Christie Clark will reprise the role of Carrie Brady on Days of our Lives on May 28 as part of the show’s goodbye to John Black (Drake Hogestyn) storyline.

For Clark, who began working with Hogestyn in 1986, it was an emotional homecoming knowing he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. “I knew what was happening with Drake, and I knew he wasn’t well enough to come and work, so that was sad,” Clark begins. “I knew I had to come back, because it was for him, because he was my mentor, and really was the main principal actor I worked with and grew up with, and gave me everything. And, my God, he was just a man of unbelievable beauty inside and out. So, I was just gutted that it was happening to him — the most fit, loving, gorgeous man who appreciated life. It was just heartbreaking.”

Hogestyn passed away on September 28, 2024, and his impact on Clark’s life was significant. “I don’t know many more beautiful souls that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting,” she reflects. “He just was so kind to everyone on the set, cast, and crew. He just made everyone feel good, and he made you proud to be a human. He taught me some good lessons on how to be a good person, and I think for me, that is the ultimate goal.

“He showed me how to be kind to cast and crew,” she continues. “But we really had that connection. He was my second dad, and we played a lot of practical jokes on each other constantly. That went on for many, many, many years. It was an absolutely stunning, beautiful experience to be with him.”

The actress wishes she could have visited Hogestyn when she was in Los Angeles filming these episodes last year. “I was hoping to see him, but he was so ill that it wasn’t going to happen,” she relays. ”He sadly died, like, five days after we filmed everything. Nobody knew that it was that serious, but everybody knew that it was going to happen because it was terminal cancer, so nobody was acting. It is just raw emotion for someone that we all loved.”

Despite the heavy circumstances surrounding her return, Clark was happy to be back at the studio. “Every time I go back to the show, it’s family,” she shares. “You just drop right back in and get on the bike and go for the ride. It was lovely to see [Deidre Hall, Marlena Evans]. I’ve grown up with her, too, and she loves Drake, same as all of us. Martha [Madison, Belle Black] is also lovely to see; she’s my little sister [on the show].”

Clark, who has played the role of Carrie on and off for nearly 40 years, resides in England with her husband and their three daughters. After taking a break from showbiz, she has recently returned to performing. “I’ve been very busy in the last year,” she shares. “I just started back in my favorite acting teacher’s class. I haven’t been in class for 25 years, and last time I was in class, I was 25 years old, and I was, I guess, kind of a sexy ingenue type, and now I’m the mom in it. There are all these cool, young people in class, and it’s inspiring to work with all of them, and I’m loving it. I’ve just signed with an agent over here, so I’m just about to start auditioning. I can only do an American accent for the roles so far, but I’m going to concentrate in the next few months and figure out which English accent I want to perfect, and then maybe throw in Irish because there’s a lot of casting over here for American TV shows.”

As a result, stepping back into Carrie’s shoes again after a four-year break wasn’t a difficult task. “Usually, I come back and it’s like, ‘Oh, God, I haven’t done this for a while. Am I going to forget my lines?’” she admits. “But because of class, it was easy to just jump back into Carrie Brady-land.”

Plus, walking through the studio halls reminded the actress of her decades-long association with the show. “I absolutely have old memories and flashes of scenes from the past, mostly being on the pier for some reason, and the Brady pub and the fish market that they used to have,” she reports. “Those are strong. And Marlena and Roman’s [Wayne Northrop] house; there’s a lot of flashbacks of that. But I thank God for YouTube, because I can really go back and watch older scenes, like the ones of John and Carrie crying at Marlena’s bedside when she was in the coma or something, and that instantly takes me there. I do still have a Carrie journal from the past, so I can also go back and read that, and that helps me get back into it, too. But for the most part, I’ve grown up with those people. I know those people. They do feel like family, and it just flows.”

While she’s recognized by soap fans in the United States, Clark says she lives more of an anonymous life abroad. “Nobody knows me here,” she muses. “They think Days of our Lives is fake. They think it’s something on Friends. I’m like, ‘No, I was on it. I was on it. That TV show is real.’ In South Africa, it’s massive. Australia, too. But nowhere in Europe.”

And that’s just fine with Clark. “Growing up and being a working actor is not the norm,” she reflects. “So being on Days was the perfect balance for me, really. Rather than being a famous TV star and movie star that is recognized all around the world, it was ideal, because you have a little bit of fame.”

While she is open to coming back to Salem again — “I don’t ever want to say never, because I think you never should,” Clark notes — her focus is currently elsewhere. “I feel like I want to move on,” she offers. “I’m sad to say that, and I felt that way before the Drake thing, and then I thought, ‘I have to go back for Drake.’ I would probably go back, because it’s family, but I want to work on other stuff right now.”