Popular Days of our Lives character Marlena Evans has become one of the most iconic and recognizable soap opera roles on the planet, but portrayer Deidre Hall didn't originally believe her alter ego was worth playing.
The actress recently spoke with Closer Weekly and revealed that she initially turned down the role of Marlena when DAYS offered her the job back in 1976.
"I got a call about a character named Marlena Evans, possibly for a short-term contract and 'Would I like to come and read for her?' -- and I did, with some very recognizable women," the actress shares of the audition process. "My agent called about a week later and said, 'You got the job,' but I was so persuaded that ten recognizable actors must've turned it down and there must be something wrong with it. So I turned it down!"
Fortunately, Hall's agent didn't accept her decision and persisted with pushing the actress toward taking the role.
"My agent called back two weeks later and said, 'What's wrong with this part?' I said, 'I love it. I just thought I wasn't somebody they thought of first.' She said, 'No, no, you were their first choice,'" Hall recalls. "So I took it, and it's been over 40 years."
Funny enough, Hall previously shared with Soap Central that her journey into acting as a whole is just as unbelievable as the way in which her DAYS job came about: she reveals that she fell into acting accidentally.
"I mostly wanted to be a hairdresser, and I got to L.A. and was doing some modeling, as I had done in Florida, just to support myself. And then it just turned into, 'How can I make more money? Well, do commercials.' So, I did commercials. And then I got into acting frankly because it paid more," she says. "I was still working my way through college, and that was how it began. The DAYS job came along in '76, and I kept having to drop classes because I couldn't get to them! And finally, I just said, 'Well, I'll do this acting thing until I have a career,' and then I woke up one day and thought, 'Wait a minute. I think maybe I do have a career!' So, it's a thing I had never planned on and had never dreamed about. And there it was."
Did you know that Deidre Hall originally turned down the role of Marlena Evans? Did you know that she accidentally fell into acting while pursuing her dream of becoming a hairdresser? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
