Post by jag11 on Nov 11, 2007 12:19:23 GMT -5
November 13, 2007 CBS Soaps In Depth
As first days go, Vail Bloom's at Y&R was a real doozy. After shooting scenes in which she debuted as Genoa City's assistant D.A. (and Paul's MIA daughter), Heather, Bloom was involved in a frightening automobile accident, in which she shattered her nose and was rushed to the hospital. "It was pretty scary," she admits. "I collided with two cars... and ended up flipping my car. The paramedics had to smash my windshield to get me out. You sort of go into this weird preservation mode. You think, 'Oh my God, I was just in a bad accident. My car is upside down right now; how the he** do I get out?'
"I feel very blessed and lucky, because so much can go wrong in a rollover accident," she continues. "When I was in [the ER] as a trauma patient, they were informing me how lucky I was. My spine, my pelvis, my neck were fine, which is the main thing. Breaking your nose is scary, but it could have been so much worse. They got my driver's license and had a plastic surgeon reconstruct it from off that. Even my close friends say that they can't see the difference."
After four days in the hospital, where she recovered from a concussion, Bloom returned to work at Y&R. "It's definitely an ice-breaker... to show up on set with a swollen nose and black eyes," she laughs. "Everybody was so sympathetic and wonderful to me. It's like, 'Who can be mean to that girl?' So one of the positive things to come out of the experience was that it kind of accelerated the whole getting-to-know-everyone phase. Everybody was coming up to me and saying, 'If you need anything, just let me know.' They were so nice and easy."
Courtroom Trauma
Less easy for Bloom was delving into the material required by her alter ego--namely scenes heavy with courtroom dialogue. "Because of the concussion, I did have some memory issues, where I had to relearn a couple of words," shares the blonde stunner. "Nothing that really inhibited me, but you can tell your brain is not as sharp as it usually is... and there was a lot of legal jargon."
"It's not like a scene where you're reacting emotionally. You have to know your argument, know all the twists and turns when you're questioning someone... really know the dialogue in and out. And I was on so many painkillers," she adds with a light chuckle, "that I was foggy and it was difficult! You get 15 to 20 pages of dialogue for the next day that you have to memorize. But you persevere and figure it out. It's a challenge, where you jump in feet first. But it was fun, too. I love a challenge. And I'm really excited about the next case that comes up because now my mind is fresh and sharp again. I would imagine the courtroom dialogue will be a lot easier without a concussion!"
Heather Who?
Of course, fans are looking forward to getting to know the prickly attorney outside the professional realm of the courtroom, too--especially since everyone (except Heather, that is!) is aware that she is Paul's long-absent daughter. Having researched the character's murky history, Bloom understands Heather may come with more baggage than a Louis Vuitton boutique. Yet she insists she's eager to explore that.
"I think she's a really fascinating character to play," enthuses the East Coast transplant. "She can be a strong, assertive *itch sometimes. She has some really pointy corners to her, but I think there are some interesting reasons as to why Heather hangs so tightly onto her moral code, where everything seems black and white and has a very definitive line. I think there are going to be a lot of reveals in the future that will give Heather a lot more depth and make her even more interesting to play."
Although currently Heather has an intriguing dynamic going on with Adrian (he being the professor that her roommate, Macy, was involved with before her alleged suicide), viewers are most keen to see what will happen should the lovely lawyer discover that Paul is really her dear old dad. "How will she react? I would think she'll be overwhelmed, confused, conflicted," muses Bloom. "She'll have so many emotions firing at once. I think if this revelation is thrown in her face, it will be very interesting to see how she handles it."
In other words, stay tuned, because Bloom says when it comes to her on-screen persona, you ain't seen nothing yet. "There will be a lot of layers that are going to be peeled back," she teases, "and there's a reason why she seems so straight-and-narrow. I think people will see that she's really multidimensional, and she has a soft heart under that hard exterior."
Birthplace: Boston, MA.
Raised: Connecticut and Florida.
Silver Screen: The actress can be seen in the indie film Finishing The Game as a casting assistant who's assigned the task of finding martial arts legend Bruce Lee's replacement. Shares Bloom, "It's a totally different character than Heather."
Maxim Exposure: Bloom was at school in Princeton when she snagged third place in Maxim magazine's Hometown Hotties contest. "It kind of got overwhelming," she confesses of the racy photos. "Things turned out a little more provocative than I would have liked."
