Watch: Emily O'Brien dishes career zig-zags and Days of Our Lives roles [video]

Emily O'Brien (Gwen, Days of Our Lives) is the latest famous face to sit down with the Soapypodcast. The actress dished getting her soap start on The Young and the Restless, becoming a video game mainstay, and playing both Gwen and Theresa on DAYS.

Co-host Greg Rikaart (Leo, DAYS), who played O'Brien's on-screen husband Kevin at Y&R, revealed just who inspired O'Brien's quirky character, Jana Hawkes. In fact, Jana was based on none other than then-Head Writer Lynn Marie Latham; Rikaart described Latham as "really eccentric" and "tall as a giraffe."

Of playing Jana, O'Brien stated:

Yeah, there was just so much color to to bring to her. It was and it was just such a great match to play with you and Christian [LeBlanc, Michael] and Tracy [Bregman, Lauren]. Those were really good days.

O'Brien recalled how she began appearing in video games; there was a job on Craiglist for $100, asking for a British brunette who would be willing to experiment with facial performances. She said:

So I got involved with this company called Image Metrics and this was cutting-edge because this was the first time ever that they were... They called it the uncanny valley where emotions are so real that it sort of crosses over from, you know, when things used to look so animated. And then you get into 'Avatar' and it's this perfect blend between human and CGI. They were experimenting with that and this was the first time they were doing markerless performances.

In the years since, O'Brien has been involved in many more video games. Now, she's a regular on DAYS as Gwen, but she's also slipped into the role of another Salemite, Theresa Donovan, in the past. How did that come about? O'Brien explained:

That was really unexpected. I had been let go as Gwen and then ten days later I got the call asking me to come in and play Theresa and I was supposed to put this blonde wig on and it was really quick.

She added:

And I was so nervous in the beginning because I was not... I don't think in the real world if I ever auditioned for Theresa that I would book it, ever.

Watch the full chat below!