For many Days of Our Lives fans, it’s hard to imagine anyone other than Dan Feuerriegel playing EJ these days. He’s spent the last several years turning the character into one of Salem’s most complicated power players, complete with charm, arrogance, and enough family drama to keep the DiMeras employed for another century. As it turns out, however, Feuerriegel almost never got the job at all. DAYS casting director Marnie Saitta recently pulled back the curtain on how close the show came to going in another direction before everything finally clicked.
Key Takeaways
- Dan Feuerriegel auditioned multiple times before finally landing the role of EJ.
- DAYS casting director Marnie Saitta repeatedly championed Feuerriegel for the part.
- Saitta approaches recasts as entirely new characters rather than replacements.
- Feuerriegel was encouraged to make EJ his own rather than copy previous portrayals.
- Saitta believes Feuerriegel’s unique take on EJ helped make the recast a success.
It Took More Than One Audition
Saitta appeared on the SAG-AFTRA Foundation panel, Casting Daytime Dramas | The Business, where the conversation turned to one of the trickiest jobs any casting director faces: recasting an iconic role. When EJ came up, she admitted to moderator Jim Halterman that the search wasn’t exactly quick.
“I do now approach [a] recast like I’m casting a new character,” Saitta explained. “The actor just has to come in and make it their own.” She said Feuerriegel kept appearing on her radar and that she repeatedly pushed for him as a possible EJ. “I swear to God, I think I brought him in maybe six times,” she recalled. “I’d be like, you know, I think he’s really good for EJ.”
The funny part is that it didn’t happen right away. Saitta revealed she’d bring Feuerriegel in for other roles, then circle back to the same argument. “He would be a really good EJ.” Still, the role didn’t immediately go his way. Given how important EJ is to the DiMera family and the show as a whole, Saitta admitted finding the right actor was always going to be difficult.
Making EJ His Own
Eventually, persistence paid off. Saitta said there finally came a point where “it just clicked,” allowing Feuerriegel to step into one of Salem’s most recognizable roles. Rather than trying to recreate what came before, he approached the character from his own angle.
“He took EJ in a different direction,” Saitta said. She also noted that Feuerriegel brought “a totally different vibe” to the role, but one that proved “equally as effective” as previous versions of the character.
Looking back, that’s probably why the recast succeeded. Feuerriegel wasn’t hired to be another James Scott. He was hired to be EJ DiMera. Several years later, it’s safe to say Salem fans have embraced that version of the character, even if it took a half-dozen auditions and one very persistent casting director to get him there.
