She was one of three. Along with Lara Flynn Boyle and Sherilyn Fenn, propelled by David Lynch into the weird world of 'Twin Peaks', onto the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, and greeted as one of the world's most beautiful young women bound to cause ripples.
Mädchen Amick (right) graced the cover of Rolling Stone in 1990, along with Lara Flynn Boyle and Sherilyn Fenn
But, far less than her castmates from the early 1990s, Mädchen Amick opted to take a lower road round the mountain. She says herself she was "an old head on young shoulders" and she realised that, for a career with longevity, she might be better off taking a less hectic pace than was called for by the temptations and film scripts on offer.
Besides, she was a young wife and mother and, asked to choose between the prospect of family life and an A-list career, smiles broadly, "No contest."
Mädchen Amick had a taste of hyperstardom, but turned her back on it for family life
Time has proved her right. The American actress hasn't stopped working for two decades in both TV and film, and now finds another Transatlantic hit on her hands.
In 'The Witches of East End', she joins a female star cast of Julia Ormond, Jenna Dewan-Tatum and Rachel Boston, in Lifetime's show, which sits somewhere between the romance of 'True Blood' and the sisterhood of 'Practical Magic'. A family of well-spoken ladies discover they are, in fact, the next generation of the family's witches. As you do.
What would you do if you found out your life was magical? Literally!
Amick is Wendy Beauchamp, the family's black sheep with a big secret, which is hinted at from the start, but, she delights in explaining, we won't fully understand for a while. Like a mischievous cat, she has nine lives, but the viewers won't know how many she's used up, either. Does she know? She grins again.
What she does reveal, though, is that not every female-heavy cast list need live through the reported divisions and chasms of 'Desperate Housewives'. "From day one, we just got each other," she says. "There was a great strength in numbers, and the whole experience has been magical." Fitting.
Witches of East End, Tuesdays at 10pm on Lifetime (Sky 156 / Virgin 242). Watch the trailer below...