Days of Our Lives Exclusive: Deidre Hall Reveals Why She Told the Show Nope, ‘I Don’t Want to Do It’
Friday, May 12th, 2023
Deidre Hall is celebrating 5,000 episodes on Days of Our Lives this week, but she dropped some jaw-dropping news to Soaps.com that even we couldn’t believe. She turned down the job as Marlena Evans — and it’s shocking to think that the iconic role could have gone to someone else in 1976.
Related Story
At the time, Hall was looking for a place to call home — she wanted a steady paycheck and a regular schedule. So, she told her agent, “I want to do a soap.” That’s where Days of Our Lives enters the picture. Her first audition went so well, she “was invited to screen test,” but self-doubt crept in. “When I got there, you do, unintentionally, bump into some of the other women who are also testing at the same time. I recognized a few of them and I thought, ‘Oh man, this just isn’t going to be easy.’ And so I was so persuaded that I wouldn’t beat out those women,” she admits to us.
Hard as it is to believe, John’s beloved “Doc” almost had a completely different face!
Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI
More: Fans pick their favorite Marlena scenes
Well, she must have done pretty darn well because she finally got the phone call that she was waiting for. Hall recalls, “My agent called a few weeks later and said, ‘You got it.’ I said, ‘No, that must mean that everybody else I thought would have gotten it, turned it down, so there must be something wrong with that part.'” So, she did the absolute unthinkable and said, “I don’t want to do it.” What?!!!!
Three long weeks go by, and Day of Our Lives producers circle back to Hall’s agent, hoping that she would reconsider and take the role of Marlena. That’s when she revealed why she didn’t want to take the part. “I said, ‘Well, because I wasn’t their first choice. Everybody else turned it down,'” she explains. Her agent’s mind was blown because Hall really was “their first choice.” Calling it her Sally Field, “You like me, you really like me” moment, Hall finally gave everyone at Days of Our Lives a heart attack and the answer they were looking for. Phew, what a wild ride that was!
Don’t miss Hall’s opinion on whether anyone or anything could break John and Marlena apart in the video above. And then check out photos of Marlena’s wild ride through Salem over the decades in our gallery below.
Most Popular
Advertisement
Image: NBCUniversal/Getty Images
1/25
<p>In 1976, Dr. Marlena Evans hung her shingle at University Hospital and did her darnedest to help Mickey Horton recover from the nervous breakdown that he’d suffered upon learning that son Mike… well, <em>wasn’t</em> his son.</p>
Image: NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty Images
2/25
<p>Marlena’s romance with wealthy attorney Don Craig was complicated by the arrival on the scene of her twin sister, Samantha. The green-eyed monster so envied her sibling’s life that she had Marlena institutionalized and flat-out stole it!</p>
Image: Columbia Tristar/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
3/25
<p>Once Marlena’s identity crisis was resolved, she and Don tied the knot and were all set to live happily ever after. Unfortunately, fate, as it so often does, had other plans for the couple.</p>
Image: NBCUniversal/Getty Images
4/25
<p>Not only did Marlena make peace with Samantha, she made room in her heart for Don’s surprise daughter, troubled teen Donna Temple (who — fun fact — was played by Tracey E. Bregman on her way to the role of Lauren Fenmore on <em>Young & Restless</em>).</p>
Image: NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty Images
5/25
<p>Marlena and Don’s marriage had withstood one blow after another. But it couldn’t recover from the heartbreaking demise of their newborn son DJ from SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome).</p>
Image: NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty Images
6/25
<p>Marlena was having a blast playing Frasier Crane as the host of her own radio show — that is, until she started receiving calls from the Salem Strangler. Why must there be one in every crowd?</p>
Image: Mario Casilli/TV Guide/NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
7/25
<p>On the plus side, the danger in which Marlena suddenly found herself introduced her to new love Roman Brady, the detective assigned to protect her. On the minus side, before the murderer was stopped, he mistook Samantha for Marlena and killed her!</p>
Image: NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty Images
8/25
<p>When Roman’s estranged wife Anna showed up claiming that she hadn’t been sent to her grave but sold into white slavery, Marlena was faced with the prospect of becoming a stepmother to little Carrie (then Andrea Barber). Marlena’s response?</p>
Image: Columbia Tristar/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
9/25
<p>In February of 1983, Marlena and Roman exchanged vows that they hoped would bind them to one another for all aternity. But the honeymoon was cut tragically short when, not a year later, the groom was (cough) fatally shot by the nefarious Stefano DiMera.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
10/25
