Jen Lilley admits that the idea of stepping back in as DAYS’s Theresa after being gone for a year and a half was daunting. “I was worried,” she confides. Fortunately, she had a lot of support from her co-workers upon her return to the set. “Albert Alarr [co-executive producer] and Stuart Howard, our stage manager, and Fran [Bellini De Simone] our stage manager, Eric [Martsolf, Brady], Kassie [DePaiva, Eve], Nadia [Bjorlin, Chloe], all the directors, they were all like, ‘We’re not worried,’ I was like, ‘You’re not worried? Are you sure? You want to take that back? Like, I’m gonna mess up. It’s going to be a catastrophe! I don’t know how I’m going to do this guys,’ and they were all like, ‘We’re not worried. You’re the only one that’s worried. Trust me, when the pressure comes you will deliver,’ and I’m like, ‘Okay!’ ”
But when the time came to do her first scene, “I messed up my very first sentence,” Lilley reports. “As you know, there’s no second take in soaps, but in general, if it’s the first line in any other medium you just restart, right? So I flubbed the first line and I literally just backed up and started again and they were like, ‘Oh! Whoa, what are you doing?’ and I was like, ‘Wait, what?’ They were like, ‘You’ve been on Hallmark too long. We don’t do that anymore!’ I said, ‘Right, sorry!’ I just figured since it was the first line and it totally came out wrong that I would start over. They were like, ‘This is your one freebie!’ ”
Lilley says she was eager to step back into Theresa’s shoes, and discover how her alter ego had changed in her time off the canvas. “I don’t know that it’s different, but she’s different than when she left,” observes the actress. “She’s still Theresa, but at the same time, because she’s been a victim of human trafficking and a sex slave in Mexico for a year and a half, there is a hardening to Theresa. She would still do anything for Brady and Tate and has fought to survive, and they’re the only thing that’s kept her alive for sure, but at the same time, she has built up a thick skin of like, ‘I don’t trust people,’ which is normal. There’s just a lot of psychological warfare that goes on with human trafficking. So she’s still Theresa, but she’s not as soft as when she left and she’s not as calculating as when she first arrived, so it’s kind of a mix.”
JPI
Setting Pretty: Lilley was happy to be back in the thick of things with Eric Martsolf’s Brady.
Lilley felt an obligation to make sure the darker elements of the story were properly represented. “It was challenging because I am a huge advocate to end human trafficking in real life and I study a lot on child abuse and the effects of sexual abuse on human behavior,” she explains. “I wanted to honor that, so I did feel like I had a pretty heavy mantle on my shoulders to make sure that I was trying to play that as realistically as possible.”
In her time away from the soap, the actress has done a slew of TV movies and has worked closely with the Hallmark Channel. “Honestly, they are my favorite network to work for,” she raves. “They’re so wonderful to their actors and it’s so nice to play something that is so lighthearted. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating that we’re in such a tense and unpredictable climate, politically and emotionally and financially. Our world right now is so fragile that it’s so nice to be a part of something that really is a callback to the reason entertainment began, which is to escape. I love being a part of Hallmark and being able to provide people with some sort of ‘mini-vacation’ from reality. It’s fantastic.”
Lilley recently wrapped a wedding-centric film tentatively titled I DO. “It was also with [Producer/Director/Writer] Christie Will Wolf and we are quite the item!” she reports. “We always work together because we like each other and we also rate really well every time we do a movie together. We’ve shattered numbers over and over again and so they keep us together, which is good! We just did a fourth movie together. I know Bill Abbott, who is the CEO of Hallmark, knows about it and contacted me about it, so it could be for Hallmark. My leading man was Marcus Rosner, who is such a sweet guy! He’s such a fantastic actor. He’s so hunky! He’s so handsome and he’s such a gentleman. He’s a gentleman on par with how Eric Martsolf is a gentleman and that’s a very high bar!”
