AMAZING Grace
Victoria Grace’s Childhood Dreams Are Coming Through With A Plum Role On DAYS.
Playing Wendy Shin on both BEYOND SALEM: CHAPTER 2 and DAYS has been a real ego boost for Victoria Grace. After a few months on the job, the actress has had a trio of leading men — Carson Boatman (Johnny), Lucas Adams (Tripp) and Tanner Stine (Joey) — fawning all over her character. “This is something totally foreign to me,” admits Grace candidly. “Growing up, I was never the popular girl who all the guys flocked to, so this has been an interesting experience and a lot of fun. I was just home in Maryland visiting my family, and I was able to brag to all of my siblings, ‘Yeah. My character has three guys after her.’ They all got a kick out of that.”
What makes the situation more gratifying for Grace is the fact that Wendy isn’t your classic daytime damsel. “It’s amazing that here Wendy is this total tomboy,” points out Grace. “She’s not the typical girl next door, very girly and feminine. Wendy doesn’t care about fashion or what she even looks like. I love that these guys are obviously flocking to her for her personality, smarts and sense of humor versus her outer shell. I think that’s beautiful.”
The actors portraying those smitten suitors have made Grace’s soap experience even better. “I absolutely adore Lucas, Tanner and Carson,” she says. “They’ve been the best male leads that you can ask for, very understanding and patient. They’re all great guys. I learned very early on that Tanner and Carson are best friends from their hometown. I love seeing them interact, because you can tell there’s such history there. Carson is a very confident, smooth guy, and everyone on the set loves him. Lucas is very sweet. He’s from Texas, so he has all those Southern gentlemen mannerisms. In between scenes, we’re always messing around, dancing or teasing each other. And Tanner is just a really silly guy. He loves to make jokes. It’s almost hard for him to take things seriously.”
Grace, on the other hand, has been focusing on her career quite seriously ever since she was a kid. It all started when a TV crew came to her home to film a segment on the family’s Cavalier King Charles Spaniels for a special on pampered pets. “As a child, I was always extroverted and very bubbly. I would talk to everyone,” notes Grace. “My mother recognized that I had the perfect personality to be in the entertainment industry, so she asked the producers how one would get started in the industry. They referred us to acting teachers nearby.”
So, at the age of 6, Grace began taking classes. “I fell in love immediately. I couldn’t picture myself doing anything else,” she recalls, noting that commercial work promptly followed, eventually leading to Grace’s first real acting job, a supporting role in the sitcom pilot MOON HOLLOW. Then came a hosting gig on PBS. “I did all the interstitials in between shows,” explains the actress. “I
would introduce the next show to the audience. It was a lot of fun. At the time, I was, like, the only kid on the set. There was a lot of attention put on me, and I loved that.”
With her career off and running, Grace was ready to take the next step. “I was around 9,” she recounts. “A few of my acting teachers heard about this Washington, D.C. talent search. A manager from L.A. was coming to D.C. to look for new talent. My mom and I thought, ‘Well, we might as well give it a shot. Whatever happens, happens.’ ”
Grace ended up one of a handful of participants who made the cut. A manager recommended she move to Los Angeles to continue her pursuit of professional acting. So, in 2010, Grace and her mother headed to the West Coast, where they had to adapt to a whole new way of life. “I grew up in a very small town out in the countryside that was very nature-oriented and very green,” recounts Grace, who was raised in Maryland. “We have a house there on a two-acre property. The neighbors all know each other. L.A. is extremely different; everything from the weather to the palm trees to the people. It’s this loud, big city, and we moved into a tiny apartment. It was definitely an adjustment, but I loved every minute of it.”
Things proceeded quickly for the Tinseltown newcomer. “The first month or so I booked three commercials and a short film. So that was a sign,” she notes. “But I never put any pressure on myself. I always thought that acting was something fun and enjoyable to do. My parents never put any pressure on me, either. They said that if I didn’t have fun anymore, we could stop and go home.”
Luckily, the fun continued, along with the chance to appear in Kelly Clarkson’s “Dark Side” video. “My mom actually saw that on a casting breakdown, and I went and auditioned,” explains Grace. “I was superexcited. I was a huge Kelly Clarkson fan. I liked singing tons of her songs.”
Grace even got to meet the star one-on-one. “We were talking to her security guard, and my mom was telling him what a big fan I was,” she remembers. “He said, ‘I’m sure Kelly will be able to meet you if you want.’ My mom and I got super-excited. We waited around for a bit, then she came out of her trailer with a signed headshot. She was so sweet. She gave me a hug, and we started singing ‘Mr. Know It All’ together as a duet. She harmonized with me. I will never forget that moment.”
Living the dream life in L.A. and having so many opportunities come her way, Grace
eventually realized her career aspirations had become a successful reality. The turning point came “when I started booking network comedies,” she reflects. “I never thought of myself as a funny person. I have the capabilities to be funny, but it doesn’t come naturally to me like it does to some people. It takes effort. It takes me having to break down scripts and find the moments, whereas drama comes to me effortlessly. It was a surprise to both me and my mom, when I started booking guest parts on MULANEY, SUPERSTORE and, eventually, MODERN FAMILY. There are a very limited amount of people who go in for those roles. I definitely felt like I was starting to be on casting directors’ radar.”
With sitcoms and a mountain of voiceover work on her resumé, including Sony’s biggest game on Playstation, The Last Of Us: Part 2, Grace has never looked back. And she’s thoroughly enjoying her latest career turn at DAYS. “I love waking up, seeing a new script, and finding out where they’re going with Wendy’s storyline. I love stepping into her shoes for the day. That’s really exciting for me,” enthuses Grace, who promises viewers “are going to see more and more of Wendy. We’re introducing other aspects of her personality to the audience that I think are really interesting.”
Although she doesn’t profess to be as tech savvy as her Salem alter ego, Grace does share a few key attributes with her. “We’re both driven and ambitious with great work ethics. We’re both sassy. We’re both very sarcastic people. So I tapped into that aspect of her very quickly,” Grace adds with a laugh.
There is one aspect where the two greatly differ at the moment. Grace’s love life is nowhere up to par with the highly soughtafter Wendy’s. “I am not in a relationship,” she says. “If anything, I’m in a relationship with my bed, because I very much like to stay in bed. There’s not much to say about my personal life. I work all the time, so I don’t have much of one. I don’t have a lot of free time. I love what I do. I love every second of it. Acting is my life. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”