“I was flattered and honored to come back for Y&R’s 50th anniversary,” enthuses Mishael Morgan, whose Amanda is not only showing up as the legal counsel for Chancellor-Winters, but will attend the splashy gala celebrating Genoa City’s bicentennial. “It was pretty much an immediate yes for me but I had my agent make sure I didn’t have anything else in the pipeline. I was adamant about going back and being there for this moment, so I made it pretty clear that unless Steven Spielberg called, I’m going to Genoa City.”
Morgan was looking forward to picking up where Amanda left off: walking in on boyfriend Devon having sex with Abby. “I was really excited to come back and play that out because Amanda left very abruptly,” the actress points out. “She showed up, was in shock by what she was seeing and then she just disappeared for a few months.”
Before hightailing it out of town, Amanda lit into Devon for his infidelity, and Morgan says she appreciated the moment. “We’re living in a time where women are really walking into their power even when we’re blindsided by something so horrible,” she explains. “We’re not broken birds. We can stand up and fight for ourselves and demand our worth. However, Amanda didn’t heal overnight, so she’s not exactly in a happy place when she comes back.”
After shooting the breakup with Devon, which aired last November, Morgan landed a three-episode gig on CHICAGO HOPE. “It was amazing and a lot of fun,” she sums up. “On set, I kept saying to a lot of the actors that their show was very akin to Y&R, just because the pace that they worked at is way faster than any other prime-time show I’ve been on. I was really looking forward to waiting in my dressing room and going over what I needed to do and what my plans were for the scenes, but there was no time for that because they just pushed you right out there. Thankfully, my experience with Y&R made it very easy for me to keep things moving. Everybody’s been there for such a long time that they’re family, just like Y&R. I’ve worked at that pace for so long that it can actually get painful when you have to wait around.”
The medical drama was so pleased with Morgan that they wanted her to appear in more episodes but she was unavailable. “Unfortunately, I ended up booking a movie, which threw a little wrench in the story arc that CHICAGO HOPE wanted to do,” she shares. “Since it was only three episodes, I’m considered a recurring guest star, so I went from that show to doing the movie.”
That would be the action TV movie SWORN JUSTICE, which will air during the 2023 holiday season. “It’s supposed to be like a Black Die Hard,” Morgan notes. “That was really a lot of fun. I’ve never done anything action-related, so I got to kick some ass. I needed to bulk up a little bit because this was a tougher character, so I wanted her to have some muscular definition. I started working out and training, but I only had two weeks to get into shape so I didn’t get to exactly where I wanted to be, but the director was happy with my physique.”
Vivica A. Fox (ex-Stephanie, Y&R et al) plays Morgan’s movie mom. Though Morgan was a viewer before landing her first role of Hilary, she admits she can’t place Fox in Genoa City. “I knew Vivica from Independence Day, of course, and everything that came after, but when we were on set and she started talking about the soaps, I asked, ‘What did you do?’ ” Morgan recounts. “She said, ‘Oh, I did GENERATIONS [as Maya] and YOUNG AND RESTLESS.’ I’m like, ‘Wait, what? You worked with Kristoff [St. John, ex-Neil]?’ She said, ‘Yes. I love Kristoff.’ ”
That led to the ladies reflecting about the late actor, who died in 2019. “We did have a beautiful moment talking about Kristoff and that he was such an amazing soul, spirit, person and artist. We had some great conversations while reminiscing about him. Vivica is such a special lady. She called me Little Vivica because we both bartended before going into the soap world. She is so down-to-earth and inspires me to keep diversifying my roles and even produce like she does.”
Even as Morgan’s post-soap career gains momentum, she says she is open to more Y&R appearances. “I’ll always be happy to come back, so I hope that it’ll work out,” she smiles. “If I had actually stayed on CHICAGO MED, I wouldn’t have been able to do Y&R this time. So that worked out perfectly and hopefully it will again in the future.”
