Like shattered glass, the mental stability of Days of our Lives character Abigail Deveraux continues to crack, creating a kaleidoscope of wonderful colors and moments for viewers of the NBC soap opera. First came her seductive alter ego Gabby, then came detached Dr. Laura. There's no telling if head writer Ron Carlivati has created more personalities for Jack and Jennifer's daughter, but thus far, the journey has been the holy grail of stories for Abigail's portrayer, Marci Miller.
The actress, who was recently nominated in the Outstanding Lead Actress category for the 2018 Daytime Emmy Awards, can't believe her good fortune and is thrilled to bring the dissociative identity disorder (DID) storyline to life -- even if it meant doing a little stalking of a co-star to get it right.
"Oh, my goodness, I can't believe [I'm getting to play this storyline]! It's like one thing after another falls into your lap that you could only hope for or only imagine, and this is one of them," she tells Soap Central. "I had no idea how significant it was going to be when I was first told. They said, 'You're going to be playing a little bit of a Gabi character.' That's kind of what I was told, so I needed to start paying attention to Gabi and notice things about [Gabi's portrayer] Camilla Banus and that sort of thing. So, I did a little bit of that, but I had no idea to what degree we were going to take it."
In fact, Miller was kept in the dark almost as much as fans when it came to this complex storyline, for which she says she's actually quite grateful.
"I found out I was going to be having another alter, and these were just little tidbits that would get whispered in my ear in between scenes or as I was walking out the door at the end of the day, so I didn't see it coming," she explains. "In some ways, I think that's great, because I think had they told me up-front, 'Okay, you're going to have multiple personalities, it's going to go on for several months, you're going to be characters talking to other characters and characters that are pretending to be other characters,' I probably would have been crazy overwhelmed! But the fact that they just gave me a little piece of it at a time was probably intentional and really smart."
As for sinking her teeth into this wondrous storyline opportunity, Miller explains it has been a dream come true -- especially as it has given her the perfect chance to show her skills as a multifaceted actress.
"I've been having a ball," she gushes. "I don't usually get cast [for characters like these]. I look the way I look, and I have the essence that I have, so it's not very often that people look at me and say, 'Oh, we want to cast you as the super sensual, devious dark person.' I've always been the nice girl -- always! So, it's cool for me to get to show that I can do other things and I can have fun doing other things. So, I'm very grateful to Ron Carlivati for entrusting me with that."
Have you been enjoying DAYS' dissociative identity disorder storyline? What moments have been your favorite? What elements, if any, would you change? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
