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Memories From the Set: Madchen Amick
STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION
Amick was first introduced to TV audiences with a guest-starring role in a 1989 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. “I loved that character, because she was a throwback to the 1950s/1960s Star Trek with the velvet bodysuit and the big bouffant hairdo,” she says. “I was going to have a much bigger role as the escort for the queen, but I had already booked [Baywatch: Panic at Malibu Pier], so they just made me one version of the character. I believe I was ‘Teenage Girl.’”
TWIN PEAKS
Amick was still shooting Baywatch when she scored a meeting with filmmaker David Lynch to discuss a mysterious new TV project. “I was running behind coming from the Baywatch set, so it was really late at night by the time I finally got to the office and met with David,” she recalls. “I read with the son of his casting director, Joanna, and I got the part right there in the room. What I found out much later was that they hadn’t actually written Shelly yet. I was auditioning for Donna, Lara Flynn Boyle’s part. They just liked me in the room, so they wrote something for me.”
DAWSON’S CREEK
What does Amick remember about her three-episode stint as Hollywood transplant Nicole Kennedy in 1999? “Barely anything,” she says, other than being very impressed with how nice the cast was. “They asked me to stay on longer, but my kids — who were very young — were cooped up in the hotel with my husband. I was like, ‘I can come back and do this another time, but I can’t stay here anymore.”
GILMORE GIRLS
“You’d think she was on the show a whole lot more for how much they talked about her,” Amick says of Christopher’s ex-fiancée Sherry Tinsdale, who only appeared in three episodes (2002–2003). But here’s something you probably didn’t know when you watched Lorelai and Sherry’s awkward first meeting: “I actually got really far in the testing process and almost got the part of Lorelai,” Amick says. “But the network said I didn’t seem old enough to be a mother, which I had thought was kind of the whole point. Either way, it was really cool that Amy [Sherman-Palladino] brought me back in for this part.”
JOEY
Given that Joey Tribbiani was one of her favorite characters on Friends, Amick was excited to get to play his love interest for five episodes of this ill-fated spinoff in 2005. “I love doing comedy, and I’ve done several comedic pilots that just weren’t picked up to series,” she says. “People don’t necessarily think of me in a sitcom sort of way, so it was fun to get to explore that.”
GOSSIP GIRL
“Hi! Nice to meet you. OK, now I’m going to jump into your lap.” That basically sums up Amick’s first interaction with Chace Crawford when she recurred on Gossip Girl for four episodes in 2008. Their first scene together was a front-seat hookup, which apparently wasn’t as uncomfortable as it looked. (“There was plenty of room, I’ll give that to Range Rover.”) Still, “Chace would get caught up sometimes and forget his lines, so I’d whisper them to him every once in a while,” she says. “He was very sweet.”
WITCHES OF EAST END
“Wendy was naked a lot!” Amick says of her shapeshifting character in this tragically short-lived Lifetime drama (2013–2014). “But I was never nervous about being naked, because I thought it was such a funny aspect of her character.” Sadly, the show was axed after its second season finale, which relocated Wendy to hell. “The plan for the next season was that the girls would need to figure out how to rescue Wendy. And because she was down there with her other sister, we’d also get to know her better. There was so much potential, and the network really regretted canceling us. It was done hastily. We want to do a Witches of East End movie, whether it’s on Lifetime or Netflix or whatever. The fans deserve it.”
AMERICAN HORROR STORY
“It’s always a bummer when your young son kills you and drains your blood,” Amick says. “It’s rude, really.” Sadly, that was the fate of her AHS: Hotel character Mrs. Ellison, who only lasted three episodes in 2015. “One thing I’ve learned about myself — and my family continues to razz me about it — is that I’m terrible at dying,” she says. “I don’t know what to draw from. I just can’t do it. I’m envious of actors that can die well, because it’s an art.” Fortunately, Horror Story didn’t require Amick to perform a full death scene. “I just had to lay there and be dead, which was much easier.”
TWIN PEAKS (REVIVAL)
When rumors of a revival began circling in 2014, Amick immediately e-mailed Lynch, who simply replied, “I’ll see you very soon in the beautiful world of Twin Peaks.” She knew it would be an emotional experience, but nothing could have prepared her for slipping back into Shelly’s waitress uniform, which the show’s costume designer had kept in her private collection. “From that moment on, and even through filming, we were constantly fighting back tears. When I said my line, ‘James is cool, he’s always been cool,’ something came over David and he just cried for about 15 to 20 minutes. We all stood around and hugged. It was a wonderful, emotional reunion. It was magical.”
Image: Courtesy of CBS Television Distribution
Image: Courtesy of CBS Television Distribution
Image: Courtesy of Sony Pictures Television
Image: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Image: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Image: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Image: Courtesy of 20th Television
Image: Courtesy of 20th Television
Image: Courtesy of Showtime Networks
