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The Stars of NBC’S Days of our Lives returned to Universal CityWalk for its annual ‘Day of Days‘ fan event Saturday, November 11, 2017. We spoke with fan favorites Billy Flynn (Chad) and Marci Miller (Abigail) during the press event about celebrating Marci’s one year anniversary, keeping the “calm” period of Chad and Abigail’s relationship interesting, and Billy’s desire to showcase love among friends and family.
Days of our Lives has been on fire since the summer, mostly thanks to the writing of new head writer Ron Carlivati and team Sheri Anderson Thomas and Ryan Quan, so fans were super excited for this year’s event.
Like every year, the complimentary event was set for 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and offered fans the chance to meet and greet their favorite DAYS cast members including Lucas Adams (Tripp), Kristian Alfonso (Hope), Lamon Archey (Eli), Camila Banus (Gabi), Nadia Bjorlin (Chloe), Bryan Dattilo (Lucas), Kassie DePavia (Eve), Judi Evans (Adrienne/Bonnie), Mary Beth Evans (Kayla), Billy Flynn (Chad), Galen Gering (Rafe), Deidre Hall (Marlena), Bill Hayes (Doug), Susan Hayes (Julie), Drake Hogestyn (John), Olivia Keegan (Claire), Lauren Koslow (Kate), Eric Martsolf (Brady), Chandler Massey (Will), Marci Miller (Abigail), Casey Moss (JJ), Stephen Nichols (Steve), Thaao Penghlis (Andre), James Reynolds (Abe), Suzanne Rogers (Maggie), Meredith Scott Lynn (Anne), Christopher Sean (Paul), Freddie Smith (Sonny), Sal Stowers (Lani), and Vanessa Williams (Valerie) for autograph signings and Q&A sessions.
TV Source Magazine was on-hand talking to all the stars in the hopes of bringing you some scoop. Most of these interviews are not spoiler heavy, as actors are limited in what they can reveal about upcoming plots. But it’s nice to hear their insight about current and previous stories, as well as other tidbits.
We hope you’ll enjoy our interview with Billy Flynn and Marci Miller.
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Congratulations on your one-year anniversary on the show, Marci! How has your life changed since coming to Days of our Lives?
Marci Miller: You have an expectation of what something is going to be when you come into a place. There’s a lot of different insecurities that I had coming into this because I was coming from the indie film world, and daytime requires a different thing from a person. I felt like I needed to fit into a specific mold when I came here to the soap world. I was insecure, and I felt strange. But now that I’m here, I realize I’m amongst friends and good people and I have found my footing; I feel more confident and grounded. I feel great, I feel grateful.
Billy Flynn: Worst year of my life. Let me just say.
Marci: He says that with a big smile on his face.
Billy: Yeah with a big smile on my face.
It’s been a busy year for Chad and Abigail, but things have recently calmed for the couple as of late. What can we expect for you two coming up?
Billy: Actually, some of my favorite moments are when things are calm. I remember someone said, “When a couple is happy, it’s like the kiss of soap death.” But for me, especially as an actor, it’s easy to make fans interested when you are going through this angsty sort of love storyline where I’m chasing her, saving her kind of thing. My favorite thing with what’s airing now as an actor was to keep fans interested with a couple that’s happy. By that I mean coming up with ways, like couple-ly things that are so subtle to keep fans interested, like doing a high five that people in a relationship does, we started dancing a lot.
Marci: Yeah you initiated that.
Billy: Stuff that couples really do and that was interesting as an actor to go, “How do we make these scenes that are seemingly about nothing, interesting for fans to watch and interesting enough to talk about?” Like a scene that played the other day where I was hiring you, remember when I was like, “I’m going to ravish you.” I feel like people are afraid on soaps of looking ugly or sounding weird and I remember doing a “rawr” on your neck because it’s like a real thing, those moments have been my actual favorite. We get to be a couple, and showing that you are in love with someone when you are happy is harder than showing me bursting into this building to save you.
Speaking of moments – one of the great recent ones you had Billy were the involving the wedding and your interaction with Andre. Chad’s become such a family man, even his relationship with Theo. Is that something that is important to you?
Billy: Absolutely, [ever] since I took over the part. Casey Deidrick did such an amazing job with the part. But since I took over, it was important for me to show Chad’s relationship with his friends and his family. With Sonny, for example, I always try to kiss him. It’s the little things we can do that maybe change something. For me, I wanted to show that you could be a straight man, a straight character with a gay friend and you can show affection and love him. And it’s okay. I’m always trying to kiss him on the mouth, things like that, you can love your friends. Maybe some of our audience in America doesn’t feel that way.
With Andre and Theo, it’s the same kind of thing, and that’s kudos to Thaao [Penghlis] and Kyler [Pettis]. Thaao is amazing, a scene that stands out is the one where he gives me the watch. And Thaao takes his character, from a character that’s almost hated and built it into a character with so much heart and love. I feel like some people may not think it’s okay, especially with male family members to show affection and love, especially with Theo, I wanted to show a love. A real, honest love, almost like “This Is Us” to have a relationship that’s an unconventional family, you can still show the love in between them. I grew up in the Midwest and I have unconventional family and I wanted to show that love is okay.
Days of our Lives airs weekdays on NBC. Episodes are available online at NBC.com.
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