Law & Order
by Julie McElwain
Vail Bloom loves her new role as Genoa City's tough-as-nails assistant D.A., Heather.
As first days go, Vail Bloom's at Y&R was a real doozy. After shooting scenes in which she debuted as Genoa City's assistant D.A. (and Paul's MIA daughter), Heather, Bloom was involved in a frightening automobile accident, in which she shattered her nose and was rushed to the hospital. "It was pretty scary," she admits. "I collided with two cars... and ended up flipping my car. The paramedics had to smash my windshield to get me out. You sort of go into this weird preservation mode. You think, 'Oh my God, I was just in a bad accident. My car is upside down right now; how the he** do I get out?'
"I feel very blessed and lucky, because so much can go wrong in a rollover accident," she continues. "When I was in [the ER] as a trauma patient, they were informing me how lucky I was. My spine, my pelvis, my neck were fine, which is the main thing. Breaking your nose is scary, but it could have been so much worse. They got my driver's license and had a plastic surgeon reconstruct it from off that. Even my close friends say that they can't see the difference."
After four days in the hospital, where she recovered from a concussion, Bloom returned to work at Y&R. "It's definitely an ice-breaker... to show up on set with a swollen nose and black eyes," she laughs. "Everybody was so sympathetic and wonderful to me. It's like, 'Who can be mean to that girl?' So one of the positive things to come out of the experience was that it kind of accelerated the whole getting-to-know-everyone phase. Everybody was coming up to me and saying, 'If you need anything, just let me know.' They were so nice and easy."
Courtroom Trauma
Less easy for Bloom was delving into the material required by her alter ego--namely scenes heavy with courtroom dialogue. "Because of the concussion, I did have some memory issues, where I had to relearn a couple of words," shares the blonde stunner. "Nothing that really inhibited me, but you can tell your brain is not as sharp as it usually is... and there was a lot of legal jargon."
"It's not like a scene where you're reacting emotionally. You have to know your argument, know all the twists and turns when you're questioning someone... really know the dialogue in and out. And I was on so many painkillers," she adds with a light chuckle, "that I was foggy and it was difficult! You get 15 to 20 pages of dialogue for the next day that you have to memorize. But you persevere and figure it out. It's a challenge, where you jump in feet first. But it was fun, too. I love a challenge. And I'm really excited about the next case that comes up because now my mind is fresh and sharp again. I would imagine the courtroom dialogue will be a lot easier without a concussion!"
Heather Who?
Of course, fans are looking forward to getting to know the prickly attorney outside the professional realm of the courtroom, too--especially since everyone (except Heather, that is!) is aware that she is Paul's long-absent daughter. Having researched the character's murky history, Bloom understands Heather may come with more baggage than a Louis Vuitton boutique. Yet she insists she's eager to explore that.
"I think she's a really fascinating character to play," enthuses the East Coast transplant. "She can be a strong, assertive *itch sometimes. She has some really pointy corners to her, but I think there are some interesting reasons as to why Heather hangs so tightly onto her moral code, where everything seems black and white and has a very definitive line. I think there are going to be a lot of reveals in the future that will give Heather a lot more depth and make her even more interesting to play."
Although currently Heather has an intriguing dynamic going on with Adrian (he being the professor that her roommate, Macy, was involved with before her alleged suicide), viewers are most keen to see what will happen should the lovely lawyer discover that Paul is really her dear old dad. "How will she react? I would think she'll be overwhelmed, confused, conflicted," muses Bloom. "She'll have so many emotions firing at once. I think if this revelation is thrown in her face, it will be very interesting to see how she handles it."
In other words, stay tuned, because Bloom says when it comes to her on-screen persona, you ain't seen nothing yet. "There will be a lot of layers that are going to be peeled back," she teases, "and there's a reason why she seems so straight-and-narrow. I think people will see that she's really multidimensional, and she has a soft heart under that hard exterior."
F.Y.I.
Birthplace: Boston, MA.
Raised: Connecticut and Florida.
Silver Screen: The actress can be seen in the indie film Finishing The Game as a casting assistant who's assigned the task of finding martial arts legend Bruce Lee's replacement. Shares Bloom, "It's a totally different character than Heather."
Maxim Exposure: Bloom was at school in Princeton when she snagged third place in Maxim magazine's Hometown Hotties contest. "It kind of got overwhelming," she confesses of the racy photos. "Things turned out a little more provocative than I would have liked."