Can being a long-time soap actor be a burden?

[EricMontreal22]

That makes me think of actors who have smaller roles (or large roles but for a brief time) on a soap and are more character types. The guy who played Zack's psycho killer father on AMC pops up a LOT for example--he was Megan's father on Mad Men this past year. He also had a fairly major role on the Kate Winslett Mildred Pierce miniseries for HBO (and actually a lot of other fairly decent, albeit smaller, credits http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0349749/ )

I do think there's less of a soap stigma though than there was especially from the mid 70s and earlier. Maybe that has to do with less of a tv stigma in general. While back then a LOT of fairly well respected theatre actors would do soaps, and quite a few well respected movie stars who were "passed their prime" might go to headline a soap (Ruth Warrick, etc), it wasn't something encouraged if you wanted a movie career--the Ruth Warrick types sorta went into it seeing it as one of their last options. It's not that soap actors are more respected now--as Carl I think said if anything it's that nobody pays attention--but the stigma seems significantly less. (Even soap books written in the late 70s massive soap boom that happened mentioned that the stigma was changing).

[EricMontreal22]

Oh I do, to an extent. Sure you can always say they don't need to be an actor, but I think it's a hard life for a lot of actors trying to make a living at it. I mean obviously I don't have the same sympathy I would have for some other people struggling to make ends meet at a profession, but... And of course the majority of actors largely just scrape by from job to job (this is more off topic, but when people justify a pop singer lip synching at a concert, because she also "dances" and that's like, so completely hard, that's when I lose sympathy--you have people who are singing live while dancing in Broadway and regional shows every day who make next to nothing...)

Law and Order also taped in New York which is why so many very talented heatre people would pop up for single episode roles

[SFK]

??

[SFK]

There's a lot of sitting around in the trailer time in primetime and film. I would compare it to being at a tech rehearsal for a play or musical. I know you've done theatre Eric so you know what I mean. Just sitting and waiting for sometimes multiple hour stretches waiting to tech your own scenes. You can of course be productive in those down hours, working on your script and such, but you're not always waiting around to do particularly tough scenes so actors hang out at craft services, watch TV, read a book, sleep, smoke pot, play cards, et cetera.

[EricMontreal22]

Right--I've obviously never done film or tv (ok, I was an extra in the school scenes of X-Men 2 lol and a few local things--but an extra's work is almost entirely waiting around), but I imagined it would be similar to tech days at theatre which can go on endlessly--it's not that unusual that I've been at ones that have gone on all day into the early hours of the morning. Of course obviously there's much more of that with film and tv, but, as you say, you can use the time fairly productively (even if that means taking a quick nap... Not sure if smoking pot counts as productive, but...)

[SFK]

Ugh, being an extra can be the WORST. I've done it a couple of times, for film, TV, and commercials. I think the smaller the project the better, (and more obviously) the cooler the people the better. When you get a bunch of obnoxious egocentric actors sitting around all day in closed quarters, it can drive you up the wall. All of these people trying to call attention to themselves and play the resume game. Dude, just shut up and sit down and be a normal human being for a minute. We are extras today. Why are you trying to impress us with your "big credits" right now? And then, you get a small group of extras who are just lovely people (usually older) and it's a nice day of pretty much doing nothing for a few hundred bucks and a great union lunch.

[MrQuartermaine]

I was an extra in the movie 1997 film In & Out. I couldn't have asked to work with a better set of actors. Kevin Cline, Tom Selleck, Joan Cusack, Matt Dillon, Debbie Reynolds, Wilford Brimley, & Bob Newhart, just to name the leads. They were all amazing people and so gracious to everyone on set.

[EricMontreal22]

Yes, X2 was actually not a great experience, just cuz it was such a big deal, and there were hysterically unbelieveable egos amongst them (though the crew and the little I saw of some of the stars, Hugh particularly and some of the young cast, were nice). I also did a Canadian film not too long after, Emile, which also had Ian McKellan and Deborah Kara Unger--not a great film, small budget despite the leads being somewhat names, but it was a much better experience--the leads hung out with us (I got McKellan to autograph a photo of Eminem--don't ask, it seemed amusing at the time), and everyone was much more down to earth.