One of Days of Our Lives most popular actresses in recent years, Camila Banus, made the bold decision to step away from the Peacock streaming soap opera to focus on her personal life and her journey to start a family. Now, two years later, the actress is opening up about her time on the show, how the show interfered with outside opportunities, and if she sees the soap genre continuing or is the near in sight?
Banus appeared on The Journey Podcast with Josh Valentin. To discuss everything from her parents journey from Cuba to the United States, to her future endeavors. After portraying the role of Gabi Hernandez for over a decade, Valentin asked the actress if she found it hard to distinguish her personal life from that of her character. Banus shared, “I’m very similar to my character on the show, somebody else is taking over the role now by the way so Gabi still exists, but what I would do is I would bring her home with me sometimes and it was mainly when she was being very like spicy or saucy or irritable or just like very like intense. My husband would be like you’re Gabi right now and I need you to snap out of work and come back down to earth and be Camila. Then I’m like you’re right.
Banus was asked what traits she found most admirable, and she explained “I like the way they wrote for her to maintain family aspects and traditions. The way they worked cultural aspects into the show too like she would bring a lot of cooking which I think is really beautiful. I don’t think that you see that enough on TV shows especially because that was part of the culture that my character lived. Or you know bringing holiday traditions that were Latino into the story lines I thought that was beautiful. Anytime that they would let me speak Spanish I think was really nice. Because they would be like “we’ll trust you with this you know we’re not really sure[what you’re saying] but whatever you say, don’t say a bad word.” I thought that that was really beautiful, and I think that aspect of Gabi is really admirable.”
Reflecting on leaving the show after such a long time, Banus explained, “I go back to that same high school thing, like when you’re graduating high school and you get like that tug. Even though some of these people you’re not like 100% fond of, but like these are your people. It’s the whole collaborative thing. Like there’s cameramen on there that I saw every day that were like my uncles to me, I don’t really see on the regular now. I see them on Facebook or something. I miss the people that became my family. Like my makeup artist, I would vent to her every day about everything. She knows things about my life that a lot of people don’t know about.”
If Banus could go back and change anything, the actress reflected on an opportunity that she had while working on Star on Fox. “I first went in for one episode and it turned into seven episodes. I was living my dream. I was living in Atlanta while still working on Days of Our Lives. I just felt like I was at the pinnacle. This is going to push me to do the films and to do the things that I want to do.” But everything wasn’t meant to be, the actress continued, “Unfortunately Days of Our Lives put a cap on me. Contractually they said after that seventh episode, which I had already shot, I could not be involved in any other episodes. I was already written into the next episode. So, for the next episode they had to write that I my character had just like left. Which is really heartbreaking for me because I feel like they put a cap on my career.” The actress sighed and continued, “Looking back at it now, they were like “legally we’re not allowing you to do this.” I didn’t know what that meant, but I should have pushed the boundary. I don’t know where that would have taken me.” The actress, disappointed, added “I honestly just went back to my regular day-to-day. Going to Days of Our Lives every day. I left that chapter behind me. That was really hard for me to do. I can only imagine it crushed my spirit a little bit.”
With Days of Our Lives moving from traditional television to streaming, does the actress believe the genre of soap opera can continue? Banus shared, “I think it already has evolved, but people just don’t really realize. I think right now there’s a huge craze with short form vertical scripted content. I think a huge part of those shows is that they’re teenage angst shows. They’re little mini soap operas. Just small scenarios that are pumped into 10-minute episodes that end up being a two-hour movie. It’s just very soapy for sure.” Camila Banus’s full interview with The Journey Podcast with Josh Valentin can be viewed here.
