Forget-Me-Not
How GL's Beth Chamberlin Pulled Off Being An Amnesia Victim
by Stella Bednarz
Soap Opera Digest
March 20, 1990

That old plot-line complication, amnesia, was the modus operandi for the return of Beth Raines, one of GUIDING LIGHT's most popular heroines. The story presented several challenges for newcomer Beth Chamberlin. Not only was she replacing Emmy-winner Judi Evans, but the character was a traumatized amnesiac who couldn't speak. Although Chamberlin was aware of what Evans had accomplished, she had never watched the show and believes that was an advantage: "I was just able to go in and basically do my own thing. I had no preconceived ideas about my character, so it was great."

Though GL provided a character history, it soon became irrelevant. "They changed how they were planning to bring me back," Chamberlin reveals. "When I went to read for Beth, they weren't going to have both handicaps. In fact, I didn't know about THAT until about a week before I started on the show…[Suddenly] there was no relationship with Phillip, no relationship with anybody. All that went out the window. Instead of being a strong woman, she was scared, insecure, confused. It was like playing a completely different character. She was still caring, but she had all these handicaps."

Beth Chamberlin and Beth Raines were at square one. "I really like how it all came about," the actress reflects. "Beth started out sort of childlike, dependent. Then it was like building blocks where, wait a minute, there's this and that, and then it came flooding back where she was confronted with being in Springfield…I think one of the reasons people did accept the new Beth was because of her vulnerability. It worked out well for people to be worried about me. It gave them a chance to care and get used to who was playing Beth."

The actress did have useful experience to draw one. "It was fortunate I had taken sign language, because I was more comfortable than the average person no talking," she notes. "Also, it was lucky that I did a character study on a woman who was having similar problems. Had I not had that background, I think I probably would have been a little panicky about it."

Chamberlin found herself running to get the next script. "It's like I'm reading a romance novel," she laughs. By the time Beth came face-to-face with her old love, Phillip, the audience and Chamberlin were read for the reunion-a difficult scene for her and Grant Aleksander.

Though Aleksander was able to open the emotional floodgates, Chamberlin was not. "For Beth, the tears were not caused so much by joy to see him, but by this conflict of emotion that she doesn't know how to handle," observes Chamberlin. "She knows she should remember, but she doesn't. She senses something is there, but she can't get it."

Chamberlin had to convey these turbulent feelings without uttering a word. "It's so hard when you don't speak because you want to get across what is going on in your head and you don't want to indicate 'I'm happy now' with a stupid look on your face. You're so frustrated because you don't have the words to do it. I found it difficult, especially the very emotional scenes…I think the hardest thing to portray was anger. When I get angry and I can't yell, my face starts to contort."

When the character was supposed to respond, the script would say, "Beth looks confused." Chamberlin took it a step further. "I decided, well, let me write my own lines and trust the fact that if I'm thinking something, it would be on my face…Occasionally people on the crew would say, 'You know Beth, she never misses a line,'" Chamberlin recalls with a smile.

Though Chamberlin consulted Aleksander and Tina Sloan (Lillian), she points out, "Beth's been through a lot; she's four years older, so she's not really the same woman." Since she and her character share the same name, no one at GL has any trouble keeping everything straight. Chamberlin does admit to occasional confusion. "I was doing a scene with Grant," she recalls. "Sometimes I guess I just forget that my character has the same name as I do, because I differentiate between the two. When he said 'Beth,' I thought, 'Why is he calling me by my name?' Then I thought, 'Oh yeah, that's my character's name, it's OK.' Or sometimes I would be doing a scene and think, 'What's my line? I forgot my line.' Then I would realize, 'Oh, I don't HAVE a line.' It was weird."