'Days of Our Lives' Deidre Hall Reflects on Losing Drake Hogestyn and Wayne Northrop Months Apart (Exclusive)

Oh, Maya, Gal, we talked about everything, everybody

We dished. We shared secrets. You know, Greg Ricard is my love

And Rebecca was adorable, and they know a lot about what we do over there

So it was just like having coffee with old friends. It was lovely. you know we don't really have a venue anymore where uh there are in-depth interviews and i mean

in-depth interviews um for uh for daytime people we we so so as an as a as an actor

i get to talk about things that never come up in conversation never come up in interviews and that i

that I wouldn't feel comfortable especially doing with somebody that I didn't trust with the information

I think part of the magic behind SOAPS is that we reflect what going on in everybody lives There always a young love story There always a heartbreak somewhere There always some new discovery There are great friendships

There's great tragedy. And in every show, there's something that somebody can relate to that is part of their own lives

A terrible loss. Drake brought up short by that because it would happen so quickly

And Wayne. Wayne. I hadn't seen Wayne for about a year. And we used to go up to the ranch, the kids and I

And two men so full of life. So full of adventure and excitement and joyous families

And to lose them both within months of each other? Ridiculous. My co-stars, Eric Martsoff and Martha Madison

held a walk for cancer, for pancreatic cancer, and raised a bundle of money

And that's one way that we give back, is by helping them find a cure for it You know it such a difficult medium and we have so little time to produce a show

And I call it working without a net. I would go out there with Drake and just think

you got me, I got you, you got me, okay, fine. And there are moments where you look at your co-store and think

he doesn't have a clue. And so you think, what's his line? Okay, I'll lead into that again

Yeah, I'll circle around again. So we don't stop the take. We keep trying to get it done

And that's a partnership. That's a safety net. Obviously, we run lines, you know, ferociously before we get on the set

And then at that point, we're given our mark, so we don't know even where we'll be standing for a certain scene

But it's that, I just call it the eye contact. Like, okay, is that it

I'm done. And that was my, okay, your turn. And we all get it, and we all work the same way

and we all have that same level, regardless of how comfortable we are with the lines that we been given that day as far as having learned them It still that you on the skinny branches out here Let see if we can do it

And somehow Wayne used to say, whatever happens when I leave here, NBC will be in my rearview mirror

And we got it. It's there. It's in the can. We get to go home now. When he left the show, I went out and I got a rearview mirror, took a picture of NBC

and mocked it up in the rearview mirror. So it's an impossible job, and we do it every day

And we only do it by locking arms and supporting each other. I think Greg and Rebecca are interesting people

And they're curious, and they keep asking, and they don't ask a typical question

I haven't had a conversation like this, I don't think, probably ever

Usually it's, what was possession like? Or, who are your friends on set

Which is fine, but they're good and they're deep and they're thought-filled

And it makes them very good at this