Photo Credit: Mansi Instagram

Days of our Lives fans have spent five years getting to see the twists and turns in young Abigail Deveraux’s life, as portrayed by Kate Mansi.  The actress who came on to the long-running NBC soap had that “it” factor that captivated audiences, and made you take notice of her.  As Abigail, the daughter of Jennifer (Melissa Reeves) and the deceased Jack (Matt Ashford), she continually made some very dicey choices with the men she found herself romantically involved.  But none more shocking than when an unaware Abigail found out her then fiancée’ Ben Weston (Rob Scott Wilson) was a serial killer, and had murdered several people she knew and loved.  However, Abigail was truly in love with another, Chad DiMera (Billy Flynn), and for many months Kate and Billy’s performances made them one the most popular duos on DAYS, known by their adoring fans as “Chabby”.  In recent months, Abigail suffered a mental breakdown from the harrowing events that transpired at the hands of Ben.  Add that to the fact that mental illness runs in her family, and Abby was set on a dark path that she would struggle to get out from under.

In major soap news, daytime fans learned at the beginning of 2016 that Kate had actually taped her final episode of DAYS, and had made the decision to depart the series.  Because DAYS tapes six months in advance of airing, today June 24th, marked Kate’s final appearance as Abigail.  With DAYS wanting to leave the door open for Abigail’s return, viewers last saw the character escaping Shady Hills.  How did she to it?  Through a window!  But not before imagining what a happy reunion would be like with her husband Chad, and her son Thomas, and not before facing her demons, and visions of Ben one more time.

On-Air On-Soaps chatted with Kate Mansi to bring you this one last look as we close this chapter of the actresses’ career.  During our candid chat, Kate opens up about: her feelings as her final episode airs, what the fans love and support have meant to her, how important this last story about Abigail’s sanity was to her, and how she was completely invested in making sure it was told fully and completely.  Recently, fans and Kate learned that after an exhausting talent search, Days of our Lives found her successor.  Marci Miller now takes over the role of Abby, and Kate shares her thoughts on the show’s pivotal move, plus working alongside her co-stars Billy Flynn and Rob Scott Wilson during her final tape day.   Here’s what Kate shared in our heartfelt conversation.

MICHAEL:

This is really a full circle moment for us!  I remember back at Christmastime last year coming to the DAYS set to interview you, Billy Flynn, Mary Beth Evans (Kayla), and Stephen Nichols (Patch) for a 2015 year-end honors roundtable interview.  And there you were just having wrapped your run!  How on earth did you get through the chat?

KATE:

Courtesy/NBC

I can’t tell you how many times I thought of that interview, and to keep my lips sealed! That was the hardest thing to do that day.  I finished my scenes the day before, but I was back the next day at DAYS for the Christmas party, and getting my things, and we were doing that interview.   For all intent and purposes that was my last day.

MICHAEL:

Not only were we saying goodbye to you as Abigail on Friday’s episode, but we were also saying goodbye to Rob Scott Wilson as “Ben”!

KATE:

I know!  Rob was there that last tape day as a figment of Abigail’s imagination, but I think we realized he was finishing his last day that morning.   It all kind of had escaped us somehow that it was his last day, too.  When he finished he gave me a big hug.  I went, “Wait, this is it!  This is your last day.”  He was like, “Yeah, it is!”   Everyone paused and gave him a moment.  I am so lucky that both of us got to have a parallel experience that day.

MICHAEL:

Did your final day on the set kind of creep up on you, as well?

KATE:

Courtesy/NBC

I think yes, and no.  There were moments that I felt the end was near.  I was very aware of what I was leaving behind … incredible fans, the opportunity to work with great actors, and to have great story, and to be in a place that you were comfortable and know how to work.  There were moments when I felt like I was going to have to be pushed out the door, because I was so aware of it.  Then there were moments where the story just took me, and the day sort of past.

MICHAEL:

In your final episode, Chabby fans witnessed Abigail’s fantasy scene where she reconnected, and had a happy reunion with Chad, and their baby Thomas.  What did you think of the way the writers constructed that scene, which ultimately was your last scene with Billy Flynn?

