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DAYS OF OUR LIVES

Brandon Barash Opens up About His New Role on DAYS OF OUR LIVES (EXCLUSIVE)

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For months, the rumor that Brandon Barash would be returning to DAYS OF OUR LIVES had fans scratching their heads. Sure, people are brought back from the dead all the time in Salem, but Gabi had donated Stefan’s heart! What the writers cooked up instead surprised no one more than the actor himself. “Ron Carlivati and company wrote a great new character [in Jake] and basically said, ‘Have fun with it. We give you free rein, within these confines, to do whatever you want.’ I said, ‘Cool! Let’s figure out where he’s from,’” Barash reflected to Soaps In Depth. “Jake is a fun juxtaposition to Stefan. They are two completely different human beings, and you saw that from the very first scene.”

While Gabi was the first to encounter the character who just happened to have her late husband’s face, Ben was the first to get to know him. However, it’s been through both of their eyes — coupled with the Barash’s performance — that the differences between the two men were illuminated. “Stefan is very polished, proper and white-collar; Jake is none of those things,” the actor suggested. “They talk differently, walk differently, move differently… they sit, stand and move their hands differently. They’re very different guys!”

DAYS Ben Jake
“Rob [Wilson, Ben] and I get each other as humans and as actors,” Barash confided. “Jake and Ben also understand each other, so there is a lot of simpatico happening.”XJJohnson/jpistudios.com

However, it’s what the newcomer carries in his heart that might eventually land him more friends in town than a ruthless Stefan ever had. “Jake desperately wants to be a good person, and he messes up a lot — that’s both his strength and his flaw,” Barash observed. “While Stefan fancied himself as an idealist, Jake actually is one. He just makes some poor decisions sometimes.”

Having been away from the set for six months after Stefan’s demise, the actor says that he’d looked forward to returning. “I showed up, picked up where we left off, and it was a lot of fun,” he recalled. “I was happy to be there, and they seemed happy to have me.”

DAYS Jake Gabi
Barash declared, “Camila [Banus] and I were still able to bring everything to our scenes as Jake and Gabi that we brought as Stefan and Gabi.”XJJohnson/jpistudios.com

Amongst those most thrilled to have Barash back was Camila Banus (Gabi), but seeing his face knocked her character right off her feet. Likewise, Barash says that wrapping his mind around all the seemingly crazy things that had happened in the storylines during his absence wasn’t easy. “It was like art imitating life imitating art, right? I hadn’t been in the building for months, so I wanted to know what was going on with [my] friends,” Barash confirmed. “And as an actor, I wanted to know what was going on in all the characters’ lives. So it was like a very layered family reunion.”

Ironically, as his new character was hitting the screen, Barash had again found himself physically separated by production’s coronavirus-related pause in production. Fortunately, he had other things on his plate. “I have two passion projects that I’m working on. Both are writing projects and they’re very different,” he revealed. “Those two things and my daughter were my focus during the time off.”

Additional reporting by Deanna Barnert

This story originally appeared in our print magazine

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