Sweeney made her debut on Days in 1987 as a young Adrienne Johnson in a flashback, however it wasn’t until 1993 when she began playing Sami, the teenage daughter of Marlena Evans (Deidre Hall) and Roman Brady (Josh Taylor).

The role quickly cemented Sweeney as one of daytime’s most popular stars. She played the role of Sami for 21 years until 2014 when she moved on to other projects.

The actress returned to Days in 2017 and appeared on and off in various storylines until December 2022.

Now that her schedule has opened up – she recently co-wrote and executive produced a Hallmark movie – she’s ready to make her return to Days.

“We were all trying to figure out how long it’s been; no one could remember!” she said. “I remembered Sami’s grand exit storming out of the DiMera mansion. I was interested to hear how and why they were bringing Sami back to town. With Sami it could be anything.”

Although Sweeney is no stranger is to a set, she’s still nervous to get back to filming for Days.

“I always wonder if I can still memorize all these lines. I mean, when I’m doing the movies for Hallmark, we film eight or nine pages at most. Today I have 30-plus pages. It definitely pulls on different skills. And everyone at Days is used to doing it every day. I don’t want to be the one they’re waiting for.”

Sweeney didn’t give any hints about Sami’s storyline other than it was “unexpected” and “of all the ideas, I was pretty shocked.”

More than 30 years later Sweeney said, “I am so glad that Sami is still such a part of the town. It’s fun for me.”