As most Days of Our Lives fans are aware, Martha Madison (Belle, Days of Our Lives) filmed her last episode on the show several months ago. Her last air date is scheduled for early November. “Belle” debuted on the sudser in 1993. Madison has portrayed the legacy character from Salem, USA, for the past nineteen years.
Madison was recently interviewed by TV Insider, discussing her departure from the show, among other topics, including her recent favorite storylines. Her favorite genre of soap is family drama. And there was much to go around when Belle, acting as her mother, Marlena’s (Deidre Hall) HPOA (Health Power of Attorney), wanted to honor her mother’s wishes and take her off life support. This caused a deep family rift which was soapy enough, but there was a bonus, a twist. It wasn’t Marlena lying in the hospital bed attached to all those machines; it was Hattie! Also played by Hall.
Another of Madison’s faves was Belle and EJ (Dan Feuerriegel), her sister Sami’s ex-husband, getting together…until they weren’t. Consequently, Madison shares how the change in direction regarding the potential Belle and EJ pairing also proved to be a definitive signal regarding the future direction for Belle.
“Honestly, the writing had been on the wall since they squashed the EJ and Belle story so abruptly…But then weeks later as I was saying my goodbyes to everyone, I randomly got another script. I was so confused because it indicated that Belle was staying in town, but nobody had spoken to me about that. Ultimately, they said they’d like me to stick around to “occasionally do legal stuff,” and “then, you never know what might happen after that,” and really that was just such a lightbulb moment for me.”
It is safe to say that a lot of Madison and Belle fans have had similar “lightbulb moments.” Over the years, there has been much discussion regarding the shortage of consistent storylines for Belle. It has been curious to many why there has not been more investment in the character, given that she is the daughter of supercouple John Black (Drake Hogestyn) and Marlena Evans.) Madison touched on this and how it factored into her decision to leave.
“In my opinion, Belle was never meant to be a peripheral character. She is the only child of Marlena and John, and, after 19 years of coming and going from the show, it just finally clicked for me that they were never going to showcase the character the way I felt she should be. So, I declined the opportunity to recur and shot that last episode in April. Don’t get me wrong, I am so grateful to have played Belle for two decades, but I’m ready for more. It was just time to leave.”
Two questions that we wanted to know the answers to were posed to Madison. Is she open to joining any of the other three daytime soap operas?
“I’m absolutely open to projects that would offer the chance to play a compelling character in a fun and collaborative environment. I love daytime TV and working in soap operas. I’m a huge fan of the genre. I’d be honored to work on any of the shows. I’d just want to make sure it’s going to be a dynamic character that would be featured regularly.”
What about returning to Days in the future?
“…I’d still need that [reassurance that the show would use me regularly, if I were to go back], and like I mentioned before, it would need to be because they were going to tell compelling stories with Belle in a pivotal position in those stories. I’ve spent my entire life, from six years old, training to be an actress. I want to act.”
You can read TV Insider‘s entire article here.
Onward and Upward, Ms. Madison!
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