The Real Reason Jackée Harry Is On DAYS — ‘I’m in Love with James’

In a recent interview on a local Los Angeles news affiliate, Days of our Lives duo Jackée Harry and James Reynolds talked about the streaming success of the Peacock series. The chat also included working together, the training ground label slapped on soaps, and the process of memorizing scripts. One of the two actually has a photographic memory.

Paulina and Abe For DAYS

Harry (find out more about her here) and Reynolds currently have a dramatic storyline on DAYS. As Mayor Paulina Price and her loving yet memory-challenged husband Abe Carver (he has amnesia), the two are dealing with Paulina’s health crisis. Right after her successful thyroid cancer surgery, the character experienced a heart attack. The damage to Paulina’s heart is so bad, she may need a heart transplant in the near future.

When Harry and Reynolds stopped by KTLA, Los Angeles’ local CW affiliate, they touched on Paulina being sick. But they also took the opportunity to bask in the show’s streaming success. “I think everybody’s a little surprised,” Reynolds told KTLA’s entertainment anchor Sam Rubin. “Because nobody knew how this was going to work.”

Without being prompted, Harry expressed her gratitude for her co-star, saying he’s the reason she’s on DAYS. “I’m in love with James,” she laughed.

“He’s charismatic,” Harry continued. “What did Zendaya call it? The ‘rizz.‘ He’s got the ‘rizz.'”

It was clear Harry and Reynolds not only enjoyed working together but also are proud of the work they do. In fact, Reynolds’ response to people saying soaps provide great training, was to highlight the veterans who stick around and put the work in. “I do take some exception to the training line,” Reynolds started. “I’ve been doing this a little bit longer than a day. Great veterans like Jackée and Bill Hayes (Doug Williams), who just passed away,…we have tremendous veteran actors who have done Broadway and film and nighttime TV. It’s all acting.”

Some say soap acting has its monumental challenges like memorizing 30-40 pages a day. “Now we move faster. [Film] two and three different shows in a day,” said Harry, who feels it’s a gift that she actually has a photographic memory.

And they do this all in the brave new world of streaming TV, where actors are a little freer with what they can say than on broadcast daytime television. “And we’ve seen that reflected in the scripts we’re getting and the shows we’re getting,” Reynolds explained before joking that he and Harry, “we’re actually doing an 8-hour sex session.”

“Well, it ain’t me, because I can’t last,” laughed Harry. “Oh, I’m sorry!”