One year ago, Amanda Righetti was looking for work. In her first pilot season, the young actress landed the lead in "No Place Like Home," a drama from "Party of Five" creator Amy Lippman, but FOX decided not to pick up the series. Executives were so enamored with Righetti though that she was signed to the kind of talent holding deal that can either lead to a big break or to a year of bad scripts and obscurity.

For Righetti, the deal turned into a pair of the former, as the Las Vegas native has emerged as the go-to Party Girl for hot FOX primetime soap operas. In her 10-episode run as Hailey Nichol on "The O.C.," she managed to throw a wild, uncontrolled party, work as a stripper at an upscale Hollywood club, romance a notorious embezzler and get into a killer pool-side catfight.

Making a splashy debut in the second episode of the summer drama "North Shore," Righetti's Tessa Lewis sang drunken karaoke, helped trash a hotel room, fended off an abusive boyfriend and scammed her way from vagabond to assistant concierge in the course of an hour.

Thanks to FOX's commitment to year-round programming, Righetti was able to surf from one upscale beach location to the next without skipping a beat.

"I really, in my mind, had a goal of being able to work over the summer, whether it be a film or television or a play," she explains. "Whatever it was. I still wanted to be able to stretch myself as an actor. It just turned out that timing-wise, 'The O.C.' was going to be finished up and 'The North Shore' was going to be starting. I thought, 'You know, Hawaii's not a bad place to be.'"

On the surface, Hailey and Tessa seem cut from a similar Bad Girl mode, an archetype that the 21-year-old actress still enjoys playing.

"I like the colors," Righetti says. "I like the layers of the characters. It makes it challenging as an actor and especially on TV it's nice to have a character that's constantly unpredictable."

With Tessa and Hailey, Righetti has gotten to play forces of unbridled id, cutting swaths that are as much self-destructive as damaging to those around them. While casual viewers may find the two women identical, she explains that the differences lie in their backgrounds.

"Tessa is a lot more raw," she notes. "She comes from a broken home and she started on her own at a younger age. She's really more of an alley cat. Whereas Hailey, she's a lot more sheltered. I don't think that she deliberately tries to hurt people. As much as she likes to stir up the pot, there's also consequences and she recognizes that. I don't think she wants to push it too far. With Tessa, she does it because it's what she likes to do. She gets her kicks from being that very manipulative person."

Righetti enjoys taking chances with her wild characters, but admits that she didn't enjoy watching playback of her off-key cover of "All By Myself."

"I was mortified," she laughs. "Mortified. I don't know how well it's gone over with the audience, but I watched it with full embarrassment."

She's much less embarrassed by her character's skimpy wardrobe, which in her first episode alternates between a skimpy red bikini and cut-offs, a maid's uniform and a pilfered evening gown.

"I've gotta tell you, it's really hot over here," Righetti sighs. "I know it sounds very silly, but the weather is a force to contend with. You can't control it. When you're wearing a lot of clothes, you're more miserable, because they're just sticking to you. When you have less clothes, it's a little bit easier to get through the day."

"North Shore" is half-way through its steamy summer shooting schedule and Righetti is already looking forward to a possible return to "The O.C." She doesn't have any kind of deal in place for next season, but she's hopeful.

"I love 'The O.C.,'" she says. "I had a great home with them. It was an incredible cast and crew and just a pleasure to work with everybody on the show. I would love to be back there if they'll have me."

Righetti's first "North Shore" appearance encores on Thursday night (June 24) at 8 p.m. ET and original episodes air at 8 p.m. on Mondays.