Chandler Massey Talks Unraveling, Blackmail & Kisses To Come On "Days"

Chandler Massey photographed by Clinton Gaughran for AfterElton

At a time in television history when the daytime serial is rapidly disappearing, NBC’s 46-year old Days Of Our Lives has managed to create a stir and get some attention for one reason – the gays have found their way to Salem! While last summer saw the arrival of Freddie Smith playing good-guy (and out and proud) Sonny Kiriakis, this winter we’re finally getting a meatier coming out story with the character of Will Horton, played with earnest believability by Chandler Massey.

The buzz about Will’s coming out has been building for months but on the episodes currently airing weekdays on NBC we’re seeing Will becoming more and more unraveled and, as Massey told AfterElton.com over lunch recently, this is just the beginning of Will’s coming out story and, in true soap fashion, viewers can expect him to not have the easiest time accepting and dealing with his own truth.

AfterElton.com: You’ve been on the show now for two years, right?
Chandler Massey: December 8th, 2009 was my first day of work on the show. First appearance was February 2nd.

AE: What do you remember during that time two years ago? You were still fairly new to the business then.
CM: It was one of the luckiest things to happen to me in my life. I honestly didn’t know how lucky I was when I first got the job. I’d only been out in California about two months, but absolutely I saw it as such a blessing. And now, obviously, I appreciate it even more the longer I’m on the show and appreciate the option they’ve given me.

AE: In terms of Will’s coming out storyline, I know you were first told last February and then things got delayed for various reasons. But now that you’re into the meat of the story, was it what you expected?
CM: No, because I really didn’t know what to expect. They just told me they were going forward with this and the way I would find out what I’d be doing is by reading the script that I’d be doing in a couple of days. I was wondering if they were going to go very PC with this… I knew that they told me that they really wanted to do this differently and do it realistically, so one thing I’m really surprised about is that the head writers have taken a lot of risks, definitely, and not stereotypically in the least and it’s shocked me in a couple of areas, for sure.

AE: Can you talk about those areas that shocked you?
CM: Right now we’re filming into March, which is so far away, but stuff is coming up. When they introduced the character of Sonny he immediately was established as being someone who was very comfortable with who he was and confident and very grounded. I love that they wrote Sonny that way because Will is becoming the complete opposite of that. I guess I was really pleased with and surprised by how much of a struggle they’re making this. The one thing I really value about the storyline and what makes it different from other storylines is that it’s not just the ‘Will is gay’ story.

Will is the same person and he’s gay but they’re not just letting that take over his whole identity and storyline. There’s all this other stuff going on with his Mom [Sami, played by Alison Sweeney] and I like that because they’re sending a message that it’s important to be who you are but they’re not making it only that he’s gay. He’s someone with so many different colors and layers.

AE: Right now, we keep seeing the black and white flashback of Will seeing Sami and EJ (James Scott) have sex with this fabulous close-up on your horrified face.
CM: I know! I like that touch!

AE: And the scenes when Gabi (Camila Banus) broke up with Will were pretty amazing. You had told me at the Day of Days event that those scenes were pretty huge. You weren’t kidding!
CM: I love working with Camila and we got together and said ‘Will and Gabi are no more so we probably won’t have scenes together for awhile so we gotta make this count and go out with a bang.’ I think she did a great job, and I think those scenes turned out well. I loved that they let me just break whatever I wanted to, which was fantastic! We actually shot a lot more and it was basically just me systematically going around and I destroyed the whole set. They didn’t show it, but I knocked the table over and all these books and it was crazy. They really let me let go in there.