How Days of Our Lives’ Raven Bowens Interpreted the Character of Faith

As the Body & Soul soap-within-a-soap storyline draws near to its conclusion on Days of Our Lives, fans have been divided. Whether it was met with a collective groan from the viewers or embraced as a clever story that hadn’t been done before on daytime, the actors gave it their all. Raven Bowens, who plays Chanel playing Faith on B&S, explained her approach to this new character.

Old-School Meets New-School

Bowens sat down with Soap Opera Digest and explained her rationale. She went old-school and wanted to play her character as if it were a “traditional soap opera.” So she came up with an approach to the character that no one expected: “I wanted Faith to feel not current. I wanted her to feel like she was from before. So I tried to give her a Southern accent and make her into a Southern belle.”

She didn’t let anyone know that she would be putting on the accent, and when she did the cast and crew were at first surprised but then loved it. Even Robert Scott Wilson, who plays Alex playing Faith’s tumultuous love interest Arrow, was taken aback when she unleashed her new dialect for Faith. “Oh, that was really cool,” was his initial reaction.

READ THIS: Find out about the wild drama coming in Salem’s future.

She Had Faith in Faith’s Look

Bowens continued by explaining the reaction she got from Faith’s new accent: “So people were not expecting it. I don’t even know if I was expecting it! But it came out and it flowed.” She didn’t come up with her unique approach to Faith at the onset, but after working with Richard Bloore, the DAYS costume designer, his choice of sundresses (which the script called for) jumpstarted her vision of the character. She wanted to ensure that Faith had a look that was more distinct from Chanel.

“The options that he was bringing in, because his vision was old school soap and my vision was Southern belle, we kind of blended those two,” she explained, remarking that, “We created her look.” While there wasn’t a lot of time to do Faith’s hair the way Bowens wanted it, she was ultimately satisfied with her new character’s look which made it appear that she suddenly came from out of the past into Salem. (Check out how Wilson stays fit.)