Days of our Lives viewers were hit with another storyline shocker when they learned Adrienne is dead and Justin has moved on – with Kayla. The latest time jump twist stunned actors Wally Kurth (Justin) and Mary Beth Evans (Mary Beth Evans), too.
Out of Nowhere
“I never [envisioned this],” says Evans. “That’s what’s so interesting because I have known Wally since like 1987. But [playing this] was completely different. And also, for both of us, we’ve been basically with one other character for a million years.”
Kurth was taken just as off guard, yet admits he was “excited” about his new daytime romance. “It’s a challenge,” he contends. “And all you want to do as an artist is be challenged.”
As the story began to unfold, Kurth says he saw that “the writing was good, but Mary Beth and I knew we had to help the audience as much as we could to see two people who were normally not together.”
Falling in Love On Days of our Lives
Fortunately, creating that coupling was effortless for the two actors, who already like, respect, and consider each other friends.
“I just always found Mary Beth so enchantingly sweet and funny,” notes Kurth. “Talk about a person that’s easy to love and easy to fall in love with. So that was really easy, Because, let’s face it. Some people you’re like, Geez. This is going to take some acting,” he adds with a laugh. “Instead, I could just look in her eyes; I didn’t have to even try, it was easy. So that was really fun.”
Evans felt much the same way about Kurth. “It was like a new romance, and it was very sweet,” explains Evans. “And Wally’s so dang sweet anyway. He’s a good guy… and happy. He’s a dream.”
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With A Little Laughter
Although, in the beginning, Evans admits it was a tad odd doing the lovey-dovey scenes with Kurth. “I mean, we laughed, because it was funny,” she notes, reflecting back to another surprise DAYS romance she once was thrown into.
“The first time I ever had to do that was with Charlie Shaughnessy [ex-Shane] after Stephen [Nichols; ex-Steve] left the first time. Oh my God. I was hysterically laughing, any time Charlie tried to kiss me. I was also younger and immature. We were walking out to our cars one day, and he said, ‘Seriously, you’ve got to stop laughing. You’re giving me a complex. And I was like, ‘Oh, okay.’ But it was just so funny.”
Now, years wiser, Evans is approaching things differently. “This whole thing is super fun, super different,” says Evans. “And they really wrote [the situation] and us as grown-ups about it all. Our reactions to things are really cool. It’s all very natural. It’s almost like a ‘How did this happen?’ kind of thing.”
Justin And Kayla: A Second, Sweeter Take
Kurth points out that he and Evans actually have worked together romantically before, as Ned and Katherine on General Hospital. “It was harder… and a little weird because the Katherine character was sort of unlikable,” recounts Kurth. “Also Ned was really in love with Lois, so he was being sort of manipulated by Katherine and never really had a thing for her. It was a setup.”
The duo’s pairing on DAYS is completely different. “This is a really sweet thing where they fall in love,” Kurth continues. “You don’t really see it, because it’s all in flashbacks. The moment you see them together, they’re already in the relationship for like six months. So it’s going to be hard for the audience. We have to play like we’re six months comfortable. But the audience is going to be like, ‘What?!’”
But courtesy of a lot of flashbacks, viewers will eventually learn what happened to Adrienne and how Justin and Kayla ended up together. All of which Evans promises is “really interesting. It’s a really fun arc and really different.” Days of our Lives (DOOL) airs weekdays on NBC. Check your local listings for airtimes.
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