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Linsey Godfrey’s latest Days of our Lives storyline – Sarah battling serious injuries after being struck by a hit-and-run driver – hits close to home for the actress. In 2015, Godfrey was taking a walk in Los Angeles when two cars collided, and one careened onto the sidewalk and knocked her down. As a result, she suffered two broken ankles, underwent surgery, and struggled to get back on her feet and walk again. Godfrey spoke to Soap Opera Digest about reliving her real-life tragedy onscreen, the emotional toll it's taken, and what the storyline twist means for the future of Xander and Sarah.
Soap Opera Digest: Unfortunately, you’ve been through what your DAYS character is enduring. What has it been like playing our a similar trauma?
Linsey Godfrey: It was really hard… a lot harder than I would've imagined. I don't really think about [ my accident ] too often, but this definitely brought up a lot of things.
Digest: How did you first learn about the plot twist?
Godfrey: I found out the same way everybody else found out: when the scripts were released to us.
Digest: Was the show unaware that you’d had a similar accident?
Godfrey: I think they didn't put two and two together. You know what I mean? That's my understanding. It's not always something that people have at the forefront of their memory about me. Some people do. They always remember, “Oh, Linsey had cancer and she had this car accident.” For some people, it's just part of my story, and I have a crazy story anyway. [The accident is] just one of those many details. I think it was just that they all knew that about me, but maybe it just didn't quite click.
Digest: Obviously, DAYS eventually connected the dots.
Godfrey: Yes. Once it all clicked and they saw how much it was affecting me, I was very well looked after. [DAYS’s producers] Janet [Spellman Drucker], Noel [Maxam], Sara [P. McCormick], Randy [Dugan] and everybody immediately were just so wonderful. They reached out to make sure I was okay, because as [the storyline] progresses there are certain things that really hit close to home and were extremely hard to relive. They made things available to me if I needed any extra help dealing with everything. I was very grateful that I was surrounded by people who were aware of my story, like Paul [Telfer, Xander], Suzanne [Rogers, Maggie] and even Serena [Scott Thomas, Fiona], who I had only just met, but hit it off with immediately. We had this immediate connection, and she was very considerate.
Digest: As painful as it was to relive your own ordeal, do you think it stirring up so many real emotions enhanced your performance?
Godfrey: I think so. One of the hardest things for me was the fact that Sarah was also a young new mom, and [my daughter] Aleda was only seven months old when it happened to me. That accident always felt like it stole this huge chunk of time from me with my daughter, because I wasn't able to be on the ground with her and doing the things that I wanted to do. We had to learn how to walk together, me and Aleda. She was learning to walk around 10 months old, while I had to relearn how to walk. I had to relearn everything. There are these really sad scenes coming up with my mom, with Suzanne. We talk about how hard this is all going to be and [how Sarah] is going to try to be her best self. But there’s a part of her that's feeling devastated as a mother who's having this time stolen away. She’s going to have to rely on others, where she never intended to rely on others. She intended to be as hands on as she could. [It’s] much more weighted than, “I can't hold my baby.” It is time stolen. I'm hoping that that plays out. I hope that these scenes come out as beautiful as they felt when we were telling them.
Digest: Again, these are all moments you can bring personal experience to.
Godfrey: Definitely. That is something I related to with the character. There's times where Sarah can't do something by herself, and she gets very upset. I very much felt that way. They drove Aleda to me every day so that she could take a nap on me [when I was] in the hospital. I would just hold her while she napped. I hated that I couldn't give my daughter a bath. So that part. definitely. And then just maneuvering around in a wheelchair. Everything was kind of like, ‘Well, at least I know how to do this pretty well.” I was in a wheelchair for a bit too.
Digest: Aside from the personal relevance there’s also an onscreen connection. Sarah’s mother, Maggie, was also once paralyzed. Did Suzanne Rogers make you aware of that?
Godfrey: Yeah, Suzanne and I talked about it, and then [the characters] talk about it. There are some scenes coming up where we discuss that. We have these really fantastic scenes together.
Digest: I imagine you're happy to have a plot like this as opposed to the usual one where Xander does something wrong, he and Sarah break up, and then eventually get back together again. Has it been enjoyable to have a story of this caliber that’s more heartfelt and emotional?
Godfrey: It felt nice too to just not have it be about our relationship. Sometimes I feel, especially being a woman, that a lot of times my story has to do with whatever male partner I'm with it. Sometimes it feels like in soaps in general, you're kind of only worthy and have value if you're attached to a man. So that felt nice. It was such a change for us both to just not have it be like, “Oh. Xander messed up, and now Sarah has to get mad.” Because sometimes the things that Sarah gets mad at him about are things that you're like, “Really?”
Digest: But some of the things have been terrible.
Godfrey: Some of them have been very terrible. But to have this storyline come up that was just about me and something that I was overcoming and my hardships… It felt nice to have it be that and to have it be a story of loss and trauma and perseverance.
Digest: How is this turn of events going to affect Sarah and Xander as a couple?
Godfrey: Well, they're newlyweds, and Xander loves Sarah and is very protective of her. You’ll see him going into overprotective mode, and you’ll see the independent stubborn side of Sarah being like, “I want to do it myself. Leave me alone.” So they'll have those [moments] where Xander's wanting to over help, and Sarah is saying, “You can't help me. I have to learn how to do things for myself.” So you'll have some tension in that and kind of them butting heads. But that's how Xander helps. He does everything, wants to take care of everything, and kind of takes over. Sarah doesn't want to be taken care of. She wants to be met equally as a partner. Sarah likes doing stuff herself. So there's definitely some tension as he attempts to do everything to take care of his wife, but in a beautiful way.
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