NIKOLAS AND EMILY
TYLER | NATALIA

Secrets Behind Emily Recast
ABC Soaps In Depth
March 18, 2003

IN: Who has been tapped to play GENERAL HOSPITAL's Emily Quartermaine? And was there ever a chance that Amber Tamblyn might reclaim her role? Soaps In Depth has the scoop!

The In Depth Story: You read it first at SoapsInDepth.com! The new face of GH's Emily belongs to soap newcomer Natalia Livingston, whose first tape day is slated for March 10. As such, a GH rep says Livingston will make her debut on Friday, March 28.

Livingston, a graduate of the North Carolina School Of The Arts who was "discovered" while working at a Home Depot, is "really excited," reports her manager, who notes that the actress was at home in Georgia, unavailable for the first round of auditions, when GH first called. As such, she valiantly put her best work forward via videotape. "[Casting director] Mark Teschner, who's wonderful, loved it," says her rep. Then, after the New Year, Livingston flew to Los Angeles for a face-to-face with GH execs. "The rest is history," raves her manager. "Right away, they called."

Prior to deciding on a recast, did GH ever come close to enlisting Tamblyn, Emily's original portrayer, for an encore performance, as had been rumored? A setsider tells Soaps In Depth that while ABC for some time has wanted to commit to an Emily storyline, the red-hot nature of Tamblyn's career - replete with numerous primetime gigs and a role in The Ring - precluded the ingenue from agreeing to a requisite longterm contract.