KATE:

It was really cool that the writers did that.  I was so afraid to look at my scenes the last few weeks.  I was looking at them at the very last minute the night before we would tape, and then I would put it away, and look at it that morning.  Somehow, I forgot there was a fantasy scene to tape that day.  I am so glad my mind protected me, because it would have been too much for me to prepare for that.  The writers were dead on for writing it, and it was there for a reason.  They knew it was so powerful, even reading it to me it felt so powerful.  It’s very simple, straight forward, and perfect.  It’s exactly how we all would want it to end.

MICHAEL:

Courtesy/NBC

Chabby took DAYS fans by storm.  Looking back on it now, after having some separation from the show, why do you think Billy and you clicked with the audience as a couple to root for?

KATE:

The truth is I don’t know, or have the answer, other than two actors came together at the right time, in the right story, and what we created together was something very moving.  I am so incredibly grateful to the fans who have been so responsive to that story.  I have never been a part of a story like that before.  If I put my opinion on it, I think the fans felt with Billy and me as actors with our characters that it was never perfect and tied up in a bow.  It never lacked complexity.  There were always layers.  When Chad and Abby were at their highest highs, and so in love, there was also the depth we brought to those scenes of the tension, fear, and anxiety-provoking love we have for each other.  The stakes were so high knowing we were each other’s one great love.  I think both of us understood the real significance, and the power behind what the love story really was.  It just worked!

MICHAEL:

Did you have a hand in crafting the story of how the writers inevitably decided to tell Abigail’s exit story with her literally losing mind?

KATE:

Courtesy/NBC

I can’t take full credit, but I had the idea originally when Josh Griffth (former co-head writer) and Dena Higley (present co-head writer) came on board to write the show.   I had mentioned my idea to them, and that if I were to tell a story about Abigail this is the way I would want to go, and looking at the trajectory of my time at DAYS, and my time in the character.  It was again the right time, and right place, and the right combination of people.  Josh, and our co-executive producer Albert Alaar really took it by the reins.  The writing was so truthful.  For me, it feels like it was the first time we had taken our time to tell a complete story of something that really was not an easy story to tell.  It wasn’t a pretty story to tell, and it wasn’t a story about a woman being defined by a man. (Which in Abigail’s case, she was for so long being that vessel looking at all of these other men to be fulfilled).  It felt like all the powers-that-be at DAYS we were all on the same racetrack for this chapter.  I just went for the ride, and the momentum took over all of us.  It was the time of my life.

MICHAEL:

Was it difficult to play Abigail’s descent into madness week after week?

KATE:

Yes, emotionally it was difficult in the same way that an athlete feels the weight of their training.  It wasn’t difficult for me, in the sense that it was confusing.  However, I felt a certain sense of responsibility.  They had worked so hard to write this fantastic story, and I wanted to do everything I could to explore it truthfully.  So in that sense it was draining, it was difficult, all encompassing, and truly the best gift I ever had.

MICHAEL:

Courtesy/NBC

Abigail had gone through so much … almost being set on fire, the kidnapping of her newborn child, watching people she knew and love die, and being involved with her fiancée’ who turned out to be a serial killer, and I could go on!

KATE:

Yes, and even before then! Like sleeping with Chad, and then he lies about his brain tumor, lying to Austin about having sex with him, or not having sex him.  This is a really disillusioned woman.

MICHAEL:

Yes, and it would have made no sense if after all Abigail went through with Ben she would have come out of it unscathed.  Anybody would have been severely traumatized.

KATE:

That’s the key, though.  Josh and Dena said to me, “What do you want to tell about her?”  Dena, who originated the character of Abigail, and I sat there in the room and said, “I want to believe this is truthful.”  Dena and Josh both felt the same way.  Not to knock the soap genre, but sometimes I think because we work so quickly we don’t get to see what’s been done, unfortunately till much later.  Sometimes you are in the position where the story gets scraped, or gets tied-up really quickly.  It happens, and we all feel that, and the fans feel it, too.  I felt so privileged that everybody around helped create this story, from Billy Flynn, to the writers, and all the directors that worked on all the episodes.  Everybody was invested in telling the complete story, not just a love story.  Everybody wanted to sort of rip it open, and expose the framing of the foundation that was so cracked behind this woman.

