Judi Evans and Wally Kurth, Bonnie and Justin on Days of our Lives, are fully aware that soap fans often write online about what they want to see happen with their favorite characters. Soap Hub asked the supercouple about a story that has gotten some traction on and off over the years — could Bonnie truly be Adrienne?
A Is for Adrienne
Heroine Adrienne died after suffering injuries in a car accident. While the person responsible for the auto wreck went back and forth, Adrienne stayed dead. While it’s not likely that Bonnie is actually Adrienne via time-travel, mind control, brainwashing — or the DAYS standby — a DiMera hoax, that doesn’t mean her resurrection still isn’t on the wish list of diehard Justin and Adrienne fans.
Make no mistake — fans have been in love with bodacious, scene-stealing Bonnie since her debut back in 2003. Viewers are thrilled that she and Justin have found one another. But they also still miss Adrienne!
“A very few passionate Adrienne fans,” Kurth says, are hanging onto the belief that somehow Bonnie is Adrienne. The actor feels it’s important that Justin acknowledge the resemblance between his current and late wives. “There was a scene with Jack [Matthew Ashford], and I was talking about how much in love I am with Bonnie. I said to Janet [Spellman-Drucker, co-executive producer]. I think I really need to add a line in there about how much Bonnie looks like Adrienne,” the actor says.
“Just say it head on,” Judi Evans says about acknowledging the physical similarities between Justin’s wives. Justin’s not the only one who sees a resemblance. Susan (Stacy Haiduk) thought Bonnie was Adrienne when she’d attempted to rescue her after she’d been kidnapped. “He sure has a type,” Susan remarked after Bonnie explained that she was both Bonnie and Justin’s wife.
“That was my favorite line, and I use it all the time,” Evans says with a smile. “‘Justin has a type.’”
Bringing the Gusto
Wally Kurth and Judi Evans go back to 37 years ago as Justin and Adrienne first connected back in 1987. They became an instant favorite and emerged as a popular on-screen romantic duo.
“I think Adrianne brought stability and truth to Justin’s life,” Evans says. “And Bonnie brings the good old gusto! Adrienne had gusto, too, but a different kind.”
Reel and Real Romance
Kurth says he learned a lot about romance by playing Justin, and from the reactions of his friends who saw him in the role. “I was doing things back in the ’80s that I would never have been so demonstrative about when it comes to love,” the actor says. “[Justin] was so romantic and declarative whereas I was young, naive and not ready.
“Playing Justin made me not be as afraid of my emotions,” he says, and “of not being afraid to really put your heart out there. That was something Justin taught me — the way he was so passionate, romantic, and committed.”
Kurth says he got some playful ribbing from one of his pals back in his hometown of Billings, Montana during early Justin and Adrienne years. “He told me that I was killing his marriage because he thought I was supposed to be acting like Justin and he wasn’t,” Kurth shares with a grin.”
We haven’t seen any signs of Bonnie thinking that she’s anyone else. Unless she’s got the G5 version of the latest DiMera microchip that would have her thinking she’s Bonnie, it appears that Adrienne has gone to that great soap in the sky. However, we have said that about many, many other DAYS characters in the past, haven’t we?