Interview (Days): Sarah Brown Returns to Daytime

Sarah Brown is no stranger to daytime soap operas. The 36-year-old award-winning actress has been a part of many of daytime’s casts, including “General Hospital” (as two different characters at two different times), “The Bold and the Beautiful” and “As the World Turns.” Since she’s made her mark at ABC and CBS, it’s only natural that the time has come for her to conquer NBC and join “Days of Our Lives.” Sarah made her debut a few weeks back as Sami’s new boss, Madison James. I spoke with Sarah recently, and she told me all about her new role.

Daytime Dial: I was very excited to hear you’d be coming back to daytime, especially in a role like that of Madison James. What can you tell me about your character?

Sarah Brown: Madison is a tough cookie. She’s got a very strong sense of who she is and what she’s in town to do, which is take over the world, basically. She’s come to Salem, and she wants all of Kate Roberts’ business (Countess Wilhemina Cosmetics). She’s a tough CEO in the sense that she’s a businesswoman. She knows, she researches, she does her homework, and she speaks all the languages that she possibly can to help develop strong relationships between herself and her distributors. She works all the time. She doesn’t really have much of a personal life. She’s there to work and to succeed and to build and grow her business bigger and bigger. She’s smart enough to know how to deal with both women and men in the business world.

DD: How did the “Days” cast welcome you to the fold?

SB: They just made me feel so at home. I came into the make-up room, and every person in there that was working or not working took the time to say, “Hey, we’re really excited you’re here,” “Welcome to ‘Days of our Lives,’” and “You’re going to have fun here.” Everyone here is wonderful. It’s a great place to come to work.

DD: In your daytime career, you’ve played lots of different types of characters. So far, what do you like best about playing Madison?

SB: I love that she’s a fashionista. I like wearing pretty clothes when I go to work, because I run around in my jeans and T-shirt all the time, so I like having that time in my day where I get to get all made up, put on pretty jewelry and be super girly that way. It’s fun because when you are running around in your day-to-day life, sometimes you forget to do that or you don’t have time.

I also really like the idea of playing a businesswoman who is conducting legal business and sort of getting to shine a light on how the world is changing around us, and how women are more and more in a position of power — how they handle it, how they are treated and how they have to work twice as hard all the time and be twice as good at everything they do in order to be taken seriously.

DD: Now, what about these sparks we are seeing between Madison and Brady?

SB: She can’t be all business. Nope, there’s got to be drama and romance, romance, romance. Yeah, there’s a big spark between her and Brady. It’s there immediately and it stays, and it’s underneath everything while they’re trying to run this company. Right now she’s more interested in building her business and building her company, but she’s super attracted to this person she works with. I think it bothers her a little bit. And it causes some problems for her, both personally and professionally.