UP IN THE AIR

Original Source: [ CBS SOAPS IN DEPTH ]

FYIFYIFYIFYIFYI
Birthday: April 18
Tweet Tweet: The actress recently joined Twitter. Follow her @TamaraBraun.
Go See Her: Braun gives a slinky performance in Limbo Lounge (opposite GENERAL HOSPITAL’s Ronnie Marmo, Ronnie). Now playing festivals, check out limbo-loungemovie.com for more.
Fave Foods Of The Day: Coconut and kale.
Vegging Out: The actress says that health-food stores make her “happy.”
Under Construction: Braun participated last month in the Los Angeles Woman’s Empowerment for Habitat For Humanity.

It was one of life’s ironies that Tamara Braun would win an Emmy for her performance as crazy Ava after she’d concluded her short-term run on DAYS OF OUR LIVES. Now, fans have reason to rejoice — the soap lured the talented actress back with the challenge of playing a new role… and boy, is she rising to it!

Who’s That Girl?
“Taylor’s a very different character. Ava was having a psychotic break and was hopped up on the junk… she felt invincible and didn’t have much of a conscience,” Braun recalls. “Whereas Taylor has an enormous conscience that keeps getting in teh way.”

Yep, Taylor’s definitely the nicer of the two, but it hasn’t taken long for the gal to figure out that even when it comes to romance and sibling rivalry, nice gals finish last. Having taped three months’ worth of future episodes already, Braun has a handle on where the once meek character is going. “I think that Taylor is like every human being: complex and not what you think she is on the surface,” the actress observes. “There are a lot of possibilities for her that have yet to be explored.”

In the years since her 2008 departure from DAYS, Braun had been part of the groundbreaking love story of same-sex couple Reese and Bianca on ALL MY CHILDREN and had appeared in both primtme and film. What was it like to return to the DAYS set after so much time? “It moves a lot faster. We shoot really, really fast, and they are much farther ahead than they were before,” she confides. Other than that? Braun says it’s the same, only different! “It’s a lot like camp. You have your memories and your experiences of what it was like the first time you went, and then you come back, and it’s a familiar place — all the cabins are the same and you’re still going to archery and arts and crafts — but some of hte campers and the counselors have moved on,” she jokes.

Frienemies
However, one of the cool things about camp is that there are always new friends to be made and this go-around, Braun is already getting tight with Arianne Zuker (Nicole). Might the bond they have formed off screen inform their on-screen performance as sisters fighting for the same man? “We can look at each other, breathe in and jjust know the other person is there [during a scene],” Braun notes. “So wherever that ball goes, we’ll catch it and throw it back. As an actor, that’s a great things, and I think it says something about the person to know that you’re safe enough to play.”

Now that Taylor’s affair with EJ has come to light, the gloves have come off, the claws have come out, and the sisters have declared war on each other. Is their relationship up to the stress? “You can fight the hardest and the ugliest with the people that you love the most and have hte most history with,” Braun suggests. “So I think it’ll be an interesting fight to see. They fight differently, but they both fight with conviction.”

— Kelli M. Larson with reporting by Kambra Clifford