Assuming the role of Nikki and Victor’s No. 1 child, Victoria, on YOUNG AND RESTLESS back in 2005 was a major undertaking for Amelia Heinle. Yet she embraced the gig with open arms and has made it her own. Take a walk down memory lane with the actress as she reminisces about her top five moments during her tenure on the CBS soap.
TESTING…ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR…
“I almost didn’t audition for the show, because I was so overwhelmed with the fact that the character was going to have to have a lot of dialogue, and I really feel I’m not good with a lot of dialogue. Plus, I wasn’t definitely sure it was something I wanted to do and I knew it was a recast. So I knew there would be a lot of pressure to do it. When I got to the studio to screen-test, they saved me for last. I was waiting forever and was starting to get cold feet. I was like, ‘I’m not going to do this. I’m leaving.’ I got up to go sneak out, when the casting director at the time, Marnie Saitta, knocked on the door. She must have known I was going to leave. She walked in and had a big craft services table full of chips. She was like, ‘Chips?’ I was like, ‘Ahh. Darn it!’ She knew I was going to leave, that I was bolting. She always reminds me of that and how funny the whole thing was, because I was just about ready to take off. I never would have become the next Victoria if it weren’t for those potato chips and the fact that Marnie was blocking the doorway with this huge table.”
HELLO FATHER, HELLO MOTHER
“Meeting Melody [Thomas Scott, Nikki] and Eric [Braeden, Victor] and getting to know them was kind of a big thing. I was interested in whether it would be intimidating or not, because they’ve been on the show and doing this for such a long time. They were so different from what I expected. They’re not soapy people. They’re both interesting, unique and funny. They crack me up. We always have fun together. They’ve never been mean to me. They were very nice and cordial when we first met. Over time, [our relationship] developed, which I prefer. It’s why I respect them. It took them time to get to know me. Over time, they saw that we all got along, and now it’s something that’s developed into something genuine. That makes my job a lot easier, because I like to work with them, and some people don’t like the people they work with. They’re my mom and dad. It’s not like I’m going to switch out of that storyline. Over the years, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much I like both of them and how we’ve gelled as a TV family. That’s always nice.”
HUBBA HUBBA, HUBBY
“Meeting Thad [Luckinbill, J.T., and Heinle’s future husband] was memorable. I remember walking into the casting director’s office, when he came in. I had my son, August, who’s 14 now, with me. After Thad left, August and I looked at each other. I was like, ‘I think I have scenes with him. He looks like he’s 15. I can’t work with him.’ August said, ‘Yeah. He looks really young, mom.’ Then, later on, I married him [laughs]. Thad’s two years younger than I am, but he looked like a teenager when I met him. And, back then, I was all insecure, because I’d never gone out with anyone younger than me. I remember asking him at the time, ‘Are you 25?’ He said, ‘No. I’m almost 30.’ But it all turned out great. We have a family now.”
ARTS AND CRAFTS
“Remember the reliquary? We laughed so hard during that whole storyline. They were giving us all these French names to say. It was all arsty-fartsy. Joshua [Morrow, Nick] and I laughed so hard, because neither of us could pronounce the words. We’d say it one way, and the next day, they’d come back [and correct us]. We’d have to go to post-production and [loop in] the right pronunciation. We were always laughing so hard, because we thought the storyline was funny and kind of silly. One day, Josh decided we should make our own reliquary during lunch, then put it in there and replace the on-set reliquary. It was a statue. Victoria was going to make a fake one, because she’d been so good in art school. Josh ended up making one out of tinfoil and Jolly Ranchers. During rehearsal, we put it on-set. Then we pulled a cloth off it saying, ‘I hope this will pass.’ It was a tinfoil reliquary with Jolly Ranchers on it. Everyone cracked up. You had to be there.”
A REAL KICK
“Don Diamont (ex-Brad)…I love him so much, but when we got into this reliquary storyline, he came up with the idea that Brad had been a Navy SEAL in the past, and they went with it. At one point, when he had to capture the bad guy, Don decided he was going to use his legs to do a karate chop on the guy’s neck. We made fun of him relentlessly about it. Well, we still make fun of him about it, but it’s okay, because he even makes fun of himself. He used his legs to chop the guy’s neck in the scene. It was just ridiculous.”