MICHAEL:

Courtesy/NBC

The episode where you turn the tables on Ben, and light him on fire, and are bouncing on the bed … that was an Emmy-worthy performance!  Then we find out that harrowing experience was actually coming from Abigail’s tormented mind.  It was just brilliant.  I remember when it aired I was writing it up as your star turn.  It had such a beginning, middle and end arc to it, and set up the rest of your remaining months on DAYS.  What do you remember from taping it?

KATE:

All I remember is seeing memes of me screaming on a bed!   I remember thinking, “Oh, Lord, what have I done!”  I remember moments of taping it, and I remember reading the script for the first time going, “Holy s**t!   This is a new level of work ethic I am going to have to demand of myself.”  The writing was really moving.  Naturally, as a human we want to steer away from that which makes us uncomfortable.  A lot of the stuff, I could feel myself inside going, “I don’t want to do that,” because no one wants to look like an idiot. (Laughs).  No one wants to look like a jerk jumping up and down on a bed.   When I read it at first, I remember thinking, “I am going to have to change this.” (Laughs)  And then I remember saying to myself, “Kate!  Don’t you dare!  Just because you are afraid?  C’mon!  Grow up and honor the truth here.  We have come too far!”   What I thought was so cool about jumping on the bed scene was that I kept certain items of Abigail’s wardrobe over the years.  There was never a scene that showed what Abigail did with her engagement ring from Ben after she left the cabin.  I thought Abigail is just sick enough that she would keep it with her as a reminder to never let herself stray so far from who she was that she would be blind to the signs in front of her, and put everybody else in danger.  Ironically, the day we were taping the scenes, and I was supposed to be pouring gasoline over Ben, I said to our director, and Albert, our producer, “Oh, my God. Can we go get the wedding ring?  It’s the perfect opportunity to use it.”  Albert loved the idea, and he is always game for anything.  He said, “Let’s do it!”  Ben was taunting Abby saying, “I am not real.  I am all in your mind.” And that is where Abby came over to him and dug the wedding ring into his shoulder.  I thought it all just came together so nicely.

MICHAEL:

Who knew that Rob Scott Wilson could play so sick and twisted!  Actually, the two of you together were so sick and twisted! (Laughs)

KATE:

Courtesy/NBC

It was so twisted, and so great!  But to say I didn’t know Rob was capable of pulling this off would be a lie.  I think that Rob is an actor who has unfortunately been blessed with such great looks and a body where he might as well be a statue.  I feel when he was given the material, everybody was surprised.  However, Ron is a sponge with an incredible work ethic.  He is not afraid to make a fool of himself.  I would work with someone like that any day.

MICHAEL:

Talk to me about what was going on inside of Abigail’s mind in her final scene with Ben at Shady Hills, as she was plotting her escape during your last episode and breaking free of him?

KATE:

Ben is with Abigail, and it’s really the first time they sort of work together; we take off the mask together.  Here is the thing: when she willingly signed the papers to enter the rehab facility, she is in a much different state of mine.  At that point, she is completely lost in the darkest of oceans.  She doesn’t know who she is, or what is happening.  She’s lost.  Now at this point, when we see her at the end of the story, she has the confidence to escape, because she knows she is safer out there than she is locked up.  Abby has realized Ben is never going to leave her.  The reason she checked herself in to begin with was that she was so afraid Ben was going to come get her, and that has caused her to completely loose her grip on reality.  But once she sees Ben in her final moments with him, she realizes the very triumphant power she has saying, “I’m going to embrace this.  I am going to go back to my family, and my son, and my husband, and know that we all have demons, but it’s how we choose to deal with them that makes, or breaks us.”  Abigail now has the confidence to know that she can live a life where she is a proud mother setting a good example for her son, and that she is capable of being a loving wife in her relationship, and all of these things even if Ben never leaves her.  So she works with him.  They take off the mask together, and she is going through an escape, but really in her mind Ben is with her.  By the time she goes to escape, she has already had this fantasy of what it will be like, and what she is running toward, and escaping from.  She is running toward that perfect romantic image of her holding her son again, and looking at her husband, and realizing that she is a flawed human.  She thinks: “Yes, I went off the edge a little bit, and I brought myself back, and this is something I am going to have to work through, and surrender to and have with me for the rest of my life.  However, she is aware of that task now.  That is the difference.

