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Elizabeth Hendrickson Interview

Maid To Order, 2008

When you first came on as Chloe, did you have any idea that she was really Kate, the daughter of Chancellor domestic Esther Valentine? “No, I had no clue and I don’t think they did either, because I was only supposed to be on the show for a short while. When they decided I would stay, they found some lineage for me, which was very nice.”

So you were originally okay with just a short run? “It was during the writers’ strike, so jobs were few and far between. I had watched Y&R for a long time and always loved how polished it was. I thought it was a sleek, sexy-looking show, so just to come on for a short while was a real honor. I was very excited to work with some of the greats, and I fell in love with it as soon as I started working there. When it turned into something long-term, I was really happy because I felt like I had found my home.”

What did you think of Chloe at first? “Well, nothing had really been written, so I wanted her to be completely different from anything I had played before. Everything about her were all of my choices. I had decided I wanted to play bitchy for once, so she became this opinionated, icy and spicy character who I felt fell in line with her being a stylist and in fashion. So, I ran with it and they seemed to like it.”

What was your reaction when you found out that you’d be connected with someone in Genoa City? “I already felt lucky to be working a lot then with Jess Walton [Jill] and Jeanne Cooper [ex-Katherine], so turning out to be Kate Valentine meant that I was going to be tied to them even more and that really excited me. Even watching those two work was amazing in and of itself, so the fact that I was able to work with them and watch them was very cool. I just adore Kate Linder [Esther], plus, I worked a ton with Peter Bergman [Jack] in the beginning, too, so all of that was amazing.”

Hurricane Chloe, 2008-09 While Lily was modeling, she started having body issues thanks to Chloe’s stinging advice. How did it feel playing such a touchy issue? “That was really hard because I loved Christel [Khalil, Lily] so much; she was like a little sister to me at the time and I had to be wretched to her. I always struggled when I had to step out of myself and be that awful, even though it’s all pretend.”

You became close friends, which is proof that Christel didn’t take it too personally, right? “That’s right. Christel has been acting most of her life and even though she’s years younger than me, I learned so much from working with her. She was basically my counterpart when I started on the show and I was always in such awe of her beauty and talent. And to watch her now, all grown up and this gorgeous, devoted mother is kind of wild. We’ve been on vacations together and we had some great times.”

Chloe broke up Cane and Lily by claiming that he knocked her up one drunken night. But as her pregnancy progressed, Billy Abbott, in the form of your former ALL MY CHILDREN co-star Billy Miller, who played Richie to your Maggie, returned to Genoa City and that’s when we discovered that he and Chloe shared a fling in New York. What did you think of their relationship? “I thought Billy Miller and I had great chemistry, and I always saw Billy and Chloe together. I thought they were a great pairing. However, I watched their wedding again when reruns of old Y&R shows were airing during the Covid shutdown and I forgot all of the horrible things he did to her. Left and right he was cheating on her, and poor Chloe was like, ‘Please love me.’ Still, there was something between Billy and Chloe that I thought was undeniable. Billy Miller is a wonderful actor and we had a lot of fun but poor Chloe. She had to get guys drunk just to trap them.”

Y&R

Although married to Cane, Chloe was still obsessed with Billy. “Well, Chloe was always stalkerish, which was something I struggled with. I was constantly thinking, ‘Gosh, why does Chloe always have to be such a creep?’ I mean, she stalked a lot, but I always would go back to that she was always chasing love and if that meant she had to follow him, then so be it.”

Which she did when Billy and Lily went to the cabin for a getaway, but romance went out the window once Chloe went into labor there. How did it go with shooting your first childbirth scenes? “I forget the line but I remember I couldn’t stop giggling when Daniel [Goddard, ex-Cane] said it to me and I was completely unprofessional. I was also so stressed out about the delivery scenes because everything that I looked up online was too graphic and horrifying. Those scenes were very difficult for me.”