90210 alum Jessica Lowndes (ex-Adrianna) also appears in the flick. “She played my nemesis in it and I was so lucky to be able to get to work with her,” Lilley smiles. “Christie and I really wanted her on the movie and we were so glad that she would do it. She is fantastic! She was like an instant best friend; I just felt like I’d known her my whole life. I’m very excited about the movie. It’s got an all-star cast and it’s really funny. Christie and I, our favorite movie is [a previous Hallmark film] DASH OF LOVE. There’s something that’s just so timeless about it and to me, it felt like such a Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan movie, who are my romantic comedy heroes. I DO, or whatever it’s going to end up being called, definitely, for me, takes the cake! I’m very excited. I think it’s going to air in June because it’s a wedding movie.”
On the personal front, Lilley and her husband, Jason, have been fostering a boy for nearly two years, and are looking to make it a more permanent situation. “Fostering is going fantastic!” she enthuses. “He turns 2 next month and I’m like, ‘This is crazy!’ I found out the Thursday before Good Friday that we are officially on the adoption track. I’m over the moon. I don’t know what this process is, obviously, since I’m new to it, but it could take months or it could take years, but I just feel so relieved. I can’t even stress the relief I feel that he’s not going to be taken from us now and that he’s going to be in a healthy house.”
Three’s Company: Lilley and hubby Jason are in the process of trying to adopt their foster son.
Though she loved being back in Salem for the short stint, balancing her work and home life proved challenging, Lilley says. “It was very difficult this time. I remember coming home a lot of days and being so tired. I said to my husband Jason, ‘Why is it so hard for me this time? I’m so exhausted.’ and he said, ‘Because we have a toddler!’ I was glad that it was only three months that I was back because I would get home every day and have to do my son’s routine until he went to bed and then I would go to bed, and then I would get up with my husband at like 2 in the morning to memorize, so that was very draining, but at the same time, so worth it. DAYS OF OUR LIVES is my family. It’s home to me.” And she would love to come back and visit soon. “I absolutely want to do it again,” she says. “I can’t wait! It’s so fun! It was just really the best time of my life.”
Baked With
Love: “You know you’re loved when Suzanne Rogers [Maggie] makes you her famous lemon squares. #Days #family,” posted Lilley from the set in January.
JUST THE FACTS
Birthday: August 4
Hails From: Roanoke, VA
We Are Family: Married Jason Wayne on May 26, 2007. They are foster parents to a nearly 2-year-old boy.
Casting News: She made her DAYS debut as Jeannie Theresa Donovan in 2013 and left in 2016.
HOSPITAL Stay: Lilley filled in for GH’s Kirsten Storms (Maxie) for 11 months, beginning in September 2011 while Storms was on medical leave.
Movies Of The Week: In 2017 alone, Lilley appeared in five TV movies: MOMMY, I DIDN’T DO IT, A DASH OF LOVE, BROKEN DREAMS BLVD, EAT, PLAY, LOVE, and HARVEST LOVE (with GH alum Ryan Paevey, ex-Nathan)
I Will Follow: Follow her on Twitter @jen_
lilley and on Instagram as jen_lilley; check
out her website at www. jenlilley.com.
DID YOU KNOW?
• She appeared in the 2011 Oscar-winning film The Artist.
•Her baking specialty is pumpkin bread, which she brings to the set for the cast and crew.
•Her father is a judge.
MILLER TIME
Lilley was happy to get to spend time at the set with Marci Miller (Abigail) this time around. “She had come in just as I was leaving,” recalls the actress. “So we had met right before I left, but during my exit, it was so crazy. One day I had 87 pages, one day I had 72, one day I had 68, 54, I think 47? I remember I had a ludicrous amount of pages and I worked all five days that week. Because I couldn’t cry as Theresa during my exit story — Theresa was constantly playing the game of, ‘Don’t cry in front of Brady; you’ve got to pull it off’ — I had that horrible thing where your heart is in your throat. Every time Marci saw me, I looked like I was going to throw up and she was like, ‘Are you okay?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, I’m sorry! I don’t have time to get out of character, but I know that we would be friends!’ We always had mutual respect for each other but never really chatted before we left, so it was really nice getting to know her. I love Marci Miller. She, of course, was in the middle of doing all of her multiple personalities when I came back, so she was in the same boat I was in when I left! We would high five each other in the hall.”
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