“All I can say is hide the kitchen utensils!” Jackée Harry teased about her upcoming story arcs on the soap opera “Days of Our Lives.”

Harry is many things to daytime viewers: a scene-stealing star, a comic presence who can pivot to pathos in a heartbeat, and now Paulina Price, the powerful mayor of Salem on the classic soap. Harry said this role as Price asks her to balance authority, family devotion, and the messy work of keeping a community intact.

Harry sat down with BET Current during a set visit and described her Price character in three words: “Strong, forthright, honest, and playful.” Those qualities are on full display as Price deals with her daughter’s cancer treatment (which has been successful), a new grandchild on the way, and in what appears to be her family’s season of joy. But Harry reminds viewers the calm rarely lasts on “Days of Our Lives.” 
“I like tension. The actor in me wants tension,” she admitted, knowingly hinting at the soap’s appetite for upheaval. The show teases that March will bring an unexpected return that upends the mayor’s world. “I don’t want to be too happy. That ain’t real!” she said.

Harry’s Paulina is someone who can use political savvy and bedside tenderness with equal skill. Asked if she could ever imagine herself as an actual mayor, Harry was candid and self-aware, “She’s really close to me, but I could never be mayor with my record of things I’ve done,” she said. This quick, wry admission shines a light on both the demands of political office and the dramatic fun of playing one on television. 

For Harry, the role is also a creative homecoming. The actress — who has spent decades onstage and screen — spoke about her relationship with work, admitting, “Work, work, work. Oh, the workaholic I still am.” That steady appetite is one reason she returns to soap life with such relish. She shared that Mayor Paulina Price allows her to flex a broad emotional range. “I get to be stern, I get to be silly, I get to be maternal,” she said, and it’s that triad that makes Price resonant for long-time fans and new viewers alike.

The actor also reflected on the responsibility of portraying a formidable Black woman in daytime drama. She emphasized authenticity and the small choices that make Price real, like gestures or looks that communicate authority without losing warmth. “Paulina is someone folks can rely on,” Harry said, “and I take that seriously.”

Harry has been acting professionally since 1973 and has earned many credits, including making history as the first Black woman to win an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1987 for her role as Sandra in “227.” And with those credits, Harry admitted her ego led her down a road she’s not proud of. 

“Back in the 80s and 90s, that was the way to be,” she started. “I was an ‘It’ girl, that’s what they called me. You don’t need that now. I was an actress who wanted to be at the best parties, have the success... The ego is always there, and you need it as an actress to face the rejection that you get.” 

Harry went on to share a story of how a former PA, Kenya Barris, had to remind her that he used to bring her scripts during her “227” days, and she just did not remember him. Harry asked him if she was kind, and he said she was, but the embarrassment of her ego not allowing her to acknowledge him as a person back in those days has haunted her throughout her career. 

For someone who wanted to be a “serious actress” who “happened to be funny,” Harry had no idea that being in sitcoms would make her career what it is today. “Now, I don’t even care about that. I do care about being kind…without being a wuss. I’ll still get you!”

Harry still hasn’t landed her dream role, which she said would be something similar to who the late Diahann Carroll played in “Claudine” (1974). “That’s who I want to be like…just [a] full, complete, raw, vulnerable woman.”