Exclusive: Alyvia Alyn Lind Says Y&R Will Always Be Family
Alyvia Alyn Lind will always be remembered for her role as Faith on Young and the Restless, but she’s amassed a whole new fan base via her role as Lexy Cross on Chucky, the Syfy series based on the 1988 scary movie Child’s Play. Soap 24H caught up with Lind for an interview during the recent TV Critics winter press tour to get some Chucky scoop and memories of Revenge and Y&R.
Chucky’s Back
Like many folks in the business, Lind and the team at Chucky were affected by last year’s actor and writer strikes that hit a big pause button in Hollywood. Once the strikes were over, it took about 2 to 3 weeks for Lind and her castmates to get back to work. “We’re so excited about new episodes coming out,” she tells Soap 24H.
While she was on an unplanned vacation, Lind took a long road trip with her family. She was able to celebrate her birthday with her relatives in July due to the timing of the strikes. “We went all across the USA in our [car] and went to a bunch of different places and visited family,” she shares. “It was really nice to get to spend that time with family.”
Shutting down production actually worked out, timing-wise, Lind says, “We had our first four episodes of the show filmed, done, and ready to go. I think we were almost done with episode six [when the shutdowns occurred].”
Lind admits it was initially a bit weird going back and picking up right where they left off. Fortunately, she hadn’t altered her hairstyle during the interim. “I basically just stayed the same,” she says. Lind previews what Chucky viewers can expect when new episodes return next month. “We saw the Halloween party and a chandelier come crashing down and killing a bunch of people,” she says. “It was super gory, bloody, and crazy!”
While Lind likes to do as many stunts as possible, producers prefer to keep their actors as safe as possible. “We do have doubles,” Lind says. “There are a lot of stunts and stuff going on in these [upcoming] four episodes.”
At the end of the most recent episode, Lind says Lexy witnessed Chucky growing old and aging. “It’s something I’ve never seen before,” she says. “It was actually a good place to leave things.”
Sweet Revenge
Lind comes from a show business family. Her mom, Barbara Alyn Woods was Deb on One Tree Hill. Her sisters Natalie Alyn Lind (Big Sky) and Emily Alyn Lind are performers, too. Emily played a Young Amanda Clarke (Emily Van Camp) on the hit ABC nighttime series Revenge. When Amanda needed to be even younger for about 9 episodes, Alyvia stepped in for her sister to play Amanda as a little girl.
“I was so young then,” she recalls. “I was, like 3 or 4 years old. I was really, really young, but I do have a memory of Jennifer Jason Leigh’s character [Kara, my mother] trying to drown [little Amanda] and how difficult it was. We got to film on the Universal Studios lot. I remember being so excited because I got to go to work and go swimming!” Lind’s sisters helped her prepare for the challenge by testing how long she could hold her breath underwater in their backyard pool. “It was great,” she says.
You’ve Got To Have Faith
Alyvia Alyn Lind has more vivid memories of her years at Y&R working with TV parents Joshua Morrow (Nicholas) and Sharon Case (Sharon). Whenever Lind would get an other opportunity to film something else (like Dolly Parton’s Coats of Many Colors, which aired in 2015, Y&R would hire McKenna Grace (Designated Survivor) to step in as Faith.
The Chucky star is pals with another Y&R star, Lily Brooks O’Briant (Lucy). “She and McKenna and I are all great friends,” says Lind. She recalls having played the part of Faith since she did it from about the time she was a toddler to when she was a young teenager. “It was definitely the best show ever to grow up on and the best training ground,” she says. “I love Josh with my whole heart. I still keep in touch with him and Sharon and everybody from there. I love them.