“Our pairing was not the norm,” agree Melissa Reeves and Matthew Ashford, whose alter egos, Jennifer Horton Deveraux and Jack Deveraux, are considered one of Days of Our Lives‘ most beloved supercouples.
When their characters first crossed paths at the town newspaper in 1989, Jennifer was young and Jack was “grouchy.” But what began as a professional relationship eventually turned personal — and unlike many other soap romances, theirs stood out for its humor.
That comedic edge quickly became a hallmark of their onscreen dynamic. “It was kind of fun to be those characters that people could laugh with in their humanity and not take each other so seriously,” says Reeves. “We were laughing at our characters before anyone else did,” Ashford points out.
Audiences weren’t the only ones enjoying the chemistry — the writers took notice, too. “We’d be throwing plates at each other, fighting, and really making each other laugh,” recalls Reeves. “I don’t know if you remember Moonlighting, but I feel like we were like Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis, like, this constant bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. And then the writers started writing that, which was so fun. So much of what we did, it was so fun.”
That spirit of playfulness even shaped their philosophy onscreen and off. “Romance can be funny,” says Ashford. “It’s okay to laugh, and it’s okay to laugh at yourself. And sometimes we laugh, and sometimes you laughing with your partner is maybe the best thing you could do… But I think underneath and over a long, much longer time, Jennifer and Missy, whatever, she won my trust, and you realize that becomes such currency.”
Looking back, Reeves still finds it remarkable how well their offbeat energy translated from script to screen. “The writers sort of saw this quirky thing between us, and they really went with it,” she reflects. “Because without all the scenes that they had written for us, I mean, the scenes were so, so good. I would get so excited to get our scripts. I would be like, ‘Oh my gosh, what are we doing tomorrow?’”
One scene that stands out vividly in her memory? That now-iconic plate-throwing moment. “She had a good, mean arm,” Ashford muses. “They were hitting one after the next, and the guys were laughing, the cameraman and the boom, because she was coming dangerously close.”
These days, Reeves and Ashford aren’t on the canvas full-time, but fans will be seeing them again on Friday, September 5. “Just like those kids who go off to go upstairs and don’t come down for 30 years or go off to boarding school and come back 10 years older, we’re also people who kind of come and go in life, but we’re there,” says Ashford. “And it’s kind of cool to be there for people. We still got some tricks up our sleeve and some surprises for ourselves and hopefully everybody else.”
For Reeves, returning now is especially meaningful, as she is also marking 40 years since her Days of Our Lives debut. “We actually shot a show which I didn’t know they were doing, and at the end on the chyron, it says, ‘Happy 40th anniversary, Melissa Reeves,’” she reveals. “I was just excited because they were showing so many flashbacks, so I had less lines to learn [laughs]. And I was like, ‘This is great. I love flashbacks. ‘And I thought, ‘Oh, my goodness, this is literally my life.’ … I just thought that was so kind that they even thought of that… Ken Corday [executive producer] has literally, like, made me his child and gave me a life and gave and gave me my family and everything. It was the most beautiful, unexpected blessing of my life.”
In this installment of Swooon’s Supercouples Sessions, Ashford and Reeves look back on Jack and Jennifer’s memorable wedding, the advice he got from the late John Aniston (Victor Kiriakis), the storyline they didn’t like, who they think is the most iconic soap supercouple and so much more.