MICHAEL:

Photo: Courtesy/IMDB

When any actor, who has played a role for a long time, and has invested so much of themselves into it, finds out after they have decided to move on from their show that their part has been recast … it’s always a double-edge sword for them.  Was it difficult for you to hear that DAYS recast the role?  Did you think perhaps they wouldn’t?

KATE:

We went through a lot of changes, in regards to the recast.  In the beginning, they told me they were going to recast on my last day.   In that moment, I felt it was a natural ending, and this was the way it was going to be.  Then, I had some significant conversations where at that point they weren’t going to recast.  I think they revisited it a few months later, and it went back and forth.  Honestly, it was out of my hands the day I walked out the door.  I couldn’t have any control over it.   I didn’t know what the show was going to do, and I tried to not get too invested on whether they were, or weren’t.   My time as that character has past.  I don’t know too much about Marci Miller, but I think it’s obviously a good thing for the show, and I hope everyone is happy.  I am so proud of the hard work I put into Abigail while I was there, and the privilege I had playing her, and all the stories I had, and mainly the last story.  It feels like that story was the one where, as a young 17-year-old actress, that this is what I was waiting for.  I felt so honored to have played her, and that is what I focused on.

MICHAEL:

Six months have gone by since you walked out the studio doors at DAYS.  With one last look at you as Abigail Friday, and all of us who loved your performances also saying our goodbyes, does it make it all seem more real to you?

KATE:

Courtesy/NBC

I just got tears in my eyes!  I would be totally b*s*ing you if I said it wasn’t something I am feeling, the emotional weight of it as well.  I graduated college and I went straight to DAYS, and for five years I was on the show.  That’s a big part of my life, and always will be.  I haven’t been able to watch any of the episodes, but on Friday my mom told me she has taken the day just dedicated to me.  She told me, “I want to come over and binge watch the last month of episodes until the end.  Then when it’s done, we will walk down the street, and have a drink together.”  I said, “Mom, I don’t think I can do that.” She said, “No.  I’m sure you can.  I am going to do it with you.”  It was very sweet.   I remember the day before I booked this job; I was a totally different person.  My boyfriend at the time had broken up with me.  I was living at home not knowing what I was going to do next.  DAYS casting director Marnie Saitta called me and said, “Dye your hair blonde, and come in for a meeting tomorrow!”  I thought, “Well, what do I have to lose?”  My mom looked at me as I was leaving for the meeting, and she said, “I can feel it.  Today your life is going to change.”  She was right!  I mean, I had the time of my life the last five years.  To Marci Miller, who is playing Abigail now, and whoever else should inhabit the role in the future, the character is the most interesting, complex, messy, wonderful parts of all of us.  So mom is coming over Friday, and maybe we will make it through ten minutes of an episode, or all of it, but while I feel the emotion of it, I also feel clarity.

MICHAEL:

The last sentence you utter as Abigail, in the fantasy scene with Chad and Thomas, is “It’s perfect”.   I hear there is a very moving story behind how that line came to be.

KATE:

Photo: KMansiInstagram

Yes.  That is the last line I say, and it’s in the fantasy scene.  Originally as they wrote it she says to Thomas: “I’m home.  Daddy brought me home.  I love you.”   Then I look at Chad and go, “I love you.”  I really struggled with that, because I knew what they wanted to say.  There was a part of me that felt about the story we were telling was that the reason that Abigail claws her way out of completely loosing her mind, and regains her sanity, and escapes the mental hospital, it’s all for her son.  She does all of that with Chad’s help 100%, but then when she says to her son, “Daddy got me home,” I thought it was a massive oversight of what it really was, which is that’s love!  It’s the two of them as parents saying to their child, “We fought for each other, for you.  We will do anything we can for you, and we’re here together … both of us, not just daddy, not just mommy, but both of us.”  So, I didn’t know what I was going to say.  I just knew I wasn’t comfortable with that.  When I was waiting for Billy to come up to me, I stood there and realized, that I was in the exact set (the DiMera mansion) that I had screen-tested on, and that was way back when I screen-tested for the role of Melanie.  When I had that realization, it’s like I was given this moment and it was a really spiritual feeling that I had.  I was in that very same place where I started my journey with DAYS, and that is where I was going to end it.  The next thing I know, I was doing the scene, and I was looking at Billy and Thomas, and before I finished I just looked out and took a deep breathe, and inhaled in everything that was good and wonderful on that set.  I looked out and saw Marnie standing there right across from me …just how it started.  All you need in this business is one person to believe in you, and she was that one.  I looked out at her, and everyone that was standing there, and all that came to mind was how perfect this was.   It was the most appropriate period to that sentence of my time there.

