Kim Coles Opens up About Joining DAYS OF OUR LIVES
Best known for her work in sitcoms like LIVING SINGLE, Kim Coles was willing to give daytime drama a try, despite its notoriously grueling shooting schedule. And so she auditioned and landed the part of Nurse Whitley on DAYS OF OUR LIVES!
“I don’t fancy myself a dramatic actress,” she admitted to Soap Opera Digest, “but something in my said, ‘Take this on, this is gonna be a really cool challenge.’ And why couldn’t I do it? It was different than anything I’d ever done before. I have not done a lot of drama, so I was really intrigued by and challenged by the depths of where we were going to be going.”
Coles was also excited to become a part of Salem society, something she had only ever watched on TV before. “When I was young, DAYS was my show,” she declared. “So imagine my joy of meeting Deidre Hall (Marlena). She and I were in the makeup room together and I looked over and I go, ‘Oh my God, that is Dr. Marlena Evans!’
“And because there were still COVID regulations, they had these partitions up,” she continued. “So she turns to me and says, ‘Hey, Jackée [Harry, Paulina].’ Now, I had on the wig where I looked like Paulina, and she didn’t really get a good look at me. I said, ‘Oh, no, I’m Nurse Whitley.’ She was like, ‘Oh my goodness!’ She came over to me and said, “Welcome. Have such a good time. By the way, I’m Deidre Hall and I play Dr. Marlena Evans.’ I can’t even give you an analogy of what that’s like, like, ‘You’re introducing yourself to me?’ I know exactly who you are. You’re gorgeous and amazing!’”
Plus, as Coles learned more about her storyline on the soap, she discovered she was being reunited with an old friend! “I knew that I was going to be playing this nurse stealing someone’s husband, and then I find out it’s Jackée,” she marveled. “Jackée and I know each other, we have the same friends, we’ve hung out together, and in fact, we were in development to do our own show at one point.
“When she saw me on set, we had a great laugh, like, ‘You bitch — she’s gonna take my man!’” Coles added. “It felt really great to be able to spend time with her. I felt like I was one of the family.”
Stay tuned to see what happens next with Nurse Whitley’s abduction of Abe!
