THE SCOOP
After responding to a social media post highlighting it being 19 years since she debuted as Belle Black on “Days of our Lives,” actress Martha Madison recently spoke with TV Insider’s Michael Maloney about her decision to exit the daytime drama series with her last appearance scheduled to air sometime in early November.
On Thursday, August 10, a Twitter fan account that shares photo collages every day of key points in “Days of our Lives” history noted that it had been 19 years since Madison assumed the role of Belle with a tweet that included screenshots of the actress and her character’s then on-screen love interest, Phillip Kiriakis (then played by actor Kyle Brandt), with the coupling dubbed “Phelle.”
In response to the tweet, Madison said, “Feels like yesterday and a million lifetimes ago all at the same time. Thank you to all the fans who supported me on my bumpy journey through Salem. It was a wild ride.”
After seeing her response, fans immediately picked up on her words in the past tense, seemingly confirming rumors that Madison had already departed the series earlier this year, and before the outcome of the reported behind-the-scenes turmoil that plagued the series over the last couple of weeks and eventually led to the ouster of now-former co-executive producer Albert Alarr.
Speaking of Alarr, he is the one who told Madison back in March, one day before the show received its two-year renewal order from Peacock, that her contract wasn’t being renewed and that Belle would be written off the show, which became a “lightbulb moment” for Madison.
“I was surprised to hear I was leaving, too! [Laughs] Actually, I wasn’t,” commented Madison shortly after addressing the quick end to the Belle and EJ (Dan Feuerriegel) romance storyline, which she pointed out got wrapped up in just one episode.
Photo by XJJohnson/JPI Studios
“Albert called me the day before the renewal was announced to let me know that they decided to write me off the show again. I asked why they chose me, and he said it was budget-dictated. He told me specifics about how they were going to send my character off, and then I thanked him [and] wished him well, and that was that,” Madison says of how she learned she was being let go from the show for the umpteenth time.
In the first Deadline article that brought the misconduct investigation to the public’s attention last month, the outlet noted that seven contract actresses had departed the series around the time of layoffs, five of whom were either let go altogether or dropped to recurring status. The remaining two actresses reportedly made the decision to leave the series on their own.
“Honestly, the writing had been on the wall since they squashed the EJ and Belle story so abruptly, so I wasn’t fully surprised,” Madison pointed out again in the interview with Maloney. “But then weeks later as I was saying my goodbyes to everyone, I randomly got another script. I was so confused because it indicated that Belle was staying in town, but nobody had spoken to me about that. Ultimately, they said they’d like me to stick around to ‘occasionally do legal stuff,’ and ‘then, you never know what might happen after that,’ and really that was just such a lightbulb moment for me.
“In my opinion, Belle was never meant to be a peripheral character. She is the only child of Marlena [Deidre Hall] and John [Drake Hogestyn], and, after 19 years of coming and going from the show, it just finally clicked for me that they were never going to showcase the character the way I felt she should be. So, I declined the opportunity to recur and shot that last episode in April. Don’t get me wrong, I am so grateful to have played Belle for two decades, but I’m ready for more. It was just time to leave.”
Even though she formally left the series prior to the ongoing writers and actors strikes, Madison makes it clear that she stands by her decision even today, saying, “Yes. I feel like I can be patient now and wait for the right opportunities and the right projects. I’m very lucky that I have a full-time job as a vice-president at a recruitment agency [One Haus]. So, I’m very fortunate that I don’t have to make these career decisions based on financial needs. I’ve worked very hard to get to this place in my life where I’m able to make decisions based on what’s fulfilling for me and what’s going to feel good in my life.”
Courtesy of YouTube (via Screengrab); Photo by Howard Wise/JPI Studios
With a change in leadership at the show following Alarr’s ouster and Janet Drucker replacing him, Madison might consider returning to the show should they ever reach out, but she’d need some assurances first. “I asked ‘DAYS’ for a contract when the show came back from the covid break in 2020,” Madison reveals. “It was going to require me moving my family back to Los Angeles from Dallas, so I needed some assurance from the show that they were going to use me regularly. I’d still need that [if I were to go back], and like I mentioned before, it would need to be because they were going to tell compelling stories with Belle in a pivotal position in those stories. I’ve spent my entire life, from six years old, training to be an actress. I want to act.
“But I think the show is in excellent hands with Janet; she is kind and compassionate and has been there a long time. She is excellent at her job and has the full respect of the cast and crew. I think she’s going to do great.”
As for Alarr himself, Madison addresses the matter by saying this: “All I’ll say is that I would not wish that type of public fallout on anyone, and I hope everyone involved is able to find some peace going forward.”
Meanwhile, she’s open to other acting projects should they come her way, of course following a hoped-for positive outcome to the actors strike, or even another soap opera which isn’t part of the strike due to differing contracts.
“I’m absolutely open to projects that would offer the chance to play a compelling character in a fun and collaborative environment,” Madison says of future possibilities. “I love daytime TV and working in soap operas. I’m a huge fan of the genre. I’d be honored to work on any of the shows. I’d just want to make sure it’s going to be a dynamic character that would be featured regularly.”
For more from Madison in her TV Insider interview, click here.