Days of our Lives Star Julie Dove Compares Connie to Sami Brady and Misery’s Kathy Bates

Anyone who thought Connie, played by Julie Dove, was a mere meddlesome busybody got a big awakening in today’s Days of our Lives episode. Soap Hub sat down with Dove to talk about the big moment that revealed Connie is someone who means business!

Living in Misery

Viewers saw that Connie — who apologized to Melinda (Tina Huang) for Li’s (Remington Hoffman) death — flash back to her doing the killing! What? Clearly, there’s more to Connie than meets the eye!

Now that we know that Connie is more than a meddling gossip, we had to ask on who she is basing this deeper, darker version of her character? “When I first got the scripts and saw this new side of Connie, I went back to watch Misery [with Oscar-winner] Kathy Bates and her performance as Annie Wilkes,” Dove tells Soap Hub.

“Annie Wilkes is such an interesting, layered character and I think Connie has many layers,” the actress continues, previewing, “We will see [that] play out over the course of [the] story. I also took inspiration from Alison Sweeney’s portrayal of Sami Brady in that she knows what she wants, she believes what she wants is completely justified. Sami always has a plan, and she will do anything it takes to get her desired result!”

Dove is pretty smart to draw on such two iconic characters to help her flesh out Connie. However, she admits to being a bit shocked at the twist that the writers had devised. “When I got the first script, I was like, ‘oh my gosh!'” Dove shares. “it’s a great challenge as an actor to play this.”

Given the violent nature of Connie’s act against Li, Dove says the show had a stunt coordinator work with her. She also had a fake knife that she held as well as a real one that looked more menacing.

“I did my best,” she says. “There’s a lot of physicality involved.” Not only is Dove getting physical on the show, but she’s also playing someone who steps outside of the law. “I didn’t know I was going to do all this and someone at the show said to me, ‘Yeah, this is what you sign up for when you’re on a soap opera,'” Dove chuckles.

While Dove may be drawing on Bates for character development, she also feels like another Oscar winner given the lovely response she’s received from her DAYS colleagues. “I told them that they made me feel like Sally Field (Places in the Heart) when she said in her [second] Oscar speech, ‘You like me! You really like me!'”

As for what’s next and what was Connie’s motivation for killing Li, Dove teases that more will be revealed. “There’s more to come,” she previews. “More questions and more answers!”