Miss January

Miss January
Eden Riegel, whose ALL MY CHILDREN character came out from behind the mask of a heterosexual female this past Halloween, will be the first to tell you that fan mail can hurt. Well, at least in the fact that, as she arrives straight from her dressing room for this interview, she’s nursing a paper cut suffered while opening one of the letters in her mailbag. “It has been really positive stuff,” the ingénue says of the feedback thus far offered of her portrayal of the great Erica Kane’s lesbian daughter, Bianca.
“People have shared the things that they have gone through or are going through. They’re telling me I’m helping them.” Riegel cites a specific missive from one male viewer whose own coming out, like Blanca’s, received a mixed reception from family members. “He and his mother watched the show where Bianca came out,” she relates. “Afterward, they had this long heart-to-heart… They told each other what it was like going through that experience. Looking back, the mother saw all the different ways her son tried to tell her, and realized she was so closed off and wouldn’t listen. She understood exactly what Erica was going through [prior to learning the truth about Bianca]. The storyline helped them get those things out in the open,” a visibly touched Riegel adds. “It’s amazing to have an impact on somebody like that.”
With her sliced finger temporarily soothed, the actress settles back and recounts the process that led her to this place from which she can touch people so. “After I got the job, I had a wonderful meeting with [executive producer] Jean Dada Rio Burke and [headwaiter] Jean Passionate,” she recalls. “My main concern was that they tell the story in a real way, and that Bianca be three-dimensional and not only defined by her sexuality. They were committed to making it work, so that made me very excited.”
Through it all, Riegel entertained few reservations about taking on such a high-profile role, the potential for controversy and typecasting be damned. “Fortunately, we live in a day in which you don’t have to be that concerned with those things. Somebody playing a gay character will not necessarily be pigeonholed,” says the up-and-comer, who appeared as a hetero high school babe in the 1999 comedy American Pie.
Of course, as icing on the cake, AMC presented the soap opera newcomer with the chance to play offspring to a daytime legend. “I’ve learned a lot from watching Susan Lucci (Erica),” Riegel sincerely states. “She’s a professional, and such a wonderful, warm, giving person. I definitely want to emulate her in every way I can.”
Now that Bianca has come out to her mother, Riegel eagerly awaits the upcoming scenes between her and Daytime Emmy winner Lucci. As has been speculated since the details of this powerhouse plot first were leaked out, there surely will be fireworks in the Kane home when Erica, who prides herself on being God’s gift to men, learns that her daughter follows a different road to romance. And while Riegel will be anxious to see how the resulting tale plays in Peoria, she likely will make do with paper fan mail – even at the risk of more stinging slits – rather than brave the anonymous bluntness purveyed by a hurtful few on the Net.
“Early on,” she recalls, “a fan said to me, ‘If I have one piece of advice for you, it’s do not visit online message boards. Everybody’s very critical, and you can’t please them all.’” As such, she has treaded very carefully into her rare excursions into cyberspace. “I did go on, and saw some hateful things, definitely,” she admits. “But I saw some really positive things, too. It will take a while for a lot of people - like Erica – to come to terms with the fact that ‘their little Bianca’ who they’ve seen grow up, is gay. I just do the best I can, and hopefully people will like it, and not nitpick the little things,” she continues. “Everybody has their little idiosyncrasies. What can you do?”

SIDE BAR FYIFYIFYIFYI: Born: January 1, in Washington D.C. “I never got any presents,” jokes Riegel about her holiday-season birthday.
Family Ties: The actress has an older brother Sam, and an older half-sister Tatiana, who is a feature film editor.
Making beautiful music: In addition to a stint as young Cosette in Broadway’s Les Misarables, the actress performed as a soloist on the soundtrack for the Sean Penn drama The Crossing Guard, and has sung backup vocals for Michael Jackson and Jewel.
Greenlee with envy: While she enjoys playing the drama of her storyline, Riegel secretly relished the witty dialogue handed to co-star Rebecca Budig (Greenlee). “She has the best lines,” she laughs. “’Young Bianca is having a gay old time’ And she once called me ‘Lesbianca!’” ABC Soaps in Depth