ICYMI: DAYS Newcomer Marci Miller Tracks Her Path To Salem

Marci Miller was first exposed to the arts by her mother, Karen, who would take her and sister Kayla to plays throughout their childhood. At the time, the family didn’t have much, but enriching the girls’ lives through the arts remained a priority. “We grew up in a single parent household and didn’t have tons of money,” says Miller. “I remember being in high school and every so often, our lights would be off, or our water would be off, but dangit, we had season tickets to the regional theater down the street. My mom had so much of an influence in that. What was cool about it in retrospect is that I learned that art and all this creative stuff isn’t necessarily for people who have money and can afford it; art is something everybody needs. This is something that should be a component of life regardless of your circumstances. So at the time when I couldn’t take a shower, I used to be so frustrated sometimes like, ‘Man, mom, what are you thinking? This is so irresponsible.’ But now I realize, gosh, she gave me the biggest gift.”

Though Miller studied ballet and took part in productions, “I was a shy kid in a lot of ways,” she shares. It wasn’t until she appeared in Godspell in high school that her talent became apparent. “My mom didn’t know I could sing. Nobody knew I could sing or do anything, and I remember that because she was like, ‘Marci, you’re like 16 and I didn’t know that you even liked these things.’ ”

When she went to Bethel College, Miller had a backup plan in medicine. “I was studying nursing, and I was taking intro to nursing and anatomy, and then everything else was all music and theater classes,” she says. “I took private voice lessons, and that professor, a year-and-a-half into college, sat me down and said, ‘Hey, I think you need to reconsider what you’re pursuing, because either a) you’re never going to get out of college because you’re not studying nursing, and b) I think you could actually make a career out of this.’ ”

Miller switched her major to voice performance — “Looking back, I wish I had studied theater” — and during one memorable presentation, she got a very big surprise from her future husband, Ryan Matteson. “At the end of the year, I had to do a big recital,” she recalls. “I didn’t invite anyone. I felt ill-prepared for a variety of reasons, and just wanted to do it as part of the requirement to get done with school. I showed up and everybody was there, Ryan’s family, my family. The recital was being recorded. At the end, Ryan came onstage and proposed to me. It was very sweet.”

Miller admits she hadn’t been thinking of tying the knot so young. “I wasn’t ready to process something like that,” she explains. “All of a sudden, he was proposing to me and I had these thoughts in my head, ‘Oh my gosh, what’s going on? Am I ready for this? I’m so young, should I answer yes?’ It just became very, very clear [that Ryan was the one for me]. I think I’ve learned more after we got married how right we are for each other. Ryan is the best. He’s such a magnetic personality and he cares so much about people. If you meet him, he wants to know about you, and what everybody else has going on. He’s just a fun, loving personality.”

After finishing school, the duo spent “a very quick minute” in Kentucky, then headed for Hollywood. “I was doing some stage theater and it was great. I was working in a restaurant, I was making $300 a week, I was doing really, really well,” she recalls. “There was a gentleman working in a restaurant with me by the name of Jon Lee Cope, who I adore, and he came and saw my play and said, ‘You should move to L.A.’ I had never even entertained the idea of moving to Los Angeles or pursuing a film or television career — I totally thought I would work in regional theater for my life — but then as soon as he said that, I came home and talked to my husband. I said, ‘Jon Lee Cope thinks I need to move to L.A.,’ and he said, ‘Well, I guess let’s save up and move in eight months,’and we did. So, it’s as simple as that.”

The move out West took some getting used to, Miller admits. “I think it took me a few years to really, really adapt,” she reflects. “When I first moved out here, I got right into an acting class and that was very helpful. I met some of my best friends that are still my best friends in this city, but it took two or three years before I really felt at home here, I think.”

Eventually, she snagged some work on the indie circuit. “The first thing I did that I really, really loved was called Dog Bowl. It was just a short film, but it went to Sundance last year and got a lot of really great attention,” she relays. “There’s a feature called American Fable and that just premiered at South By Southwest this year and it actually just got picked up by IFC, so it will get a theatrical release early next year, which is really amazing. I did shoot a remake of Death Race 2000 that will come out next year, Death Race 2050, and then I’m in the new Children of the Corn movie. That’ll come out next year, too.”

Getting cast on DAYS as Abigail was, as Miller puts it, “so, so awesome.” She wasn’t completely unfamiliar with Salem — her mother was a casual viewer over the years. “There was a summer where she did watch DAYS every day, and it was whenever Marlena was captured by Stefano, so I remember having that on in the living room. It’s weird how life is cyclical like that,” she muses. “These things come in and then they go away for a minute and then they come back. It’s bizarre and very cool.”

JUST THE FACTS

Birthday: August 2

Hails From: North Liberty, IN. “It’s 1,500 people, but really sweet.”

Let Me Call You Sweetheart: Married to Ryan Matteson. “He runs a business called KaleCart [kalecart.com]. He partners with small farms in Southern California and runs an organic [food] delivery business in downtown Los Angeles.”

Sibling Revelry: Miller has a younger sister named Kayla. Yes, she was named after the popular DAYS character played by Mary Beth Evans. “I didn’t even know until I was already on the show. My mom said, ‘Yeah, your sister’s actually named after Kayla Brady,’ and I was like, ‘What! Are you kidding me?’ ”

Adult Education: Attended Bethel College, a small liberal arts college in Mishawaka, IN.

Room Mates: “My dressing room is in between Jordi Vilasuso [Dario] and Greg Vaughan [Eric]. Two very nice people.”

Get Set: “Camila [Banus, Gabi] and Sal [Stowers, Lani] are the people that I’ve hung out with outside of work most. I adore Casey Moss [JJ], and Billy [Flynn, Chad] is so great, too. I really love Jordi;  he’s really cool.”

Because her mother had been a fan of the show, Miller was familiar with the faces when she got to the set. “Kristian Alfonso [Hope] was actually the first person I met,” she recalls. “I was doing a walk-through and I was upstairs sitting by a desk getting my first DAYS script. She came through and she was discussing the way something was written in the script, and I remember in that moment looking at her and thinking, ‘Oh, my goodness. This is the woman I remember watching. I always thought she was this beautiful, incredible woman and now I’m sitting here and I’m going to get to work with her, and not only that, she’s like actually really invested in this and working really hard and cares about the work.’ It was a cool moment. But then, of course, seeing Deidre Hall [Marlena] and Missy Reeves [Jennifer] was a big deal. My mom always loved Missy Reeves and she loved Mary Beth Evans [Kayla].”

DID YOU KNOW?
• The actress has run in four 26-mile marathons.
• She’s a four-time state spelling champ dating back to her school years.
• She lived in Paris for two months.