<p>While trying to help an amnesiac going to the name John Black recover his memory, Marlena became convinced that he was Stefano… and then Roman… and then Samantha. Just kidding about that last one. Once she settled on Roman, the “widow” remarried the man that she believed was the husband that she’d promised to love until death did them part.</p>
Image: NBCUniversal/Getty Images
11/25
<p>After “dying” with all the finality that Roman had, Marlena was reunited with the fellow that she still believed was her true love, only to have the real McCoy turn up alive and well courtesy of — who else? — Stefano. Torn, Marlena recommitted herself to Roman but had so much trouble resisting John that… </p>
Image: Jesse Grant/JPI
12/25
<p>Yup, despite her devotion to Roman, Marlena gave in to passion with John, and nine months later, a new branch was hung from the family tree for baby Belle. Cue Roman and Marlena’s daughter Sami trying to sell her half sister on the black market in three, two…</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
13/25
<p>Over the years, refereeing Carrie and Sami’s fights became almost a second career for Marlena, especially when they were using Austin Reed as an especially buff rope in their never-ending tug-of-war.</p>
Image: NBCUniversal/Getty Images
14/25
<p>Marlena found herself embroiled in another love triangle when John fell for Stefano’s daughter, Kristen (then Eileen Davidson). She seemed so nice at first, so forthright. But she turned out to be a chip off the ol’ block!</p>
Image: Gary Null/NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
15/25
<p>On the contrary, it went <em>down</em> in 1995, the year that Stefano’s messing with Marlena’s mind laid out an unintentional welcome mat for a demon to come on in and stay awhile. Thankfully, John was a priest at the time — what? It could happen! — and was able to prescribe the possessed an “exorcise” program that sent the devil packing straight back to hell.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
16/25
<p>In the late 1990s, everyone who was anyone tried to keep apart Marlena and John, from a “dying” Roman (as if) to John’s new squeeze, conniving Kristen DiMera, to his angsty teenage son, Brady. But, as it always does, love won, leading to the supercouple’s first marriage — with each of them knowing who the other was, anyway.</p>
Image: Paul Skipper/JPI
17/25
<p>Marlena couldn’t have guessed when she once again took over her duties as the Frasier Crane of Salem radio how much she’d tick off her predecessor’s fans. One in particular, Hattie Adams, just happened to bear so striking a resemblance to the doc that a little plastic surgery was all it took for her to pull a Samantha and swipe her life.</p>
Image: Paul Skipper/JPI
18/25
<p>Even more shocking than the way that the Salem Stalker laid waste to the town’s population was the reveal that Marlena, of all people, was the culprit. Except, of course, that she wasn’t really. She’d been brainwashed by Andre DiMera and, in fact, hadn’t killed anyone: Her friends and loved ones were still alive and well on Melaswen, the island replica of Salem (whose name was New Salem spelled backwards).</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
19/25
<p>Over the years, Marlena fought to get past one roadblock (crazy Dr. Charlotte Taylor) after another (John’s paralysis) after another (his marriage to “Princess Gina”/Hope Brady) to build a life with the man she loves. But even <em>she</em> was ready to throw in the towel when she learned that he’d attempted to seduce old flame Kristen (then Eileen Davidson) in hopes of busting up her relationship with Brady.</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
20/25
<p>Even after Stefano <em>died</em>-died, he wasn’t done with the object of his obsession. Henchman Wilhelm Rolf implanted in Steve Johnson his master’s “essence,” thereby allowing him — at least for a time — to continue to pursue Marlena from beyond the grave.</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
21/25
<p>When the devil booked a return trip to Salem, he couldn’t resist making a pit stop in his favorite host body long enough to partake in some avant-garde tree-trimming on his way to possessing Ciara and Ben Weston’s baby, Bo. Because what demon’s endgame <em>isn’t</em> a plane full of creamed spinach headed for the hangar and a mild case of diaper rash?</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
22/25
<p>No sooner had Satan been sent back to hell than Orpheus, partaking in every supervillain’s favorite pastime, sought revenge on John, Steve and Roman by kidnapping and drugging their lady loves, Marlena, Kayla Brady and Kate Roberts. Once they were rescued and cured, everyone thought that that was the end of it. But then Kate died. And so did Kayla. And… uh-oh.</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
23/25
<p>Since <span style="text-decoration: line-through">Kristen</span> Megan DiMera withheld the orchid that would’ve saved Orpheus’ victims, Marlena was ushered by the bouncer at the pearly gates straight into the afterlife. Which, as has been well-documented, looked like a White Party that was attended by the cast of <em>The Walking Dead.</em></p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
24/25