You were great in those scenes! “Afterward, I thought I was being way over the top with the contractions but when I became a mom in real life, and I know I already said this in another interview, I was in active labor for a half hour before I was screaming for drugs. I also yelled at the nurse, ‘I have given birth on a soap opera and I can tell you that I’ve been doing it all wrong!’ Now I’m thinking that maybe I did hit the mark. And wouldn’t you know that when Chloe had two more babies, they were born off camera so I didn’t have to play giving birth.”

How did motherhood change Chloe? “She became more grounded and compassionate. She started to think twice before speaking because she realized how her choices could affect her daughter, so she was much more conscious of the repercussions of her actions. Once she lost Delia, it shifted again because she was utterly destroyed.”

Bosom Buddies, 2011-present

Although they’ve had their ups and downs, Chloe and Chelsea’s friendship became Chloe’s strongest relationship. “Oh, yeah. The reason Missy [Claire Egan, Chelsea; ex-Annie, AMC] and I have great chemistry as friends is because we have as much off camera as we do on camera. It’s funny that she and I never worked together on ALL MY CHILDREN but I think that we have the chemistry of a real friendship and we have so much fun with it.”

Those two have been through thick and thin together. “I think it’s really important to show those strong female friendships that are very supportive and mature, especially now, so it’s not always women at odds with each other and being petty, like what you saw with Chloe and Lily, which is still so much to play. Chloe and Chelsea have endured so much with each other.”

Which was really tested in 2017, when Chelsea thought Chloe had killed Adam. Their face-off at Chloe’s wedding was killer! “Those were the best scenes that Missy and I have ever done together. We had so much fun with that because it was something to really sink our teeth into. I’m glad that they were able to come back from that and their friendship has been repaired.”

Y&R

JPI

Delia’s Death And Fallout, 2013-present

How did you feel about Chloe’s daughter getting killed off? “There were so many mixed emotions from everyone. It was hard, but I remember being so thankful for the material and the trust they had in me to tell this huge story. I was also petrified that I wasn’t going to be able to do it justice. And I also had to consider the feelings of this young girl, Sophie Pollono, who I adored and really loved playing Delia. As I was nurturing the process and what we were trying to do, I was also nurturing her. There were just so many emotions involved in the whole thing. Thankfully, it played well in the storyline but that was the heaviest material that I’ve ever been handed and I learned a lot because of it for so many different reasons. Since I didn’t know what it was like to lose a child, I had to dig up some old grief that I never really came to terms with. It was healing for me in a lot of ways but it was also exhausting. I would go home just wiped out from going there as an actor, but I got a [Daytime Emmy] nomination out of it and I would do it over again in a heartbeat. It was one of the greatest lessons as an actor.”

Since Adam was responsible for Delia’s death, Chloe went to a really dark place as her vendetta against him consumed her life and she tried several times to kill him. “That one storyline has given me, like, eight years of drama to follow. Just the other day I shot a scene where I was saying how Adam destroyed my family. The relationship between Chloe and Adam is extremely complicated; she wants to move on but then he does something to bring her back. For now, she’s healed that wound as much as she possibly can and really tries hard not to go down that rabbit hole because she has lost it time and time again.”

In & Out, 2014, 2015, 2016-17, 2019-present

Speaking of repeatedly losing it, Chloe’s mental health has been a continuing storyline that has had you coming back and forth from the show. “She goes on these little health detoxes and she always comes home to Genoa City. That always works well with me because I get thrown in a different situation each time and work with new people.”

And she always seems to be doing well and then she falls into that rabbit hole when it comes to Adam. “She can definitely be sneaky. During one of those returns, she was conspiring with Victor, and Eric [Braeden, Victor] and I had a really great time working together. I feel so lucky to have had that experience with him. We had some really great stuff, like when she skipped town and he had the plane waiting for her [2017]. Look, you haven’t really lived in Genoa City if you haven’t been under Victor’s thumb.”

Now Chloe is back, living with Kevin as they raise their two kids. Happy ever after? “Well, you know it can’t stay that way on soaps but she’s in a good place. I love being back and working with my friends. We know that Chloe gets away with a lot and I have always loved that she’s unpredictable — you never know what she’ll do next.”

Y&R

JPI

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