Mattituck's teen queen/Newly crowned Miss N.Y. Teen USA to compete for national title

Suffolk Times photo courtesy of Taylor Gildersleeve Mattituck High School senior Taylor Gildersleeve poses with the cast of 'Law and Order' after shooting an episode that will air this coming Wednesday. From left: Mario Van Peebles, Ms. Gildersleeve, Anthony Anderson and Jeremy Sisto.

By Erin Schultz

Taylor Gildersleeve isn't just another pretty 17-year-old. Like most of her peers, the Mattituck High School senior has always juggled typical activities such as tennis, cheerleading and student council while maintaining good grades.

At the same time, she's handled starring on the daytime soap opera "All My Children," dancing at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Broadway Dance Center in New York City, and appearing most recently in an episode of "Law and Order," which will air this coming Wednesday.

On Sunday she won the Miss New York Teen USA pageant.

"Most of the kids in my school don't know about everything I do," Taylor said. "I live two lives."

The three-day contest was held at Albany Crowne Plaza from Friday, Nov. 28 to Sunday Nov. 30. Out of 6,000 applicants, Taylor was one of 125 girls from the state to compete. And the only one to win.

"I'm not a pageant girl," she said. "But it's a great opportunity to work with some great charities."

If she wins the national contest (the date and venue of which had not yet been announced), she could make appearances at fashion shows and sporting events, get airtime on local morning news programs and be on the cover of Seventeen magazine.

Taylor said that after her mother, Debbie Gildersleeve, sent in her head shot to the pageant, she did some research and saw "so many positives to it."

"I weighed all the options," she said. "I wasn't sure if that's what I wanted to do ... But I had the mind set of 'I can win this, I can do it' ... to have that personal connection with judges."

And with Donald Trump in charge of the pageant, she said she hopes a Miss Teen USA win will open up some job opportunities.

Not that she needs many.

She played Sydney Harris on "All My Children" in 48 episodes, from August of 2006 to May of last year. Since then she's done off-Broadway theater, independent films and played a pageant girl in a Subway "Five Dollar Foot Long" commercial, which has been airing since last February.

"It's funny, I played a pageant girl long before I was in a pageant," she said with a laugh.

She dedicated many of her weekends and summer days to "All My Children," she said. But the regimen wasn't that bad. Her grandparents have an apartment in the city, she said.

And while working on the show, she befriended probably the most famous soap opera actress around, Susan Lucci.

"One of the sweetest women I've ever met in my life," Taylor said.

In between shoots playing Sydney Harris, a bit of a troubled teen who got caught drinking and created a few love triangles ("Soaps are insane," she said), Taylor and cast members would often have lunch with the hosts of "The View," which was filmed in the same building on Manhattan's upper west side.

She said renowned New York City acting coach Anthony Abeson was a big support for her, along with her fellow cast members.

Mr. Abeson, who was Jennifer Aniston's coach before "Friends," said over the phone on Tuesday that he had no idea Taylor had won the contest.

But, he said, it didn't surprise him. He's been working with her for about two years.

"She auditioned and we took her," he said. "She had a lot of competition, going up against people much older and experienced than her, yet she was just really wonderful. She's by far the youngest of her class of actors in their 20s, 30s and 40s, but she's a beloved member of her group."

Taylor said she wants to take some time off from acting after high school to study broadcast journalism or communications. She's applied to schools like Barnard, New York University and Boston College.

"I love to write as well," she said. "It's hard to make a career out of acting and dancing. I could always take a year off if I want to start [acting] again. I'm doing everything you have to do, and slowly getting it done."

Tom Brennan, a 22-year English and theater teacher at Mattituck High School, called Taylor a highly motivated, well-grounded student and a terrific writer.

"She's a rare one," he said. "Blending in the two worlds she lives in."

Mr. Brennan said that as a writer in his AP literature class she's persistent about getting things right.

"A lot of kids act like they know what's going on," he said. "But she's very dogged about getting something cleared up on a paper."

He said he pushed her to describe her self-made high school education on one of her personal statements for a college application.

"You come from this unique rural area, and you're missing school, going to the biggest city in the world," he remembers telling her. "What does that feel like?"

Mr. Abeson added that if she does decide to pursue studies in literature or journalism, she's equipped "with a hell of a mind."

"She's a very multifaceted, remarkable young lady," he said. "It's wonderful for her to develop all the gifts she's been given."

But, being who he is, Mr. Abeson said he hopes she eventually returns to acting.

"She's really gifted in that area," Mr. Abeson said. "That sounds like such a general term, but she's able to handle comedy, she's emotionally available, she can do dark, edgy stuff. She looks like the girl next door, but she can do the attitude thing."

He said that though the industry might sway her to do otherwise, he'd like to see Taylor play more than just the sweet ingenue, which she can "do with her eyes closed."

Mr. Brennan said he's never seen Taylor act in one of his theater workshops at the high school, but he could see her playing a strong character like Meryl Streep's in "Out of Africa."

Taylor agrees, having just completed a short film about growing up called "Recess" with a filmmaker studying at Columbia University. She said her character "had a horrible upbringing, repressed, with a little edginess about her."

"I feel like people always look at me as the blonde, friendly, peppy cheerleader," she said.

But to win the pageant, Ms. Gildersleeve said that she was just being herself -- a seasoned actress with a writer's mind, soon to graduate from Mattituck High School.

"I'm not going to have the formulaic answers," she said. "I'm going to show my true personality. I think acting helped me with that so much. You focus. You don't let things distract you. You learn to be calm under pressure. You don't care if you have to walk around in a bikini. It was a rewarding thing."

eschultz@timesreview.com