Soapie star soon on SA soil to spur on youth

Star Arianne Zucker will be here to support leadership project

HE USUALLY uses underhand tactics to achieve her goals – no matter what it takes, she doesn’t back down. Nicole Dimera, a popular character from the hit soapie Days of Our Lives, is a blackmailing, backstabbing witch – totally different from Arianne Zucker, who plays the character.

We recently chatted with Zucker, who will be in South Africa soon, and found her to be a friendly, bubbly person, something you wouldn’t expect from Nicole.

During our interview, she told us that she is planning to rock SA soon. And during her trip she wishes to meet Nelson Mandela and have dinner with the former statesman.

“I would definitely love to meet Madiba. I work closely with his grandson, and I’ve heard lots of good things about him,” she said.

Born in Southern California, Zucker is part of Africa Rising – a social development organisation for youth leadership in Africa, through a partnership between her company, Lifechange, and the Ndaba Mandela Organisation.

S“We help young adults to find true leadership in themselves. And to recognise their other abilities,” said Zucker.

The 38-year-old actress is married to Kyle Lowder (a former Brady Black on Days of Our Lives), who is younger than she is.

The couple met on the set of the soapie. They faced criticism and were told their relationship would never work. But they have been married for more than 10 years and are going strong.

“We are like a team. I talk about almost everything with Kyle. I am older than he is but you cannot believe he is actually more mature than I am,” she said, laughing.

Zucker said her family have been supportive of their marriage, and that without them they couldn’t have made it this far.

The vivacious Zucker believes that the conniving and devious Nicole is just overambitious.

“She is a survivor. Sometimes she takes it too far because she had no guidance, but there is hope that one day she will grow,” she said.

“Personally, I think people can learn a thing or two from her – the energy, commitment and fighting for what she believes in. However, I’d love to see a caring and altruistic Nicole.”

But Zucker didn’t want to say whether a change along those lines was in the pipeline.

Zucker’s character is one of the most evil ones on the soapie, always opening a can of worms.

The actress, who is humble and full of jokes, is friends with Alison Sweeney, who plays Sami on the soap, off screen, although we can’t imagine seeing that on screen.

“I am friends with almost everyone. I know people won’t believe it, but I am very close with Alison and James Scott (EJ).”

Something people don’t know about Zucker is that she likes riding horses.

And if you happen to see her on African soil, just wave and smile.