MICHAEL:

Did you realize you said, “It’s perfect” while taping?

KATE:

Courtesy/NBC

I went to lunch with my mom, afterwards.  It’s so funny, because I was inhaling my salad like I hadn’t eaten in days.  My mom is like, “Do you know what your last words were that you spoke on the show?”  She told me I said, “It’s perfect.”  And to have my moment with Chad, and have the moment with Thomas, and then to have “It’s perfect” plop out of my mouth … I honestly didn’t even realize it.

MICHAEL:

Abigail went out the window at Shady Hills and had her great escape.  So, where do you think she is?

KATE:

Having a drink somewhere in her hospital gown! (Laughs)  Truthfully, I think Abby ran barefoot and bare-assed all the way to her house, and crawled through that window.  That’s my story! (Laughs)  Meanwhile, Kate went to get a drink. (Laughs)

MICHAEL:

For your last several episodes, you had to wear a protective mask that covered your face, due to the storyline turn where Abigail was exposed to the accelerant when she tried to set fire to the facility she was in.  Looking back, what are your thoughts on wearing that mask?

KATE:

Courtesy/NBC

I had asked for the mask back, and the show said when they are finished using it they will send it to me.  I want to keep that mask forever, because you can always get to love that which you used to hate! (Laughs)  But, at the end of it, we took the mask off, and I was like fuggetaboutit!  This mask is mine now! (Laughs).  I found a way to love it, and to discover what it brings for me.  For some reason, it scared me to be under something like that on my face.  I remember I called Kassie DePaiva (Eve, DAYS) the night before and said, “What if I start crying under the mask?”  She said, “Oh, please! What do you think? You’re going to be a wet tampon?  It’s fine!” (Laughs)   It made me laugh so hard.  So during my last few tapes days, I thought, “Maybe this is a good thing,” because I don’t know if I could have done the scenes they had wrote, where I actually seem to say goodbye individually to people like Melissa Reeves (Jennifer), and Deidre Hall (Marlena).  I started to think they did me a massive favor.  All I have to do is sit here, and the mask is hiding the well of tears I had.  One time I had to take the mask off, as I had been crying from these beautiful moments that all the rest of the cast had performed while Abigail was unconscious.  I took the mask off, and they said, “Oh my God, it’s steaming!” (Laughs)

MICHAEL:

How difficult was it to say goodbye to Melissa Reeves, who for the last five years played your on-screen mom?

KATE:

Photo: KMansiInstagram

Missy and I didn’t say goodbye.  She is so true to the mom in her.  She said to me, “No. I am not saying goodbye to you.  I am not saying see you later.  I am still going to be your mom forever.”    So she refused to say goodbye in a very sweet way.   We knew exactly what it meant.  We will always be very close.

MICHAEL:

What can you say to the fans that have been so supportive, and vocal about Abby? There are things they have liked, and have not liked, and yet they were invested, passionate, and involved.

KATE:

I was shooting a film in Florida, and I was on the set and feeling so far away from home.  I missed home, and home to me was still Days of our Lives.   I would go on Twitter and see the fans were making videos, and capturing images, and things.  I know that social media is a powerful, and incredible thing.  To be able to have people I don’t even know tell me that they were just a little bit connected, and moved by a story I was portraying, that is just the best feeling, ever.  To feel like you have this army of supporters … I wish it for everybody.   It’s amazing.   It reminds me every single day about what the kindness of strangers is all about.  It’s incredible!

MICHAEL:

Courtesy/NBC

I loved watching your journey in the role from the very beginning.  I remember thinking, “Another Abigail!  Oh, God!”  The role has never really taken off, and there have been multiple actresses inhabiting the part over time.  Then, here you became the defining Abigail.  Let’s be real here.  Think about all the videos the fans made over the years with love for you, too!

