Beth Chamberlin, an American actress spoke with us recently and updated us on life after a successful run on Guiding Light and so much more.
Chamberlin received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination in 2010 for Outstanding Supporting Actress as Beth Raines Spaulding in Guiding Light. She also played the role of Lorelei Hills–Beth’s dissociative identity disorder personality–on “The Guiding Light” from 2001-02. Chamberlin created also penned the best-selling book “Lorelei’s Guiding Light, An Intimate Diary”, published by St. Martin’s Press in 2002.
Chamberlin grew up in Danville, VT, the youngest of four children and the only girl. We were happy to catch up with her and talk about her time on Guiding Light, recent projects and more.
When we brought up the subject of the pandemic, Chamberlin noted, “I am surviving, trying to keep positive and continue to pivot to deal with my work as an actor, my business as a gym owner and my teenage son with school.“
She noted her path to acting, “I started out as a ballet dancer but at a certain point realized I didn’t want to continue in that path. I had acted in my past, wanted to move in that direction but was afraid to do so. After a hurtful comment by a co-worker, I realized it was time to move forward with what I wanted or to move on to something else. I chose to move forward and started by enrolling in a two-year acting program. I got lucky with a manager wanting to take me on, started booking some commercials which got me in the union. A couple of years later I moved to LA and started to get auditions for television roles. I screen-tested for tons of things before finally booking Guiding Light. In fact, a few months before I booked Beth on GL, I auditioned for the part of Mindy. I was told later, they watched my screen test, liked it but kept saying, “She seems more like a Beth.”
We recently marked the 11th anniversary of the finale of the CBS daytime soap opera. In regards to her time on the show, she stated, “I have two favorite stories. The first is the story I did when I first went back to the show in 1998 where Lizzie killed my ex-boyfriend Carl. The second is the story of Lorelei. Both were incredibly well written and fulfilling to play as an actor. I also felt incredibly lucky to work with Paul Rauch. He made every show look amazing and demanded the best from everyone.”
Then we talked about her feelings being a part of such an iconic and well-recognized show. “I, of course, loved being on the show but didn’t really understand what I was a part of until I did the book tour for my book about Lorelei’s diary in 2001“. She continued, “Everywhere I went there were families that showed up. Great grandmother, grandmother, mother and daughter and they were brought together by the show they all watched. There is nothing else like this on television and no matter the ratings of the best shows out today, they don’t do what we did. We brought generations together, gave the young and the old something they could converse about.“
Why did fans love this show so much? “I’m not sure. I do think there is something special about a show that comes into your home five times a week. In these cases, you are not just watching a story unfold, you are watching a life unfold. Beyond that, we had the good fortune of having wonderful writers at the helm who wrote the stories that reflected our world, big issues and small.“
Chamberlin is no doubt open to doing soaps again. We have four daytime dramas and she told us, “I would love to do a soap again.” She continued, “There is nothing quite as satisfying. On primetime, you do a role but it is more limited. On a soap, you play a character for years, you come to know that character as well as you know your own life and history. Particular shows are not as important to me as the character. A character that is interesting will always set me on creative fire.”
We also talked about her time on primetime shows. “I’ve been lucky to do quite a lot of primetime. I’ve also been lucky in those that I have played the victim and the bitch and I have worked with some big stars. I have been impressed by the kindness and generosity of those big stars.” She divulged a little more as she stated, “A primetime show takes much longer, about 10 days to shoot a single episode, rather than one day like a soap, there is a lot of attention to detail. They have the time to do it and that is fun. I would love to experience being a regular on a primetime show to experience it from the perspective of an actor playing a continuing character. The downside of primetime is mostly with shooting pilots. You do something like I did in a project by John Cusack that is amazing and you think for sure it will be picked up and it isn’t. That is painful.”
The pandemic really shifted things, but does Chamberlin have any projects on the horizon? “At the moment things are crazy in the business because of the pandemic.” She is not sure what is next however as she said, “The industry is starting to slowly come alive again, but it is not easy. Sets that would normally have dozens of people on set are limited to just a few. States that would normally accept actors from other states do not due to state quarantine issues. Instead of in-person auditions, you self-tape and send it in. Or, your agent is just asked for your reel. Of course, I have had some auditions and requests for reels, but not sure what is next.“
Chamberlin stays busy outside of acting, “My son Luke is 15 and although he doesn’t need me in the same way as he did when he was younger, he probably needs me more than he would during a normal time.” She is ensuring to do all that he needs, “His life has been so changed by the pandemic too. I am trying to do what needs to be done to keep him physically healthy with exercise, psychologically healthy by helping him be sure to keep in touch with friends, and keeping his habits healthy academically whether he is in class or learning remotely.” She also has other things keeping her busy, “of course, my business Nyack Boot Camp keeps me very busy, especially now. To stay afloat we have had to pivot to keep the business alive, make our clients feel safe, and give them options for continuing in a variety of ways. We offer outdoor, socially distant classes for those that need that energy and motivation from a group class. We offer live stream classes for people that need the accountability of having to show up at a certain time each day, but are not comfortable leaving their homes. We offer recorded workouts for people who need flexibility. Most of our clients use a combination of the above to keep them motivated and fit.”
Chamberlin has her nyackbootcamp.com site that persons who are interested in working out for athleisure wear bcbodyshop.com can join. People can also reach Chamberlin if they have questions about their exercise classes or their clothing at info@nyackbootcamp.com. She is also offering a special discount for anyone who contacts her about joining our boot camp from this article, all you have to do is just mention this article.
Leave a Reply