Getting flack about her Days of our Lives character’s misdeeds was one thing, but when the nastiness turned toward her personally, Camila Banus (Gabi) took a stand against Twitter haters.
“I had to protect myself. That’s just the way that I deal with it,” says Banus. “I am very vocal on social media. So I cry. I also did a live [feed], generally talking about and explaining what [the negative comments] meant to me. Gabi’s name can be attached to them, but I don’t think that my name needs to be attached to them… And those comments that were completely negative started making people talking even worse to me.”
Camila Banus: Stop Right There
It simply became a case of too much and taking things too far. “I already have to read negative content about my storyline,” explains Banus. “Every day I’m dealing with Gabi being negative or being mean or being this or that, and I get it. It’s horrible, but that’s my job. I already have to deal with eight hours or 12 hours of that [on set]. I don’t want to come home and read negative things, too.”
Banus had previously thought of Twitter as a respite, of sorts, a place where she could go “to relax, to read funny things, to learn about other things…” she continues. “I just didn’t want that to be a negative space for me.”
Calling Out Days of our Lives Trolls
Nevertheless, Banus realizes “I can’t make anybody do anything. People can continue to write whatever they want.” Yet, she does have a way of dealing with them.
“You get trolls, every day. And I spotlight trolls. I love doing that,” she says. “Sometimes I’ll take people that are obsessively mean and take screenshots of how mean they’re being and put it on my page.
“Because if you’re going to go out there and be mean like that, I’m going to advertise it… Advertise what you’re doing to me. That’s how I’m protecting myself. I spotlight people who aren’t acting right, and they get even more mad. They get more humiliated and they should be because that is terrible.”
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Bad Gabi Rules
The nastiness, however, won’t stop Camila Banus from playing bad Gabi to the fullest. “I’m hoping we continue to let Gabi have a backbone,” says the actress. “I was tired of her crying all the time.”
Banus acknowledges that it totally makes sense that Gabi would turn bad, after everything that’s happened to her and want to inflict some payback on others.
“Enough is enough,” asserts Banus. “Gabi’s ready to balance the scales because so much has been thrown on her plate.”
A Mini Kate DiMera
Camila Banus never envisioned sweet Gabi turning so mean and devious, but she does relish playing it.
“During the nine years that I’ve been on the show, I’ve been asked a lot of really good questions in interviews,” she recounts. “And one of the questions that I liked to be asked was, ‘Whose storyline would you like to do?’ Or ‘What actor would you like to work with that you have never worked with?’ For years I would say Lauren Koslow. Little did I know I’d be turning into a little Lauren Koslow, a mini Kate DiMera.
“For me, it was awesome,” Banus continues. “They started doing that little by little with the Nick storyline. And then incorporating [Kate into it]. I don’t have a mother figure. She’s been one for Gabi. So for me, developing that [side of Gabi]… I loved it. I pushed into it. I fed into it.
“I think mean Gabi brings a whole new level of realness. She says the things that everyone else is afraid to say. She says the things people are thinking as an audience member watching the show. She’s not afraid to go there. She’s not afraid to go anywhere, because she’s been taken down a path of no return.” Days of our Lives (DOOL) airs weekdays on NBC. Check your local listings for airtimes.
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