KATE: 

I appreciate that, and I know you mean that.  Oh my God, the videos the fans made, they just made me weep like a five-year-old.  I am angry; of course if I don’t have Wi-Fi somewhere, and I am going into shock that I can’t watch them! (Laughs)  I know there have been tons of super couples on the soaps.  Just look at Alison Sweeney (Ex-Sami) and James Scott (Ex-EJ), and I had to get in the middle of that storyline. (Laughs)  I have seen it from the perspective of other people.  Being on the other side of it, I have to say it’s so special.  I have had messages that I have screenshot from Twitter, because I want to show them to my kids some day.  People from all over have said to me, “My relative has struggled with mental illness” or, “The way you told this story made me feel so understood.”  The amount of people that have been outspoken about this storyline about mental illness, and have been so happy that DAYS has been willing to show, it gives me this feeling that we are all in this together.  Guess what?  We all have depression.  We all have anxiety.  We all have problems.  We all have flaws, and every single one of us has our own coping mechanism, and our way to deal with it.  You have to reach out and let people know that they are not alone.  To know that I got to be a part of that makes me feel so lucky.

MICHAEL:

If I had been able to talk to you the first day you started as Abigail, I would have told you, “Be prepared.  Soap fans will never leave your side.  They always follow you, and are there to support you no matter what projects you do.”  They are a loyal bunch, that crew!

KATE:

Photo: KMansiInstagram

I am getting so emotional now.  I started this interview knowing I would be totally fine, and I even told my boyfriend, it will be fine.  And now I am like, “How did I not realize this?”  Yes, it’s been a long journey.  You’re like the therapist for all of us. (Laughs)

MICHAEL:

So since departing Days of our Lives, you have been filming some movies?

KATE:

I did two indie films; one is called The Guest, and one called The Boyfriend Killer.   I am leads in both films, and I play a crazy killer in both.  When I left DAYS I was thinking, “Oh, I’m going to go do something light.  I’m going to take some improv classes.”  Then I went into Fatal Attraction 2 and 3! (Laughs)   I have been enjoying auditioning, and getting the opportunity to play other roles, but of course, you miss the security of playing a character you know so well, and know even better than yourself while having a place to show up where you feel respected, and you don’t have to prove yourself.   So that part is different.  I like to be working, and that is the thing I am learning.  Patrick Muldoon (Ex-Austin, DAYS) jokes with me so often: “Oh, it’s not like you are going to be type cast, right?” (Laughs)  It’s his favorite joke.  He thinks it’s his claim to fame.  Patrick will say, “The Austin/Abby story is when you learned to play crazy.  So I really take credit for that!” (Laughs)  Patrick is in the The Boyfriend Killer, and he was cast first.  By the way, not to say that he is not type cast, he is playing a recovering alcoholic father that is the cool dad, and womanizer.  So, I will have to throw that back at him! (Laughs) 

MICHAEL:

Courtesy/NBC

As we come to a close, what do you think are some of your proudest moments from your time at DAYS?  What are you taking with you that you will hold near to you for the rest of your life?

KATE:

I was really hoping we could tell the truthful story of the culmination of events in Abigail’s life, and what that would really do to a person.  I am so proud that DAYS took the chance, went for it, and gave me the opportunity.  I am so proud that I had people that I knew I would be safe enough to do that kind of work.  I think that mental illness is something a lot of people are not willing to look at, and a lot of people don’t take seriously anymore.   I think I will be forever changed by this story, for sure.  I am also proud every time I hear from someone who tells me that this story made them feel a little less alone, or a little less misunderstood, and makes them feel more validated.  This last story made me feel so proud.  I left it all on the floor. There is not an ounce of me that I did not give to that.

So, what did you think of Kate Mansi’s final performance and last episode of Abigail? Will you miss her on DAYS?  What are your thoughts on the on-screen dynamics she created with Billy Flynn and Rob Scott Wilson? What moment and insight that Kate shared during the interview touched you the most? Share your thoughts in the comment section. (Note:  To make a comment, go to the top left side of the interview and click on “Leave a Comment”)