AnnaLynne McCord Opens up About Who She's Really Playing on DAYS

When AnnaLynne McCord joined the cast of Days of Our Lives , she appeared to be Abigail Deveraux back from the dead. However, it soon became clear that she was actually someone else entirely only pretending to be Abigail to get at Chad’s money. And that proved to be very tricky for the actress to navigate.

“It was very confusing in the beginning, but I thankfully had Billy [Flynn, Chad] to kind of lead the dynamic,” McCord admitted to TV Insider . “There was a conversation of, ‘Would I really be Abigail Deveraux?’ So I had to walk the line a little bit and keep a very neutral energy with her in the beginning because we didn’t know. Then it became clear that I was definitely not going to stay Abigail, and that’s when I let her organically play off of Billy’s energy.”

That energy was crucial in the emotional scenes where the truth about “Abigail” identity was revealed during her wedding to Chad in Paris. “Something magical happens when you work with actors who just show up, like the way Billy does,” she explained. “He does it with a really raw emotion because it’s instinctual in process versus beat for beat. I was really crying, like, AnnaLynne was crying. I was like, ‘God, this is so heavy,’ and the body doesn’t know the difference. It’s very real.

“I’m looking in this man’s eyes and he’s lost the love of his life again, and he’s not angry at first, he’s devastated,” she continued. “And then at the end [of the scenes], I was like, ‘We have to hug and make up because I feel like it just ruined your actual life.’ And he said, ‘It’s not real, we’re acting.’ But it was very emotional and it was genuine reaction. The crew was clapping because they felt it, too.”

Now that she’s no longer trying to be Abigail, the former mystery woman is finally free to fully embrace her true identity (which we won’t spoil for you here, but it’s going to tie her to other characters on the canvas!) and McCord is free to develop a whole new character. “Once that big reveal happens and the details start to play out, you do get to really experience Cat and her dynamic with her family and what her siblings mean to her,” she previewed. “I felt like there was a lot of seriousness to everything and maybe this character can bring a little lightness and joy.”

But there are still even more twists and turns ahead, so stay tuned!