Her DAYS character has done and will probably continue to do reprehensible things – don’t count Jan Spears out just yet, supposed drowning or no supposed drowning – but Heather Lindell isn’t being recognized as Soap Hub’s Performer of the Week for the crimes that her alter ego has committed. Instead, the kudos are due Lindell for her ability to entertain in spite of Jan’s villainy.
Lindell works best when she has a prop to play off of or the freedom to let a facial tick or a body movement do the talking for her.
Take for instance the pose she adopted to illustrate her point that she would have stood by Shawn Brady (Brandon Beemer) at Abigail Deveraux DiMera’s (Marci Miller) gravesite were it not for her pesky ankle monitor. Lindell crooked her leg, presented her foot ever so daintily, and emphasized the device with an outstretched hand as if she were a model presenting a prize on The Price Is Right.
And Jan’s desperate attempt to relay Shawn’s passcode to her partner-in-crime stands as another perfect example. When Milo Harp, alias Orpheus (George DelHoyo), expressed incredulity at said passcode containing a so-called “smiley emoji”, an equally incredulous Jane doubled down, and Lindell went to the trouble of tilting her head to the side and taking on the symbol’s grinning visage.
“You mean a colon and a closed parenthesis?” Orpheus wondered. “Yea, that.” Jan answered, adding, “The curvy one at the end, not the curvy one at the beginning.”
To be on the safe side, Orpheus wondered if the “smiley face” was winking. Lindell considered the question long and hard, closed one eyelid, gave a little more consideration, then declared authoritatively, “I’m positive. No winks.”
Lindell also has the ability to make a meal out of any and every line of dialogue; the sillier – “There is no way I am going to become Mrs. Jan Spears Frears. I am destined to become Jan Brady.” – the better.
Best of all, Lindell is game to perform even the most outrageous of tasks like tossing a baby blanket full of fruit into the air in the hopes of putting the fear of God into her would-be-hostage or duke it out with her archrival while armed with a ship’s oar.
Whatever DAYS throws her way, Heather Lindell will always rise to the occasion, the mark of a true performer.
Days of our Lives (DOOL) airs weekdays on NBC. Check your local listings for airtimes. For more about what’s coming up in Salem, check out all the latest that’s been posted on DAYS spoilers, and for an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.
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