everyone in the cast always laughed about how we thought John had his own set of writers, that he had this crack writing team of like 30 people who was in there whipping out these zingers. But no, we all had the same writers and lines. He was just better at delivering them than most of us, and he made it seem so effortless. That’s what made us so envious of John Aniston.”

Eric also opened up about his favorite memory of John on the set of the show. He said, “I just see him in that chair [in the Kiriakis living room] sitting there. It’s like when you watch GAME OF THRONES and you see the tentativeness of all the knights and all the people walking up to the iron throne. The king is sitting up there. That’s kind of the feeling you got when you walked into the Kiriakis mansion and saw John sitting there in his chair. It’s hardly a throne, but that chair and him were like one thing. It was a powerful little element that only he could really convey.”

Days of Our Lives News: What’s Next In Salem?

The actor continued, “He was an open ping-pong table. When actors swap lines, I always say it’s like playing ping-pong. John was like a wall back there. You could hit any ball at him, and you knew that damn ball was coming back, probably harder than you hit it. You couldn’t shock him. You couldn’t freak him out, because he was one of those old-school thespians that actually listened to what you were saying, and then he responded. It seems like a simple thing to do, but when you’re an actor, you can go your whole career without really learning how to do that. It never felt like he was saying his next line. It felt like he was just responding to you. I never had to worry about going up to him prior and saying, ‘I just want you to know I’m going to do this, John.’ It was, ‘Whatever. Throw it at me, kid.’ He never came up to me after a scene and went, ‘What the heck was that all about?’”

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 NBC 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.