Susan Walters has played a wide variety of roles since her television career launched in 1983 with the daytime drama "Loving." Taking on the role of Priscilla Presley in in the 1988 miniseries "Elvis and Me" is at the other end of the acting spectrum from her role as Carol Lockwood on The CW's "The Vampire Diaries."
A few roles have been easier to play than some others for the Atlanta native. She's taken on such a role in "Murdered at 17," an original Lifetime movie that debuts Sunday. It was the chance for the real-life mother of two daughters to play a mom whose daughter, Brooke (Cristine Prosperi), ends up in the middle of situation with a stalker that takes a deadly turn.
"The mother-daughter stuff is very easy for me," Walters says. "Even though Cristine is not like either one of my daughters, she was so available and has such a fun way of playing a scene that it was fun just to take her lead. My job was to support her.
"I support her as a mother through my character. I also feel like I kind of supported her as an actress by just playing off her. She made it so really easy to play the mother-daughter scenes."
Brooke is a popular 17-year-old cheerleader who suffered a head injury during a stunt the year before and has not fully recovered. The teen is seeing a therapist to help her deal with her intermittent explosive disorder (IED). Enter 18-year-old Jake, (Blake Burt), who takes advantage of Brooke's condition.
Walters understands both the mother and daughter roles, having played both over the years. The former model's credits include "The Young and the Restless," "Teen Wolf," "One Tree Hill" and "Melrose Place."
And, because Walters was only 19 when she landed the role on "Loving," she understands what it is like to be a young actor in a world surrounded by veterans.
Even with all her experience, Walters draws the line at taking a motherly role with a fellow actor when they aren't on camera.
"I never offer my advice or talk about acting," Walters says. "Over the past 10 to 15 years, where I have played the mother, most of those projects have had the younger actors as the leads. So they don't need to hear from the freaking 40 or 50 year old unless they ask.
"Sometimes young women will say things to me because I have had a little longevity. I still have the same as when I started out. I will say something if they are complaining about a body part. I will say 'Please, leave yourself alone.'"
The one piece of advice Walters would have given her younger self would be to refrain from using so much time and energy worrying about how she looked. She's basing that on how she keeps getting told she doesn't have "the goods that she had when she was younger," but she feels a lot more comfortable with herself now.
"I didn't get cast as the girl next door, the character actress type," Walters says. "I took on the responsibility of auditioning for roles where I knew the character was supposed to be 'all that.' There was definitely pressure."
Walters, who is in her mid-50s, avoids the pressure of trying to look and stay healthy by doing something she has loved since she was a child: riding her bicycle 50-60 miles every day. When she moved to New York to start her professional acting career and worked as an Elite model, Walters had a bike that she rode all over the city.
Even when she was filming "Murdered at 17" in Canada, Walters managed to secure a bike so she could take long rides alone or with local bicycling enthusiasts. During the 11 days she worked on the cable movie, Walters managed to ride more than 550 miles.
"We shot a lot at night so I would have time to go riding to all these great places during the day," Walters says. "After 11 days I was a little tired but I had the best time."
