Go Behind The Scenes Of The Clear Springs Disaster With YOUNG AND RESTLESS's Amelia Heinle (Victoria).

Genoa City was recently rocked by the devastating Clear Springs building collapse and explosion, during which mother-to-be Victoria was left comatose. Her portrayer, Amelia Heinle, who was pregnant in real life while those scenes were taped, reveals what it was like filming the taxing episodes.

Soap Opera Digest: The Clear Springs scenes turned out really well. They were suspenseful to watch.
Amelia Heinle: Thanks! I'm glad you think so. When I was filming, I wasn't sure how they'd do the explosive stuff on daytime. It took a long time to film those scenes.

Digest: I thought it was effective how they showed different characters' stories on different days.
Heinle: I hadn't realized they were going to do it like that. But then my mom wanted to see me and she was like, "Where are you? You haven't exploded yet." I was like, "I know I'm in there sometime."

Digest: Victoria's purse showed up on the air before she did.
Heinle: I know, it was so funny. But Mel (Thomas Scott, Nikki) really put her heart into it, even when she was crying over that purse. She's great.

Digest: Did you fall asleep during the coma scenes?
Heinle: It was hard not to. Would you believe that this was my first time ever being in a coma?

Digest: Really? But you've been on three soaps. [Heinle also played AMC's Mia and LOVING/THE CITY's Steffi.] How did you manage to avoid that particular soap convention?
Heinle: I don't know! It seems everyone on soaps is comatose at least once, right? It was kind of fun, though. I'd just lie there and relax while people cried over me. What wasn't to like [laughs]?

Digest: You didn't worry at all about the stressful baby storyline affecting your actual baby? Did you try to tell him, "Don't worry, this is all fake?"
Heinle: No, I didn't do anything like that. Besides, he seemed to like me lying down. The most difficult thing for me was not being able to talk to people and trying not to laugh. I was just glad I got to relax because the end of a pregnancy is always so hard. You just want it to be over already. When I was pregnant with my older son [August], who's now 12, I was on THE CITY at the time, and I also worked all the way through to the end of the pregnancy. I had to do some strenuous stuff with him, like walk up stairs. They'd built this set that had elaborate, twisty staircases. I did a lot of climbing while I was pregnant with him ... but go figure, he was two weeks late.

Digest: Were you concerned about doing the Clear Springs scenes? They had you do some climbing during those.
Heinle: Well, for most of it, she was just sitting there waiting in the rubble, and then they used a stuntwoman for the other scenes.

Digest: So that wasn't you we saw when Victoria was hit on the head with a cement block and then rolled down the hill?
Heinle: Some of it was me. You saw me when she got bonked on the head and when she was on the ground unconscious. But it was a stuntwoman who did the flip down the hill, which I thought was pretty darn good. Then they cut to me when she was down on the ground.

Digest: What were the cement blocks really made out of?
Heinle: Those were Styrofoam. We were laughing so hard when we filmed that scene. There was one guy on the crew and he was up way high on the ladder and was throwing them at me from there. They were hitting me pretty hard, so I was like, "Ow!" Then they were like, "Why don't we stand behind the camera and throw it?"They were trying to get the perfect hit, so these guys were spending their night throwing Styrofoam blocks at a pregnant woman's head. We thought it was hysterical. They couldn't believe that this is what they were being paid to do that day.

Digest: I know they let Daniel Goddard [Cane] do some of his own stunts in the elevator scenes. Did they also let your husband [Thad Luckinbill, J.T.] do his?
Heinle: Yeah, they let him do some of the climbing with Daniel up the elevator shaft. But they wouldn't let them go too high, just for liability purposes. They had stunt people take over then. The guys were probably like, "Oh, don't worry, we can climb. "You know how guys get!

Digest: Were you nervous for Thad, especially with him about to become a new father?
Heinle: No, not at all. He's a daredevil. He loves that kind of stuff.

Digest: It's interesting seeing the aftermath.
Heinle: It is. I think the hospital scenes are very real, when everyone comes together as a family. [Head Writer/Executive Producer] Lynn Latham is good at writing that kind of stuff.

Check It Out!
Now that youve read about a bad day for mama-to-be Victoria, check out the November 20 Digest for fun shots of the real-life mama-to-be on a good day!

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