How Days of Our Lives Star Camila Banus Got Gabi’s Groove Back

This year, Camila Banus is celebrating 10 years playing Gabi Hernandez on Days of Our Lives. The character wasn’t always the straight-shooting, biting, go-getter we know and love her as today. It turns out there was a catalyst that turned Gabi into the scene-stealing dynamo who steamrolls over her rivals that she is now.

Camila Banus On That Big Gabi Moment

At a recent press conference with DAYS actors that Soap Hub attended, we asked Banus when she embraced the more assertive side of her DAYS character. “There was one moment,” Banus recollects. “It was the moment — excuse my language — when she got the [expletive] beat out of her in prison.”

Back in 2018, Gabi, who was in jail for killing Andre DiMera (a crime actually committed by Abigail DiMera) was left bloodied and battered by fellow inmate Diane (Cassandra Creech). “It was that moment when she getting beaten to a pulp that she realized that no one was going to come for her. No one was going to save her. She was alone in the world.

“That’s when she realized that she had to fend for herself,” the actress adds. “And she had to do so with her claws out!”

Taking a more pro-active approach to her life doesn’t mean that Gabi still can’t be vulnerable, Camila Banus points out. “It’s not that you don’t have the same range, but you get to play in a world that has different levels,” she says. “You can go on so many different routes.”

One of those routes that Banus gets to play is comedy. “You get to bring in more comedy, as well as sarcasm, irony, and dark comedy that can sometimes be lacking in certain dramatic settings,” the fan-favorite adds.

Later this week, Gabi’s set to make her intentions clear to Jake (Brandon Barash). Clearly, Kate (Lauren Koslow), Jake’s current squeeze, will face a formidable rival in Gabi should she want to reclaim her place in Jake’s life! Stay tuned to see what happens! Days of Our Lives airs weekdays on NBC. Check local listings for airtimes.