the doctor is IN

Deidre Hall Marks 5,000 Episodes As DAYS’s Marlena Evans.

- Stephanie Sloane

Soap Opera Digest: Congratulations on marking 5,000 episodes! What does it mean to you? 

Deidre Hall: It’s stunning and I’m so grateful. For a long time, I wanted a home, and here it is.

Digest: After all these years, what do you like about Marlena?

Hall: Oh, Marlena is easy. Marlena has a small handful of fierce qualities that are loyalty, compassion, understanding, patience and generosity, which is exactly what you want in a friend, a mom, a therapist, a neighbor. She’s there, she just shows up.

Digest: What don’t you like about Marlena?

Hall: That she is so even. I don’t really get to play the extreme highs and lows of a situation. But then you’ve got Hattie and then you’ve got possession, so I’ve had a chance to play all of it.

Digest: How is the Marlena we’re seeing today different from the Marlena you began playing in 1976?

Hall: I don’t know that she is different. Once again, it’s back to those five qualities and what she values in her life, and the people she values. She’s unwavering. She really hasn’t changed and that’s what we like about her. She is a predictable friend, and you know what you’ll get when you go there. I think it’s what the audience likes about her. I had so much mail, especially from [Will’s] coming-out story: “If I could just get to Marlena, I know she’d understand.” Oh, it makes me cry. People are hungry for a person in their lives that accepts them, that loves them, that celebrates them regardless of what they bring to the party and that’s who Marlena is.