Soap Opera Digest January 1979
Victoria Wyndham: I'd Rather Be Loved Than Rich Or Famous
By M. George Haddad
Victoria Wyndham, alias Rachel Cory on the ever-popular ANOTHER WORLD (a role she originated in 1972), sits on a pastel-colored couch in the living room of her beautiful 20 acre home. She looks every inch a lady, outfitted in a long, flowing hostess gown, as she speaks softly about her life philosophy. She warns at the beginning of the interview that she is not the type of person you'll find in the gossip columns, and she doesn't intend to become one of Hollywood's flashier actresses or, heaven forbid, a sex symbol:
"What is a sex symbol anyway?" she gently asks. "I think every woman is a sex symbol - to someone. And that's the way it should be. I think it's rather natural for husbands to look at other women; or for women to look at other men. But beyond looking, of course, is something else. Anyway, I feel sorry for a lot of these newer actresses - er, personalities - who are on posters in bedrooms across America. Being ogled, joked about. It may bring them a lot of money, but I wonder: does it bring them any self-respect, any personal security to know that everything's built around being blonde, young and sexy?"
This isn't sour grapes, by any means, for Victoria is one of the most successful actresses in soap operas, having won this magazine's SOAPY award for favorite actress, and she is respected by both her fans and her peers, having won several accolades for her acting. "I know some people look down on soap operas," she says, "but the fast majority of them are people who have never watched them. A soap opera is an unfolding saga, it's very much - in an exaggerated way, of course - like what goes on in every single American town. Women, and men and children, can learn from the soaps. Sooner or later, everything is told about or acted out. So I see it as no light responsibility to do my very best.
"It's not a joke for me, or a way-station to something else. Most of us wouldn't mind doing some prime time TV or a movie now and then, but one has to be realistic; it doesn't happen to everyone. That doesn't mean that the soap actors are any lesser, and I think some of the best acting on TV is found in the daytime. PEYTON PLACE, one of the few nighttime soaps, was inferior, in my opinion, to many, even most, of the day time shows. Somehow, prime time shows lose more integrity, maybe because they have to please a wider audience... At any rate, maybe what I'm trying to say is that I'm very happy where I am right now."
Ms. Wyndham, who somewhat resembles Loretta Young (the younger version) when in repose, is a very satisfied lady. She is content both professionally and privately. Asked for detail about her private life, however, she demurs:
"Some stars live their lives in a goldfish bowl. I don't. First, I don't think I'm wild enough to compete with Liz Taylor and Jackie O., and second, I like to separate Rachel Cory from Victoria Wyndham. The one belongs to her fans, the other is her own woman, even though she's great friends with the other. I don't discuss my loved ones because I'm the subject of this interview. I'm the one who chose to put myself in the limelight, and it wouldn't be fair to expose them, or the details of their lives or our relationships. Privacy is a very special thing; it has to be handled in just the right quantity, like a delicate ingredient in a recipe - too much of it ruins the broth, but not enough of it leaves you with nothing but ordinary water."
Having scaled the heights of her chosen field, Ms. Wyndham is ready to move on to bigger and better things, though not necessarily in another branch of the entertainment industry. She won't do any X-rated films and doubts she'd do an R-rater either, but is holding out for "something of quality, something non-faddish that will age well with time." Whatever comes, however, Victoria says she has never been wholly career-oriented:
"Some feminists try to make us feel guilty if we don't throw ourselves body and soul into our work. Well, I believe in doing everything well, because otherwise the only person you can cheat is yourself. But a personal life - with or without a husband and family - should be as important to a woman as her career. You have to have something to go home to, even if it's just a little kitten; a home is created by a state of mind, not filling it with people or making enough money to put in every piece of furniture one ever wanted.
"The truth is, if I had to choose, I'd rather be loved than rich or famous. At first, that may sound strange for an actress to say, or even slightly defeatist. But think about it: the only way to be happy as a star is to be happy before you became a star. Some of the most neurotic, unhappy, even suicidal people around are big stars, bigger than I. And some very blissful individuals are career women, women behind the scenes or housewives - as little boys say, 'my mother, who doesn't do anything.'
"I decided a long time ago that I couldn't have everything, and that if there was something I truly couldn't have, then there was no use thinking about it. On the other hand, most things are within our reach, so instead of just talking about them we should get up, get out and grab them!"