Catching Up With... Jamie Luner

(ex-Liza, ALL MY CHILDREN, 2009-11; ex-Lexi, MELROSE PLACE, 1997-99; ex-Peyton, SAVANNAH, 1996-97)

- Mara Levinsky

Despite the prime-time soaps on her resumé, when Jamie Luner was tapped to make her daytime drama debut as a recast Liza Colby on ALL MY CHILDREN in 2009, “I was like a deer in headlights,” she admits with a good-natured chuckle. “It was shocking to me. It’s the scariest thing I’ve ever done!”

Though it’s been six years since she ended her three-year run on the show, having played Liza through to AMC’s end, her time in Pine Valley remains close to her heart. “I grew a deep affinity for it, actually,” she says of the infamously frenetic pace of shooting a soap. “Once I got two months into it, something clicked. I went from feeling really overwhelmed to, ‘Oh, I get this now.’ My memorization skills expanded and the work became really fun, really stimulating. I loved the spontaneity of it. I loved getting everything I could into a moment, and then it was over and you’re on to the next one — and you have 25 of them a day! With the soap world, you trust your instincts and you just fly.”

Working alongside one of daytime’s most notoriously spontaneous actors, Michael E. Knight (ex-Tad), was a highlight of her AMC experience. “Michael is a gem and we are still friends to this day,” she says fondly. “He was an amazing acting partner for me, just extraordinary to work opposite. I absolutely grew as an actress because of working with him. It was such a blessing.”