Exclusive: AnnaLynne McCord Says DAYS’s Dan Feuerriegel (EJ) Inspired Quirky Cat

1 month ago 7

If you’ve come to love actress AnnaLynne McCord and her offbeat character, Cat, on Days of Our Lives, some of the credit goes to her co-star Dan Feuerriegel (EJ). In fact, you might say he actually helped inspire quirky Cat, because McCord reports that some key insight from Feuerriegel played a big role in how she went about bringing her Salem alter ego to life.

“I got some advice from Dan, who I love — we call him Dan Fury, because none of us want to mess up his last name,” reveals McCord with a laugh. “When I was first on the show, he said, ‘Listen, you decide what you want for your character, and you go fully into it. And when the writers see the trajectory you’re taking, they have a tendency to move with you and play with you.’ ”

Art Imitates Life

McCord took his counsel to heart and ran with it. “I’ve played villains, or villainous characters, my entire career,” she explains. “I was like, ‘I want to have fun for the first time in my life with my work.’ So I kind of was playing with the Goldie Hawn and the Lucille Ball [style of performing], not making the obvious decision or choice on a character, because I can’t just do one-note. I’ve got to add some fun AnnaLynne energy into it. So I was like, ‘I’m going to throw in some quirkiness.’ ”

Goldie Hawn, in particular, is someone McCord was both channeling and paying homage to as she developed her approach to Cat. “I just love her,” the actress beams. “She’s so endearing, but she’s a little hot mess half the time and it’s cute,” says McCord. “So Cat is kind of a little ode to her and the Cameron Diazes and the actors who choose to make a little fun of themselves while they’re working for our benefit and entertainment and perhaps a laugh.”

Implementing that ode to the actresses she admires has been easy peasy for McCord. “I’m quite quirky in real life,” notes McCord. “I was home-schooled my entire education and didn’t develop the stereotypical or idealized way of being. I’m kind of a bit of an oddball, so I threw a little oddball energy in there.”

McCord also opted to add some of her personal bashfulness to Cat. “I get really shy, actually,” shares McCord. “I can be very gregarious, but it’s a conditioned, learned trait from being in my industry. But in real life, if I see a boy that I like across the way, I actually really freak out, become incredibly shy and do weird stuff. So I was like, ‘You know what? This is something that actually happens to me personally, so maybe I’m not the only one in the world. Let’s give Cat a little bit of that.’ It’s been fun. It has felt a little exposing, if I’m being honest. But that’s what we love as actors is to kind of reveal ourselves in those ways and see how it takes [form].”

The actress started out her time on DAYS playing a woman who was pretending to be the late Abigail Deveraux DiMera, and many fans turned on Cat when her duplicity was exposed. But McCord is optimistic that viewers may have had a change of heart now that they’ve gotten to know the real Cat. “I hope so,” says McCord. “Forgive me, DAYS fans! The beloved Abigail, I did her memory no justice, but hopefully Cat’s making up for it with her quirks.”

McCord, for one, is definitely enjoying playing the fun-loving character, after a career of bringing bad girls to life. “It’s lighthearted,” she notes. “I don’t leave work in a dark mood, which would happen sometimes with my work [in the past].”

Plus, McCord has been getting encouragement to keep up the offbeat work. “A lot of the producers and directors will come up to me, and they’ll get excited to collaborate about funny things that we can do to keep the quirks going and throw a little curveball to maybe a character like Chad. So I’m really having a lot of fun with it. I would love to continue to play characters like this in my career forever. I really love it.”