American Girl
Soap Opera Digest: Tell us about your new gig. It looks fun.
Alicia Leigh Willis: It was, it was a blast.Digest: I’ve seen the commercials. It looks like it’s funny, is it?
Willis: It is. It’s got a little bit of everything. It’s funny, it’s sad, it’s exciting. It’s just a lot of things rolled up into one.
Digest: So, you’re the American Heiress.
Willis: Yeah, my character is Elizabeth Wakefield and she is the daughter of a very, very wealthy businessman, Lionel Wakefield … basically, Elizabeth is the apple of his eye. She is his favorite daughter and all the siblings sort of resent her for that. She’s always done everything perfect. She makes a huge transition during this whole show. She’s a bit of a princess in the beginning and with all the experiences she goes through during the show, she changes a lot.
Digest: How so?
Willis: She’s a lot tougher, she can handle her own. I think she’s forced to grow up a lot. I’m trying not to give anything away.Digest: It looks like there’s a kidnapping and some island shenanigans. Is that right?
Willis (laughing): Yes.
Digest: Who is she in love with?
Willis: She falls for a guy named JD, but she fights it the whole time…. She doesn’t make it easy for him. He’s different from anyone she’s ever had around her entire life. He’s rugged … he’s always done everything for himself, and she’s kind of had people that pretty much do everything for her her whole life. Digest: Who’s the bad guy?
Willis: The bad guy is her brother, Damien. He’s always resented Elizabeth because her father has doted on her and he’s always been a bit of a screw-up — that’s an understatement, I guess. She is constantly having to defend herself, he’s always coming at her. He takes it to a whole new level. I can’t really say, but he definitely comes after her.Digest: I’ve talked to a couple of other daytime people who did the MyNetworkTV shows and they said that as crazy as the pace of daytime is, this was even crazier to shoot.
Willis: Oh, yeah, I’ve never in my 15 years in the business ever worked this hard, never.Digest: What makes it different?
Willis: I think trying to get so much done in a short amount of time, it’s almost like a year of being on a soap jam-packed into three months. Digest: Where did you shoot?
Willis: We shot down in San Diego…. I was in Mexico City shooting for about three weeks, that was fun.Digest: How else would you say it’s different from your daytime work?
Willis: On daytime we had four cameras, so when we did a take, it got done in one take and then we moved on to the next thing. On this, we do one side of the scene, and then 10 hours later, we’d be turning around and doing the other side of the scene, so it was definitely a challenge.Digest: It’s kind of exciting that they’re reviving prime-time soaps. Do you think it will have any impact on the industry?
Willis: I don’t know. I hope so. I hope that people get into it, that they enjoy it, that it kind of takes them away from their daily lives and they have fun. I hope they get attached to it, but you never know, this is an interesting business we chose. I think if people give it a chance, they’ll definitely get hooked.Digest: What would you tell Courtney fans to make them get hooked?
Willis: I think that it’ll be fun to see me play a different character. I think that she’s got a little bit of the toughness in the end that Courtney had and that’s fun to watch. Plus, you know, all the guys on the show are easy on the eyes. That helps.AMERICAN HEIRESS airs weekly for two hours on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT on MyNetworkTV. For more information on the show, including character bios, go to www.mynetworktv.com.
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