Day of Days With Joe Mascolo

A sit down interview with Joe Mascolo (Stefano) during the “Day of Days” event.

TVSource Magazine’s Assistant Editor William Dallman attended the second annual “Day of Days” event on Saturday, November 7, 2009. The following interview was conducted at the Samba Brazilian Steakhouse and Lounge in the Universal Studios Hollywood: CityWalk.

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Days of Our Lives veteran Joe Mascolo is a funny man in real life. “Who are you? What are you doing here?” asked Mascolo, as I sat down, wanting to get to know me before our interview.

I was quite taken aback when I realized that unlike his super villainous alter ego Stefano, Joe has no accent at all. “I am from Connecticut,” he quickly tells me. No, Mascolo is nothing like his onscreen persona, the regal Stefano DiMera, who he has played on-and-off since 1982.

Mascolo spoke of how he came to join the cast of Days of Our Lives. “The woman who created Stefano is named Pat Falken Smith, a brilliant writer. I didn’t want to do any of this stuff. I was doing a play in Texas with Burt Reynolds when they called me,” he reveals adding, “They kept asking me, so I got curious and came in. I met her and the producers.” Backtracking a bit, Mascolo says that upon getting Stefano’s back-story from Falken Smith, he suggested playing it with a European accent. “The minute I walk in the building, I go with the accent because I hate phony accents. It’s second nature.”

Upon being asked which one of Stefano’s deaths was his favorite, he laughed and said, “He’s never died. How can he die and come back to life?” He continued on, “You know soaps are pretty stupid, but they’re not that dumb. You think [he dies]. That is the whole point of the Phoenix. He disappears but rises from the ashes so to speak… You never see a dead body.”

When we started talking about the return of Stefano’s ex-wife Vivian, the actor laughed and recalled something that happened years ago. “That nut! I’ll never forget that scene where we put things in her tooth so I knew where she was. The first take I started laughing and said, ‘We can’t do it like this,'” he says, explaining that the prop they were using was too big and he requested a smaller one.

When asked about the current baby swap storyline Mascolo explains that Stefano never wanted to hurt EJ. “Stefano did this with Elvis’s life in mind… he saw that he was happy and he wanted a child and Nicole got it. It wasn’t right, but she got it. [Stefano did it] for the right reasons, the wrong way.”

When talk turned to his onscreen relationship with “grandbaby mama” Sami (Alison Sweeney), Mascolo had this to say: “There is a scene where I am in the hospital with this diabetes crap and Samantha comes in. She says she wants to talk to me and I’m sitting there thinking that maybe I can tell her the truth so that we can settle this, but she starts raving on and as far as I’m concerned, becomes a total pain-in-the-ass, and I say to myself ‘screw it.'”

He went on to compliment Sweeney.

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TVSOURCE MAGAZINE “DAY OF DAYS” COVERAGE

• Visiting The Set of ‘Days of Our Lives’ — A recap of our visit to the set of “Days of Our Lives.”
• At The ‘DAYS’ Set — Interviews from our visit to the set of “Days of Our Lives” with Wally Kurth, Eric Martsolf, Lindsay Hartley, Shelly Hennig and more!
• “Day of Days” With Alison Sweeney & Galen Gering — Interview with Alison Sweeney (Sami) and Galen Gering (Rafe)
• A “Day of Days” With Bill and Susan Hayes — Interview with Bill Hayes (Doug) and Susan Seaforth Hayes (Julie)
• A “Day of Days” With Suzanne Rogers & Molly Burnett — Interview with Suzanne Rogers (Maggie) and Molly Burnett (Melanie)
• ‘A ‘Day of Days’ With DAYS Cast Part 1 – Interviews from the “Day of Days” event with the younger set — Shelley Hennig (Stephanie), Mark Hapka (Nathan), Jay Kenneth Johnson (Philip) and more!
• ‘A ‘Day of Days’ With DAYS Cast Part 2 – Interviews from the “Day of Days” event with the soap vets James Reynolds, Renee Jones, Louise Sorel and more!
• ‘A Day of Days’ With James Scott & Arianne Zucker – A sit down interview with James Scott and Arianne Zucker during the “Day of Days” event.
• A “Day of Days” With Joe Mascolo – A sit down interview with Joe Mascolo (Stefano) during the “Day of Days” event.

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