It’s not every day you see a soap opera character go from being a cold-blooded serial killer to a romantic leading man that fans actually root for. But that’s exactly what Robert Scott Wilson pulled off with Ben Weston on Days of Our Lives. In a recently surfaced interview with Rebecca Budig and Greg Rikaart for the Soapy podcast, Wilson opened up about the moment his world was turned upside down by a single script.
Wilson also spoke about his modeling career. He was the first-ever male model on The Price is Right.
While he always wanted to be an actor, that job provided the stability he needed to stay in LA and keep grinding.
It turns out that gig was his ultimate launchpad. After a stint on the All My Children reboot, he landed Days in the most “hometown” way possible. He didn’t even audition for legendary casting director Marnie Saitta! Instead, a colleague vouched for him, and Rob ended up meeting Marnie at her family home in Massachusetts over Christmas. “She slides over this monstrous stack of scripts,” he recalled, and just like that, his version of Ben Weston was born.
The Moment Everything Changed for Robert Scott Wilson
Wilson admitted that during his first year in Salem, he struggled to find his footing with the character. He was happy to be working, but Ben felt a bit generic. That all changed when the writers decided to turn him “heel” and revealed he was the notorious Necktie Serial Killer.
The news didn’t exactly come as a relief at first. In fact, Wilson took the twist quite personally. “I took that very personally because I was like, man, you know, I’m doing everything I can here,” he shared. He realized that becoming a killer meant he was responsible for taking away the jobs of beloved co-stars and that his own time on the show was likely ticking away.
Making it Memorable
Instead of letting the news get him down, Wilson decided to leave it all on the screen. He knew that if this was the end of his run, he wanted people to remember exactly who he was. “If this door is shutting in my face, I at least have to make sure that they remember who they shot it on,” he explained.
To make the dark storyline work, he focused on grounding Ben’s violent actions in something human—like love and honest emotion—to make it digestible for the audience. It clearly worked. Not only did Ben become one of the most memorable villains in Salem history, but he also earned a rare redemption arc that led to the iconic “Cin” pairing with Ciara Brady.
So, while he has cemented himself in Days of Our Lives history as one of the show’s most unforgettable villains, he is now turning heads as a Kiriakis lead. After his run as Ben, the show brought him back as a different character: Alex Kiriakis.
Beyond Salem, Rob recently hit a major career high by starring in a massive Michelob Ultra Super Bowl commercial directed by Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick). For a guy who loves snowboarding as much as he does, getting to film a high-octane beer commercial with the best in the business was a dream come true. “I wanted to be tired… I want to be burnt out from doing what I love,” he said, and it’s clear that whether he’s on a soap set or a snowy mountain, Rob is giving it 100%.
Watch the full interview below!
Photo Credit: CBS Broadcasting Inc.
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