Peyton Meyer (“American Housewife,” “Girl Meets World”) has joined the cast of “Days of our Lives” in the newly created role of Doug Williams III, the grandson of the late Doug Williams (played by the late Bill Hayes). His first airdate is set for Tuesday, December 3.
Fans first got a glimpse of Meyer earlier this month when he appeared in the “Day of DAYS” sneak peek highlighting what’s to come on the daytime drama series this season.
In an interview with TV Insider, Meyer describes his character as a “mischievous” young man, similar to how the first Doug Williams was introduced in 1970. “He’s in and out of trouble. No matter where he goes, chaos comes with him. He’s not purposefully mischievous or purposefully wishes harm on people,” Meyer notes. “I think it’s just how he grew up, that everything he does ends up causing a bad karmic chaos storm behind him. He’s a gentle guy and he’s peaceful, but it seems that he doesn’t make the proper choices when he needs to.”
Meyer’s introduction to viewers comes as the series celebrates its 15,000th episode, airing Monday, December 2, which Meyer says was an “insane” experience, although things started “really down” emotionally.
“The energy was really low and I had no idea what was going on. We ended up filming the scenes and after, one of the crew members came up to me and she was like, ‘Just so you know, this is a very emotional day today and the fact that you were able to do that scene and carry a positive attitude into the set was so amazing to watch because I don’t know if you know what’s going on, but it’s very heavy today so thank you for coming in so professionally.’ I think it kind of worked better that I wasn’t fully aware of everything that was going on.”
Meyer, of course, is referring to the cast mourning the loss of an iconic character, Doug Williams, while also sharing in the memories of portrayer Bill Hayes, who passed away in January at 98 years old.
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One of Meyer’s first scenes will be Susan Seaforth Hayes who not only portrayed the on-screen love interest opposite Bill Hayes for 50 years but was also married to the legend in real life for just as long. Recalling his first day on set, the actor says, “I was sitting there as a 25-year-old memorizing 25 pages a night working, filming an episode per day, and I didn’t understand how the process worked and it was so difficult. Watching Susan do it so effortlessly was something that I’ll carry with me forever. She was so professional.”
Disney Channel
For more on Meyer’s “Days of our Lives” experience, and to learn what he has to say about working alongside the likes of pop star Sabrina Carpenter on the Disney Channel original series “Girl Meets World,” where he played Lucas Friar, his time on ABC’s “American Housewife,” where he played the recurring role of Trip Windsor, check out Meyer’s full interview with TV Insider here.
Meyer’s other credits include roles in such shows as “Dog with a Blog,” “Versus,” and “Wayne.” More recently, he appeared in the 2021 film “He’s All That.”