All My Children’s Legendary Casting Director Tells All About the Actors She *Knew* Would Be Stars — Plus, the Truth About Agnes Nixon
Casting director Judy Blye Wilson began in the daytime space in 1981, casting the familiar faces fans loved on Ryan’s Hope, One Life to Live, All My Children, and The Young and the Restless over the years. She retired in 2016, but Wilson enjoys sharing stories from her days in the trenches as a daytime casting director.
Wilson began working on All My Children in 1991 after previous stints at Ryan’s Hope and One Life to Live, the latter of which was created by the legendary executive producer, Agnes Nixon. She worked for Nixon at One Life to Live from 1988 to 1991, until Pine Valley began calling that same year. Wilson would work on 1080 episodes of All My Children until it was canceled by ABC in 2011.
“She was very involved; she created the show, All My Children,” says Wilson to Soaps.com. “She created other shows, too, but this was her prize, her baby. She never would have gotten in the way of someone’s work, including casting. But when it came down to decision-making, she was extremely present. And she was always right. That’s why All My Children was so good.”
Wilson downplays her significant role in finding key actors to round out the cast during her tenure, but we will brag for her. Josh Duhamel, Sarah Michelle Gellar (ex-Kendall), and Mark Consuelos (Mateo) were just some of the fabulous actors she helped discover — and she remembers them all well.
“Josh Duhamel… he was just out of the gate, perfect, darling, adorable, wonderful, and totally brought a life to a character that I don’t even think they realized,” she praises Duhamel for the work he did as Leo on the soap. “I think he brought a lot to the role that they didn’t even write in the beginning.”
Of course, Wilson had an inkling that Hollywood would love some of the actors she cast over the years. “Well, if an actor chose to leave and not renew their contract, there are some that I definitely thought would go on and do really well,” she explains. “Josh was definitely one of those, and Sarah Michelle Gellar and a lot of other ones. I thought, ‘They’ll work, they’ll work for sure.’ But it’s hard to predict things like that because everything is really wacky [in the entertainment industry].”
Wilson isn’t done with daytime yet, though. The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences hasn’t forgotten her contributions to the genre, so she will be inducted into the Silver Circle Honor Society on Friday, Oct. 17, at the Daytime Emmys in Pasadena, Calif. It’s a night she won’t forget!
“I’m very honored. I’m very grateful,” Wilson says gratefully. “It’s really, truly wonderful.”
