When Jackie Cox made their memorable performance as Lisa Rinna during the Snatch Game episode of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” in season 12, the drag queen couldn’t have known that it would catch the attention of executives at “Days of our Lives” and Peacock who were making preparations for a spinoff of the daytime drama series that would mark the return of Lisa Rinna as Billie Reed, and they sure couldn’t have imagined they’d be asked to take part as Rinna’s doppelgänger.
As revealed in the official trailer for “Days of our Lives: Beyond Salem,” Cox will be playing a pivotal role in the limited series spinoff of “DAYS” for the Peacock streaming service when it premieres Monday, September 6. In their scene with Rinna as Billie, the question is asked of Cox, “So who are you supposed to be?”
Although their character name has not been revealed yet, Cox recently told Entertainment Weekly, “When my character finally meets Lisa’s iconic Billie Reed, it’s quite the encounter, complete with lots of soap opera stares, which Lisa and I had too much fun doing!” Cox notes, “It was my first time on a soap opera set, and Lisa was so welcoming and definitely helped me find my light. She kept saying ‘the good light is over here, honey,’ and amen for that!”
Proving this was their first go on a soap set, Cox revealed that Rinna gave them some tips on how to best perform in a scene. “Her only suggestion to me on set, looks-wise, was to wear the higher set of heels I brought. I was worried I would tower over her, but she said ‘the higher heels are too fierce, honey, you gotta wear them!'”
With daytime soaps notorious for their one take taping regimen, it was surprising to hear that Cox got a take two on “Beyond Salem,” but as Cox explains it wasn’t that things were different on the set or that they had messed up a scene or anything like that as it was Rinna who forced a re-do of one scene in particular and for good reason.
“The only time we did a second take was when Lisa stopped us to swap out a glass I wielded during one of our scenes. The production team had given me a whiskey glass, and Lisa said, ‘Well if we’re gonna do it, it better be a wine glass!’ Which, of course, led to her telling the whole cast of boys on set with us about the [‘Real Housewives’] wine glass moment in Amsterdam. It was wild to hear her telling us all about this iconic moment in ‘Housewives’ history from her firsthand perspective.”
For more from Cox on their “Days of our Lives: Beyond Salem” experience, read their full Entertainment Weekly interview here.