Jen Lilley, a Hallmark and Great American Family actress best known for her roles in long-running TV soap operas “General Hospital” and “Days of Our Lives,” recently spoke to Fox News Digital about her Christian faith. Specifically, she spoke about living out faith and learning life lessons about that faith in unexpected ways and places.
Speaking about how her role on “Days of Our Lives” changed her, she said that the character, Theresa Donovan, was a troubled character with values far different than hers, and so she initially did not want to play the role. But, she stuck with it after taking her manager’s advice and praying about it, then went on to play the character for several seasons of the show.
Commenting on the Donovan character when speaking to Fox News Digital, Lilley said, “I really judged her.” Continuing, she explained, “I called my manager and I said, I am not going out for this.” Lilley then explained balking when her manager told her to pray about the role before shooting it down, saying, “I think I probably rolled my eyes at him and I was like, ‘What is there to pray about? I just played Queen Esther!'”
Continuing, Lilley then explained how she questioned how she could possibly play the role given the bad life decisions of the character, saying, “How am I possibly supposed to play Theresa? What am I going to tell people? How am I going to say I’m a Christian and play this character?”
But then, sitting in traffic and thinking about it, she had a moving experience. Describing it, she said, “[It was] one of the most distinct moments of my life. I heard the Holy Spirit, and I don’t mean audible. You know, you have four voices in your head. You have your own thoughts. You have God’s thoughts. You have the devil’s thoughts, and you have your mother’s voice. So you got to weigh which one’s talking to you…but I knew it was the Lord. And he said, this is your role. And I was like, ‘What?!’”
Lilley went on to add, “To this day. I’m so undone by the answer I heard. God said to me, ‘Because Theresa is in the exact same condition that the world was in when I sent my son to die for them. And that audience needs to know that there is no pit so deep that they could ever find themselves in that my love can not find them still.'”
Continuing, she explained that God told her, “‘You’re going to play the emptiness that girl really feels. That the drugs didn’t satisfy her. That one-night stand didn’t satisfy her. That she feels used and empty. Because that’s the truth. And that’s the reality. It’s not empowering. It’s – It’s damaging.’ And so I just remember sobbing and sobbing and calling my manager and being like, ‘okay, like, let’s go.'”
Then, speaking about how the role changed her, she said, “Hate is a mask for hurt. I think people’s circumstances, things that they’ve been taught, things that they’ve experienced, inform their perspective. I think that we as a culture, globally, not just in the United States, have done a sad job of silencing anybody’s opinion that doesn’t look like yours.”
Lilley also commented on people searching for Christ, saying, “I think everyone is searching for Jesus. I think at the core, every single person is designed to want to feel seen, loved, heard, and valued. And I think that’s something you can truly only get from Jesus.” He added, “So many people are so sick of the polarization, and so many people just want something that’s uplifting. I think it’s really exciting.”
Featured image credit: By Neon Tommy – File:Redlight Traffics Inaugural Dignity Gala (10359053346).jpg from File:Redlight Traffics Inaugural Dignity Gala (10359053346).jpg, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33615048