AnnaLynne McCord on Her ‘Days of Our Lives’ Character: “Maybe She IS Abigail… But She Wouldn’t Tell Me!” (EXCLUSIVE)
Why this Chabby mystery got ‘confusing’ - plus she opens up about the dissociative identity disorder she shares with Abby
Is AnnaLynne McCord really playing Days of Our Lives‘ once-again resurrected Abigail Deveraux DiMera… and if not, who IS she playing? That’s become a complicated question.
Here, McCord, 37, talks to Woman’s World about her mysterious new character and working with Chad’s portrayer Billy Flynn to honor the “Chabby” history. The former vixen of the series Nip/Tuck (Eden Lord), 90210 (Naomi Clark) and Dallas also teases just how long Day of Our Lives viewers will have to wait to find out what’s going on with Dr. Greene’s “sis” – who has also been called nuAbby, notAbby, and Marin.
Plus, as someone who’s been open about her own dissociative identity disorder (DID), McCord gets candid about how she feels about sharing that diagnosis with Abigail DiMera and the way DID is portrayed in soap operas.
AnnaLynne McCord talks Days of Our Lives’ Abigail and who exactly she’s playing
AnnaLynne McCord has been starring on Days of Our Lives since June, and yet her character remains a total enigma. That’s because after she finally took a DNA test that proved she was Abigail, viewers learned Dr. Greene had meddled with that test… and then he called her “sis!” But does that really prove she’s NOT Abigail?
“She might not be Abigail… but this is where, talking amongst ourselves, we started to think maybe she IS Abigail, but she’s being told that she’s not,” hedges McCord. “Maybe she doesn’t remember. There are so many questions still!”
By “we” McCord means the Days of Our Lives cast. When they shot the current episodes around six months ago, they were as in the dark as viewers are now – and just like viewers, they love to speculate!
“We all meet in the corridors between dressing rooms and talk about what might be happening or what we think could transpire between whom,” McCord shares. “This is Days of Our Lives, so every day is something new. But whatever happens as the characters evolve, it’s always the community of Days – and that makes this job so fun.”
Honoring Chad and Abigail… even if she’s not Abby
When McCord first signed onto the role, the going theory on set was that she was probably playing Abigail. Marin, the name used in her screentest, was always just a cover. But then the end of the WGA strike led to a string of behind-the-scenes shakeups – which in turn led the story to zig and zag even as she and Billy Flynn, who plays Abigail’s other half Chad, were trying to make sense of it.
“Billy would be like, ‘How am I supposed to play this?’ and I’d be like, ‘Hey, I’m leaning on you, buddy,’” McCord recalls with a laugh. “It was confusing, but I love working with him. He filled me in on the details that were coming out about Abigail, the Devereaux family, or whatever else came up to help me make sense of what I was doing.
“Because Chad and Abigail are such a beloved couple, we don’t want to take away from the experience of the viewers,” she continues. “So we all worked together every day to play the most realistic response to a scenario that no one fully understood – except, apparently, my character, but she wouldn’t tell me!”
While McCord can’t spill all the beans yet, she notes her character does not seem to be having any fun with her machinations.
“Whatever’s going on, she’s not an EJ DiMera,” she cracks, referencing one of the show’s darkest schemers. “She seems like a genuine person under quite a bit of duress, and that builds.”
Why soaps don’t get dissociative identity disorder (DID) right
Whether or not she’s playing Abigail, McCord shares a dissociative identity disorder (DID) —or a condition that causes a person to have multiple distinct personality identities that control their behavior at different times—diagnosis with that beloved Salem local. Having reached fusion – which means her parts have come back together – the actress is game to help the show explore DID, again.
“I would absolutely embrace it, because I could allow other individuals who live with DID to feel really seen – perhaps for the first time in the industry,” she says. “I could have fun with something that was a lifesaving element of my existence, but also a difficult thing to live with, while also bringing truth to it.”
While the soaps are known for doing their research, it’s hard to find accurate information about DID, which means they often get it wrong – and not just for dramatic purposes. Now, Days of Our Lives has its own on-set expert.
“Abigail’s DID actually came up on the show and it was referred to as ‘multiple personalities,’” McCord shares. “I was like, ‘Guys, please don’t use this term. This is what we’re trying to get away from, because it has created stigma.’ And there was absolute receptivity to hearing why that was important.”
Fighting to end sex trafficking
McCord, who was jetting off to lead a spiritual retreat in Egypt right after we spoke with her, is no stranger to activism and speaking out.
She has been involved in the fight against human trafficking since she was 17 and today, her organization Love Storm hosts mass meditations around the world to help raise awareness and funds for AFESIP Cambodia, an organization that cares for and protects women and children victimized by or at risk of human trafficking and sex slavery.
“We’re ending slavery from the inside out, and we’re making this a personal journey for supporters and donors by making it an individualized spiritual experience,” says McCord, whose activism ultimately led her to realize she had blocked out her own childhood abuse.
“In the darker moments in my life, this work has given me so many reasons to keep going,” she shares. “It was also my saving grace, because when I had to check out of life and go through trauma care for what I remembered, I got on a one-way flight to Cambodia and the girls that I helped put through college for psychology were my 24/7 care. So this is just a huge part of my life.”
Goodbye blonde vixen, hello quirky Days of Our Lives blonde beauty!
Having worked through all this trauma and spent 22 years playing bad girls like Nip/Tuck’s demented Eden and 90210 queen bee Naomi, McCord is enjoying getting to play the puppet on Days of Our Lives instead of puppeteer.
“I was homeschooled my entire education, from K through 12, so I didn’t know I would have been a popular girl,” explains the beauty, who also didn’t quite get it when a casting director told her she just looked too much like a mean girl (spelled with a B!) to play anything else.
“I was a weird little math nerd and I’m still into weird things,” she continues, “so now, I’m infusing a little quirkiness – which I have as AnnaLynne – into my character. I’m pulling from Goldie Hawn and Meg Ryan of the ‘90s. You love those characters… but they’re a little off! That’s been fun, because I’ve always played the one pulling the strings.”
When will the truth about “Abigail” finally come out?
As for how long Days of Our Lives viewers will have to wait to figure out what’s going on with her character – let alone whether she’s the woman once played by Marci Miller and Daytime Emmy-winner Kate Mansi! – McCord warns that Salem has more twists and turns in store for us.
“From week to week right now, there’s a lot of uncertainty as to where this is going to go,” McCord tells Woman’s World. “But within the next couple of months, there’s a good bit of clarity.
“Thankfully, I’ve been working at Days for nine months now,” she adds. “So I have a full sense of who my character is and am able to portray her with honesty… unless they do something wild… because this IS Days of Our Lives!”
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