Days of our Lives’ Cherie Jimenez shares why Gabi Hernandez feels like a “dream role”

Gabi Hernandez is officially back in her power lane on Days of our Lives — Gabi Chic is up and running again, the wardrobe is fire, and her chemistry with Philip is starting to spark in that slow-burn way Salem loves to do.

While Gabi’s rebuilding an empire onscreen, Cherie Jimenez has been opening up about her own road to the role, and how a single audition during the strikes ended with the kind of life-changing “you’re it” moment every actor quietly hopes is somewhere out there with their name on it.

How the role found her

Days of our Lives star Cherie Jimenez, who in June celebrated one year on the show, was interviewed on the Talk About It with Franjez podcast, where she retraced the winding path that eventually led her to Salem. She talked about the way the 2023 strikes had slowed everything down in Hollywood, only for this unexpected audition to slip through. “I got the audition for Days of Our Lives and thought, ‘Wow, I haven’t auditioned for DAYS since I was 22 for the role of Gabi,’” she said, laughing at the symmetry she didn’t notice at first.

What she did notice was the fake character name on the audition sides — enough to convince her she was reading for Gabi’s relative. “I thought it was to be her sister because we kind of look alike or to be a cousin or something,” she explained, adding that she took the audition because it felt fun, not fateful. The callback happened over Zoom from her home in Texas, where she stumbled through her first take and figured that was that. Instead, a week later, she learned she had a screen test.

It wasn’t until Days of our Lives sent over the contract that everything snapped into focus. The role she was screen-testing for wasn’t a new Salem arrival. “It said Gabi Hernandez,” she enthusiastically remarked. That moment — a name she’d seen years earlier but wasn’t ready for yet — hit her like a dropped elevator.

Why Gabi became a dream role

Stepping into the Days of our Lives studio for the screen test, Jimenez carried in all the work she had done on herself — as a mother, an artist, a woman who’d lived enough life to recognize alignment when it finally appears. “They unanimously decided nobody else compared. You were it,” she recalled her team telling her, a sentence she said she’ll carry for the rest of her life.

Jimenez said even the set itself felt like a sign. Right before the cameras rolled, she glanced over and spotted a phoenix statue — a symbol of the DiMera family, but also the name of her son. “I looked over and I saw a phoenix statue,” she said, describing how suddenly the moment settled into her bones.

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And when the official call came in, telling her the Days of our Lives role was hers after years of near-misses and heartbreaks, she let herself cry. “For the first time, it was my turn,” she said, calling Gabi not just a major role… but “a dream role.” (Find out what Gabi’s next power move will be.)

Days of our Lives is available on the Peacock streaming app.

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