All My Children Alum Amanda Baker Dishes On 'A Nashville Christmas Carol,' Soaps, and Her Return To Acting! Read More Here ---->>>
Soap Opera News had the pleasure of chatting with General Hospital: Night Shift and All My Children alum Amanda Baker about her new Hallmark film, A Nashville Christmas Carol, soaps, and her return to acting!
Amanda has had a passion for singing and performing for as long as she could remember but never thought that she would ever pursue it as a career. It wasn’t until after she had graduated college with a business degree and working at a real estate agency that she got the chance to take that next step. A friend, who had signed with an agency, knew that she still had that love for performing suggested that she go for it. “Once I felt like I had enough on my resume I decided that LA was probably the next step. Like I said I never thought I would do it but I think it kinda had to happen slowly for me in order to get up enough courage to actually do it,” she laughed.. “I took an acting workshop with Mark Teschner, who is the casting director for General Hospital. It was from that workshop that he brought me in to audition for GH a couple of times. It was at that point that I got cast on General Hospital: Night Shift. I really owe Mark Teschner such a great deal of gratitude for him giving me my first opportunity on a soap.”
“It really was just the camaraderie of everyone because they shot Night Shift like a series. Everybody got so close because we were always hanging out together. Of course, Bradford Anderson and Steve Burton were hilarious. They were always joking together and just brought the energy to the group,” she recalled about her early soap days. She would eventually find her way to All My Children where she played fan-favorite character Babe Chandler. “I just got close with Bobbie Eakes and Jacob Young. I just have really great memories of being on set and the fun we had. One day Jacob and I were pretend fighting and the next day we’d make up. So, we would always laugh about the dynamic of our relationship. I’d say for me that the fondest memory was our last scene shooting together. The tears that we cried were real. All the emotions involved in those last scenes were very special to us.”
Photo: ABC
Amanda’s latest project is the star-studded A Nashville Christmas Carol for Hallmark! The film, which premieres November 21, follows a television producer, who is forced to work with the man who broke her heart on a country music Christmas special while being interrupted by Christmas spirits determined for her to revisit her past. “She gets visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future who are all played by famous country music stars, which is pretty hilarious. She gets taken to the past to show her some things that shape her future. So, it’s a really sweet story and there’s a lot of country music in the show. I got to work with Kix Brooks and Jessy Schram in my scene where I play her mother in a flashback. It was fun.”
The actress shared that she made the decision a few years ago to slow down her career in order to raise her beautiful children which made her find ways to fill the creative void. “I grew up singing so I have always done that on the side. I’m on the worship team at church. So, I’ve found ways to do that within my family life and community. We moved to Nashville and I’m near Atlanta which is a hotspot for projects and now I’m starting to get back into it again. I feel like taking that break with the kids was great but now I’m ready to get that part of my life back. I’m sort of where I started. Talk about full circle,” she laughed. “I’m back doing stuff in the southeast. It’s really cool to see how much it’s grown and just to see how many projects are going on.”
Armed with that same desire she had growing up and the support of her family she is putting her all into her career. Recently she has portrayed journalist Rebecca Larsen on Black Lightning which she hopes to return to in the upcoming fourth season. “I hope they will bring her back because there are always just crazy things going on in the city of Freeland.” She is also auditioning and awaiting news on several projects. We are just so excited to see this talented soul back in the game!
Thank you, Amanda, for the lovely chat! Be sure to check out A Nashville Christmas Carol on November 21 on Hallmark!
Posts
COMMENTS