(SAD NEWS) Camila Banus will leave Day Of Our Lives According to Her Dead Father’s Wish !
Days of Our Lives’ Camila Banus Opens Up About How Her Father’s Death by Suicide Impacted Her Decision to Leave
Unless they tell you, you can never really be sure what someone is going through, can you? Take Camila Banus, for instance. The actress set off one firecracker of a performance after another over her 13-year run as Days of Our Lives’ Gabi. She was all but born to bring the character to life, she so perfectly embodied her trouble-magnet alter ego. But behind the scenes, a lot more was going on than memorizing lines and rehearsing her blocking.
In an essay Banus wrote for Today, she marvels that “when I look back, Days of Our Lives was the days of my life.” She sacrificed a lot for the sake of the job, yet “it was worth it… I did things I never would’ve been able to do on any other set, like being kidnapped eight times or causing a gas explosion that might destroy the entire town or doing my own stunts and getting tackled or blowing up a person’s wedding.
“That’s what made walking away earlier this year such a difficult decision,” she adds.
With the support of her mom, sister and husband — “who I call my ‘tripod,’” she says — the up-and-comer exited stage left to pursue her own dreams… and in a way, to become the person her father believed that she could be but would never get to see her become. “Soon into my time on Days of Our Lives, I got the news no one ever wants to receive. I was in the parking lot of a dollar store with my mom, who was on the phone, when she started screaming,” Banus recalls. “On the other line, she learned my dad, her ex-husband, had died by suicide.”
At just 19 years old, Banus handled the heartbreak as well as she could. But that largely entailed remaining silent and burying her feelings. Not the best approach, she ultimately learned. “Things got better, for me, when I started talking about my dad’s death,” she says. “Other things that helped: therapy. My husband, who encouraged me to think beyond guilt and my last phone call with my dad, and the memories I cherished. Days of Our Lives was impactful, too.
“When my character became a mom, I took a parenting class to prepare for the role, where I reflected on how the parenting done to me has molded me into the adult I became,” she continues. “Meeting other families impacted by suicide through my work with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has helped me move forward as well.”
As Banus moves forward with her life and her career, she does so in part for her father. “I had always spoken to my dad about my dreams. He knew my ultimate goal is to create amazing stories and cultivate characters — to be on the big screen,” she says. “That was part of why I walked away. He didn’t stay to see his dreams realized — the depression took over. I need to reach mine for him, and me, and our family.
“Days of Our Lives was undeniably a dream job. But I hope it’s the first of many dream jobs,” she concludes. “I want to leave a legacy for my family, honoring the sacrifices that my Cuban immigrant parents made for me so that I could pursue those dreams.”
