Soap Opera News Gives AW's Victoria Wyndham This Week's Standing Ovation June 10, 1997 After more than two decades on Another World, Victoria Wyndham could get away with phoning in her performances, but the actress never takes the easy way out. This has been especially true lately as her character, Rachel Cory Hutchins, has grappled with the impossible choice of saving her own life or her giving her unborn child a chance to live. It's a terrific situation, very dramatic, when you have something that is life or death," Wyndham says. "It's a workout for the actor but that's what they pay us for. And it's lovely to have such a dilemma to work on, because it gives you the kind of workout you want as an actor. But as far as Rachel is concerned, it's desperately difficult, thinking about her own demise and the Solomon's choice she has to make about who survives."
Although she's putting in long hours, Wyndham is relieved it's a soap and not on stage. "I'm glad I'm not doing this 8 times a week on Broadway, because it's strenuous," she declares. "But it's a great dilemma, so you don't complain."
Still , Wyndham finds it difficult to leave the story behind when work is done. "the depth of this kind of emotion wears you out a bit," she admits. "there are actors who can just turn it on and turn it off-I am not one of those, unfortunately. Times like this I really wish I were, but I have to stay with the dilemma. You psyche works on it even a few days before when you just comtemplate the fact you have to learn that script. It colors your life somewhat."
The wrenching performances Wyndham has been giving have come straight from the heart. "You don't research a life and death situation. You just have to use your imagination," she says.
"And the fact that I am a parent helps tremendously. I can't quite imagine doing this without having had my own children, having brought them up and had all those very deep feelings that parenthood gives you. That helps.
"Everything in your life helps to bring life to this kind of situation," she adds. "To know that people have actually had to make these kinds of decisions is humbling. You find you have a lot to be grateful for. The poignancy of the situation really affects you when you start placing your own children and your own life in that place."