37under wraps. “I could’ve just gone on social
media like, ‘Well, folks, that’s it! Bye!’, but
that’s not me,” he shrugs. “I care about the
show first and foremost, and the last thing
that the show would need, whether it’s me
or any other character, is for somebody to
spill the beans. It wouldn’t be right for me to
say, ‘I’m here until August,’ and the entire
time people are watching, maybe they’re not
investing in my character.”
He also took some time to process the
fact that his new gig was coming to an end.
“It was a lot of mixed emotions and I didn’t
think it would be,” he notes. “The spectrum
is so wide. I was just so happy and excited to
return to this show that has meant the world
to me since I was a teenager, and something
that I never really thought would happen
just because of the logistics of it [given that
his previous role, Brady, is now played by
Martsolf]. Seeing all those familiar faces and
familiar sights and sounds and smells of the
studio, it just took me back to a wonderful,
bright-eyed, bushy-tailed time in my life. It’s
like going home from college. You go back
home and see all your friends and your par-
ents and home-cooked meals and whatever.
It’s that same kind of feeling. I just relished
that. I didn’t take a day of this for granted.”
Getting a handle on who Rex was pre-
sented its own difficulties, however. “I really
did enjoy playing the character,” he enthus-
es. “It meant a lot to me that Ron [Carlivati,
head writer] wrote a character that just
challenged me on a day-to-day basis. He
finds out that he fathered Mimi’s child, and
I’m like, ‘Okay, he’s a cheater and he has a
child.’ He and Sarah started off rough, but
how do I make him likable again after this
kind of transgression? And then he’s a serial
cheater, because now he slept with Sarah’s
sister. I enjoyed it. I welcomed it. You want
to be challenged in playing a character that
you can’t relate to whatsoever. But you
want fans to love to hate you, you don’t
want them to just like you or hate you and
they don’t want to see you on-screen any-
more. And that’s also a challenge. I wantedS
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yle Lowder wraps his second DAYS
run on August 9, but he has known
about his exit since late last year.
“I found out in early December,” he
relays of the bittersweet timing. “It was
interesting, I just got back from New York
doing a personal appearance for the show
with Eric Martsolf [Brady]. It was just this
wonderful weekend of meeting the fans and
just such wonderful support: ‘Oh, my God!
It’s so great to have you back,’ and ‘Can’t
wait to see where the character goes.’ It was
just a really great weekend. I left Sunday
evening and I had to be on set first thing
Monday morning. That day I got called
upstairs to the production office.”
It was there that Lowder got the news
that Rex would be leaving town. “It honestly
was a very nice conversation,” he recalls.
“They said, ‘Look, this is never easy, but
we’re undergoing some huge changes with
the show and we had to make some tough
decisions about which characters are going
to stay and which characters are going to go.
Unfortunately, you’re one of the characters
that we’re going to write off temporarily.’ It
was just such a juxtaposition between spend-
ing all weekend with the fans and celebrating
DAYS and my return, and then the very next
work day that I get back, I got the news.”
Lowder admits he was surprised. “It was
rough, I’m not going to lie about it,” he says.
“I’ve been in this business for almost 20
years. I know it wasn’t personal. At the end
of the day, it’s show business. I think what
was toughest for me in that conversation
is that I kept thinking to myself, ‘I just got
here.’ I was so happy to come back to a show
that has always meant the world to me. I
just didn’t think it was going to end so soon.
There was so much I wanted to accomplish.”
The actor worked at the set until mid-
CHJanuary but kept the news of his departure
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loane