The chemistry between them was electric the second Sami clapped eyes on a half-naked EJ DiMera. As every Days fan will know when it comes to finding a man Sami doesn’t have much luck, especially when the object of her affection is the son of the town’s arch-villain, Stefano DiMera.
Then there’s the matter of EJ coercing her into having sex with him, a trauma she’s only recently started to forgive him for. Now fans are dying to know whether Sami will end up with Lucas, the father of her son, Will, or will she choose reformed criminal EJ.
Tense times lie ahead, soap addicts, and no one is keener on all the drama enveloping EJ than the man who plays him. “He’s a charming little bastard,” actor James Scott tells us when we call him at his home in California.
James is kept busy on the set, pulling double duty as Stefano’s dad, Santo DiMera, in a series of flashbacks.
Playing two roles is great fun, he says. “And it goes without saying that getting to kiss Alison is wonderful.”
Racing-car driver and lawyer EJ might be more comfortable in a tailored power suit but James (31) is happiest outdoors. “I love landscaping and spend a day a week working in the garden. I also love hiking, mountain climbing and camping.”
He started playing evil EJ in May 2006 and it was soon revealed the character is actually Salem baddie Stefano DiMera’s long-lost son, Elvis, who we saw last as a cooing baby.
James’ life is light years away from his childhood in Newcastle upon Tyne in England. He’s the eldest of four siblings and spent his formative years at a boarding school in Lancaster.
He moved to London and signed with Storm modelling agency. Modelling proved lucrative enough to finance his drama studies at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and he even managed to squeeze in a short stint on popular UK soap EastEnders.
Then fate intervened in the form of a modelling assignment in Florida. “I met a girl and fell in love,” he says. The relationship didn’t work out but it inspired James to save as much money as he could and move to America to study with renowned acting guru Ivana Chubbuck.
It turned out to be a wise decision. Soon after moving to Los Angeles he met his fiancée Meyghan Hill, a film and TV editor, while walking his dog in a park.
Right, one more question before he has to go. Will the Brady-DiMera feud ever end? “Who knows,” James says, chuckling down the line. “Just keep watching.”
Read the full article in YOU of 27 May 2010