Amelia Heinle (Victoria, Y&R) looks back at her favorite Y&R memories.
Favorite Y&R Storyline? “I really enjoyed when I first came on the show because they had to establish my character’s relationships with everybody as a new person playing Victoria Newman. Jack came to get her from Italy and it was really fun with all of these well-written scenes. A year or two had gone by since Heather [Tom; Katie, B&B] had played Victoria and when I came on, I got to have these really great connections with each person, including Melody [Thomas Scott, Nikki] and Eric [Braeden, Victor] and Peter Bergman [Jack] and Josh [Morrow, Nick] and even Sharon [Case, Sharon]. Recently, I had a chance to look back at some of that stuff and I loved it because it was so simple. The only thing that I laughed about: Victoria had supposedly gone away to art school, and during the beginning of introducing the new Victoria, they had shown some of her art and it looked like paint-by-numbers! Well, obviously she couldn’t cut it in Italy!”
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Favorite Y&R Memory? “They just took their time [shooting scenes] back then. And now everything’s faster paced, so I really miss that but we still put out a beautiful show. I miss the time we used to have. I’m so happy that I got to be in the tail end of that era. It changed so drastically just because of the change in television [overall]. Also, I remember on set one day when I was brand-new, I saw this older man walk across the stage, sit down and watch me. Then, he got up and walked away. Someone later told me it was [Co-Creator/Former Head Writer] Bill Bell, and maybe six months after that he died. I never met him, I saw him watching me once and that’s it. I’m just glad for that moment because he loved the show so much and you could tell. When I hear Eric and Mel and other people talk about him and his involvement, it’s really just something, so I’m glad I had that experience.”
Favorite Line Of Y&R Dialogue? “I can’t remember specifically, but my favorite thing, from the beginning to today, is watching Josh when he’s given a tricky line to say. We all get them, that’s just the way it is in daytime. There’s a lot of good writing and then there’s some of the tricky stuff. Years ago, I think he had to say something like, ‘I’m gonna go out with my homies,’ or something silly and I’m like, ‘You can do it!” and we’re all laughing so hard. And then it’s time to tape and he does it and it’s always my favorite thing. He’s never lets me down. This is how we entertain ourselves.”
Favorite Thing About Winning A Daytime Emmy For Outstanding Supporting Actress In 2014? “I like that it wasn’t televised. I felt more comfortable that I didn’t have to look at the clock on the timer. And also I didn’t — I swear, I promise, I’m not just saying this — I didn’t think that I was actually going to win, so that was a really nice surprise. I bought this dress that looked like I should be in Hawaii because I didn’t think I’d win. I really liked it, but I don’t know if it was a winning dress. I was going to wear something white and somebody said it looked like I should be walking down the aisle so I changed it to an orange dress.”
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Favorite Thing About Winning An Emmy For The Same Category In 2015? “First of all, I did wear a white dress but it didn’t look like a wedding dress! It was more hippie. When they called my name, I reacted by saying, ‘Oh, f**k!’ on camera and we were televised! Classy!”
Favorite Thing About Eric Braeden? “I just love him. I have known him for a long time now and he’s always been kind to me and has my back. I like how he stands up for the underdog and I think he’s a very interesting man.”
Favorite Thing About Melody Thomas Scott? “She is my quasi-mom, in a way. I care about her so much. I love to see what shoes she’s going to wear to set because she has this extensive collection of designer shoes that you wouldn’t believe. I always check out her shoes. She also makes me laugh and she doesn’t take herself too seriously. She threw me a really nice baby shower in her house when I was pregnant with Rowe and I had no idea how glamorous it was going to be.”
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Favorite Thing About Joshua Morrow? “He’s probably one of the most professional people I know. He just wants to get it done right and go home, so he’s always prepared and ready to go. He’s also one of the funnier people on the show. He’s so fun and we can just joke about anything. He’ll joke about, ‘Quiet on the set! I need to prepare! This is a very important scene. I’ve been in my dressing room for five hours working on it [laughs].’ ”
Favorite Thing About Working With Thad Luckinbill? “It was fun. The last time he was on the show was when things were slower-paced. His return showed him how different it is now. I think it was hard for him to understand when I said, ‘Look, there’s a lot of dialogue tomorrow,’ until he came back. He was like, ‘Oh, my God! I don’t know how they do it!’ I told him, ‘It’s hard, but you’ll get used to it.’ And he did! He did a great job when J.T. became abusive. It was so subtle. He didn’t become some weird creepo. There was something going on inside of him that was a hard sell because the character was so loved, and he did it! I was so proud of him because it was done with a lot of finesse.”
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Favorite Y&R Scenes? “I really liked the scenes in Jamaica when Billy and Victoria accidentally got married. I had fun with that. And the next day in the hammock, realizing they had cut loose and got married. I love that kind of stuff. I also like slapping people, but they haven’t had me slap anyone in a while. It’s always fun because we have to make it look somewhat real. I slapped the crap out of Thad [Luckinbill, ex-J.T.] once. It was a while ago and I just slapped him into next Tuesday.”
Favorite Job For Victoria? “I like the business stuff because I like working with Eric. Victoria wants to be working with her father and the legacy, but it would be kind of funny if she opened up a nail boutique or something.”
Favorite Hairstyle? “I used to like it when they wouldn’t pay that much attention to me and I could slide under the radar and sort of have messy hair. I remember specifically when I really liked my hair on the show and that was when Victoria was buying a Bumpy The Camel book and she ran into Billy in the bookstore. I remember my hair had two braids on the side but the rest of it was all over the place. Normally, there’s a lot of smoothing.”
Favorite Offbeat Episode? “It was with the reliquary, when we went down into the cave. I don’t even know where we were, but the funniest part was that Brad was a Navy SEAL and he used his thighs to break a guy’s neck. Paul and J.T. weren’t that good, so they ended up tied up in the closet together.”
Favorite Y&R Party? “I do like the anniversary parties every year, but some of the parties [Co-Creator] Lee Bell threw were fun. One year, she did a Christmas sweater party and it was really nice.”
Favorite Past Co-Star? “Billy [Miller, ex-Billy; Drew, GH]. I think that pairing was able to help me out of the rut that my character was in. When they put me with him it was sort of like MOONLIGHTING, crazy Bruce Willis meets the uptight Cybill Shepherd. Those things don’t happen all the time in daytime but when they do, it can be good and it was great. We were having so much fun. He’s a unique actor. He didn’t have too much structure to what he did, he just sort of did it, and that’s why it worked so well. I kind of caught on to that energy. I do miss that.”
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Favorite Y&R Set? “I miss the Newman ranch, the old one, so much. I talk about it with Mel and Eric almost on a daily basis about how much we miss it. It was such a beautiful set. It was a big mistake to take it down. We could do so much on the Newman ranch in one day. It was a large set; I think it took up one side of the studio. It had the sun room, there was a living room, dining room and the kitchen. It went on!”
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