Jackée Harry has three good reasons for you to watch her on “Days of our Lives”: She’s bold, she’s fabulous and she’s ready to stir up some trouble in Salem!
In the promo above highlighting her “DAYS” debut in the newly created role of Paulina, the actress notes that she’s ready to “do this” when her character gets ready to make some noise beginning Monday, March 1.
It was announced in early December via an appearance on “Today with Hoda & Jenna” that Harry would be joining “DAYS” in a then-unknown role. “I am playing a fabulous woman, you know that. But I don’t want to give away the storyline, because it’s a brand-new storyline with African-Americans, and they’ve been at the forefront of hiring minorities — they have a lot of diversity on ‘Days of Our Lives,'” said Harry to the NBC morning show. She added, “I don’t want to give away the storyline, but I have a daughter and you know it ain’t nothing but trouble in River City!”
Precious Way has been cast as Harry’s on-screen daughter Chanel, who follows her mother to Salem beginning next month. Look for Lani Price (Sal Stowers), Paulina’s niece and Chanel’s cousin, to formally welcome and introduce her auntie to Abe Carver (James Reynolds) and Eli Grant (Lamon Archey) on Tuesday, March 2.
Harry’s journey to “DAYS” began in early 2020 while the “227” and “Sister, Sister” actress was watching the Grammy Awards and tweeted that singer Bonnie Raitt looked a lot like Maggie Horton (Suzanne Rogers) from the soap. Her tweet caught the attention of “DAYS” head writer Ron Carlivati who gave her an open invitation, which Harry welcomed.
“Knowing that we were planning to have this crisis with Lani and Eli’s babies being kidnapped, the focus would be on their family and that’s when I started to think, ‘Well, maybe this might be a good moment to bring Jackée into it and maybe she has some connection to the family,” revealed Carlivati in an interview with Soap Opera Digest in its January 4, 2021 issue. “I brought it to Albert Alarr [co-executive producer] and to Ken [Corday, executive producer], saying that I had this idea for this character, and they were totally on board.”
In a recent tweet, Archey noted that the show’s decision to bring on Harry and Way was a “great move,” explaining, “I understand that everyone isn’t going to like everything, BUT bringing Jackee & Precious to ‘DAYS’ was such a great move!” He noted, “Not only racially & culturally needed but they bring so much character and larger than life personalities to the show.”
Archey’s comments were echoed by co-star Paul Telfer (Xander Kiriakis) who said, “Overjoyed that they’ve joined the show. Energy is palpable!”
Harry made her television debut in 1983 in the role of Lily Mason on “Another World.” She remained with the soap until 1986, working simultaneously on “227” as her iconic character Sandra Clark. Both series aired on NBC.