Kyle Pryor made his Days of our Lives debut on November 2 as Dominic Marino, the alleged son of Marlena Evans (Deidre Hall) and Stefano DiMera.
Pryor was aware his new character would make waves in Salem, but he wasn’t prepared for just how significant Dominic’s family connections would be. “I knew he was coming in to sort of stir things up, but I didn’t realize that he was so connected to so many pivotal characters in the show,” Pryor says. “So, when you’re stepping into a role like that, there’s a real responsibility to do the character justice and honor that position, because you’re working with iconic characters. I was like, ‘Right, I have to I have to do a good job of this because this is important.’ And the fans are so invested in these shows as well that you can’t not give it your best.”
His on-screen mother, along with casting director Marnie Saitta, helped him adjust to his new surroundings. “Marnie showed me around,” he relays. “Being new to L.A., as well, I was finding my way around, finding my footing, just getting established. And then working with Deidre, she took me under her wing. Being an icon in this world, she was like, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll introduce you to the right people, and I’ll show you what’s up.’ Both of them were uber-helpful. But everyone’s been amazing. It really is like a family.”
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Having a familiar face on set playing his brother was a bonus. “Before I started, I’d worked with Dan Feuerriegel [EJ DiMera] on a project called Spartacus [Blood and Sand] back in New Zealand,” Pryor shares. “So, I sent him a message, ‘What’s the experience like? How is everyone?’ He said, ‘It’s amazing. We shoot very fast, but it’s like a family.’ Having him there was like a little security blanket. I was like, ‘Okay, I’ve got a connection here. I’ve got someone that can sort of help me out, show me the ropes.’ Our characters face off against each other a little bit, and so it was nice to touch base with him.”
Although he was stepping into a major branch of the DiMera family tree, Pryor opted not to delve too deeply into the show’s history before arriving in Salem. “I sort of knew who everyone was and where I sat in those stories with those people, but I didn’t do too much research,” he explains. “I wanted to be somewhat of a blank slate. Obviously, as things are coming out, I’m always learning more about the character. But I knew what I needed to know to start, and then I just sort of let the rest fill in the gaps.”
He’s enjoying peeling back the layers of his complicated alter ego. “I feel like he’s quite a conflicted guy,” observes Pryor. “He’s grown up to believe a particular thing, and I feel like that’s his operating system. But there’s another level to him that I don’t think has been revealed yet. He’s quite multifaceted. He’s been programmed to be a certain way, but there’s more to him than meets the eye. I think there’s some nuance there that is really nice to play with and bring out in the character.”
Pryor has plenty of soap experience, having previously appeared on Australia’s Home and Away and Britain’s Hollyoaks. But Days presented a different set of challenges, including keeping the fact that he was cast on the soaps under wraps before his debut.
“Every other show that I’ve worked on in the past, it’s been a much faster turnaround,” he notes. “Usually somewhere around five, six weeks, so it’s been really interesting keeping a secret for 10 months. Also, this is the fastest soap that I’ve ever worked on, so you have to become very good at being instinctual, which in a weird way works for me. I’m a bit of an overthinker, so it’s nice to be just very reactive and in the moment. It’s a lot of dialogue to get across, and Dominic loves a chat, so there’s always a lot to deal with.”
The move to Los Angeles has also meant spending time apart from his partner, Anna Passey, whom he met while working on Hollyoaks. The couple has had to navigate a long-distance relationship while Pryor settles into his new role. “She’s still on Hollyoaks, 14 years deep,” he says. “It’s very, very hard because we’re so intertwined. We’ve been living together for a long time, so the distance is very challenging. But she came over recently. We met each other halfway and went to Boston and Salem in the last production break. That was lovely to catch up there, and we got to fully embrace the whole Halloween experience.”
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The two also share a business, Kip Candle Co., which began as a hobby for Pryor when he was living in Australia. “I was working on Home and Away, and on the weekends, I would make candles as a way to decompress and unwind; it was like a Zen activity for me,” he explains. “I made these candles for friends and family, and they were like, ‘These are really, really good.’ I didn’t do anything with it. I was doing it for fun and giving them away. And then I moved to the UK, I met my partner on Hollyoaks, and randomly one day, I just made some candles for her. She’s a candle lover, and she said, ‘These are brilliant. We should turn this into a business.’ And I set a website up, and we started doing some markets, and then we got some regular customers, and then it just kind of built up from there, really. It’s something completely aside from acting that provides some stability, a whole other challenge in itself. So, it’s an interesting journey.”
With Dominic now firmly in the Salem mix, Pryor offers a tease of what’s ahead. “A lot of manipulation,” he previews. “Obviously drama, but some heartfelt moments as well. I think that will surprise people. He is a billionaire, and he’s a very established businessman. He has a lot of fingers in a lot of different pies, and he’s somewhat of a puppet master. So, he’s dipping in and out of other people’s storylines, and he has a different methodology with different people based on how they operate. I hope people enjoy that element of the character. I mean, the chess set is the obvious analogy: He’s just moving the pieces around in the right order and is a bit of a chess master. Unlike me personally, I can’t play chess to save my life.”
Days of our Lives, Weekdays, Peacock