AMC/ATWT: Another Candid Cady McClain Interview

[P.J.]

I don't have a problem with Cady's message. It's the truth. Soaps have been on this slide of jumping from A to J in character logic for a while now, and Pissy in particular has driven a lot of characters to "boundaries" for shock value alone. This year, Carly left her kids, Em was a whore, Craig shot Paul, Meg and Katie can't operate without men in their lives, Gwen is baby obsessed, Adam nearly raped Gwen, Gwen and Maddie covered up a "murder" (yadda yadda), all on very thin motivations. It's not just women characters who are weak and nonsensical.

What I have a problem with is Cady moaning about storyline when she only wanted a limited run in the first place. She already KNEW what Pissy's writing was like---she left in a huff when Hunt Block's Craig was written into a corner. FIVE MINUTES of research would have told her the Paul/Meg/Craig triangle was unsalvagable, with or without Ro's presence. And talking to Maura, Kelley or Martha would have clued her in that the women on ATWT are making irrational decisions at the drop of a hat.

[stenbeck212]

Not another claim that Victoria Rowell must have a mental problem for being assertive, please. I just ate.

Should it matter how long the story was? She wanted to work, that much is clear. We have no idea what kind of enticements and tall tales about the story were used to ensnare her again. Most likely, she was given an overall plot line but no indication of how bad the daily scripts would be. Why blame Cady for not using foresight for this anymore than for Dixie's poisoned pancakes? The problem is that only one or 2 actors stick their necks out to tell the truth about what's going on. But to say they should know better in the first place would mean most of the genre's actors simply not having a job on principle. As Cady said, she was lucky to find a professional community with so much love between the crews, actors and fans. How many of us would give that up because the writing is lackluster? It's still TPTB's fault for letting their creativity depreciate.

[dragonflies]

IMO it does. Kinda hard to invest in a storyline for an actor/actress that doesn't want to commit long term.

As a viewer I sure don't want actors on my shows that won't commit long term.......

[DaytimeFan]

I agree with your take on the divine Ms Rowell. Fabulous actress...difficult person.

The thing with Cady is that she's been in daytime 20 years and seems burned out and disgusted with how things have changed. When she started, in 1988, daytime was not the corporate wasteland it is now. Pioneers like Agnes Nixon and Bill Bell had near total control of their shows and writers were not bounced from show to show at the incestuous rate they are now. Networks were not as financially driven, it was just a simpler, happier time.

Unfortunately, in the two decades that have occurred since Cady started in the business the kind of collaborative work that I'm certain occurred at AMC with Agnes Nixon and Wisner Washam has ceased and she sounds like her frustration has become too much to deal with. It is likely that Cady has the financial means and personal dignity to walk away from daytime and it seems that it has come to that point for her.

I think the only soaps that Cady would probably feel comfortable on are Bell soaps (and Y&R is still dicey). The problem, of course, is that both are taped in LA and are already filled with talented marquee names. Hopefully whatever Cady does she will be able to find something that satisfies her. Daytime doesn't seem to cut it anymore.

[juppiter]

DaytimeFan, I love that idea. Cady on B&B would be amaz-ery.

[stenbeck212]

Cady McClain was on long enough to have a better story. How does her contract's length let the writers off the hook? Not everybody read spoilers and decided hold the short stay against her. People who strictly absorb the writing may not care if Rosanna's departure resulted in great episodes.

[Toups]

I'm on the Cady as Kristen Blake bandwagon. That's of course if Eileen Davidson never returns.

[P.J.]

No, ideally, it shouldn't matter how long the story is. Ideally, our writers should write every character true to themselves, and go from there. But yeah, I blame her for not using the brain God gave an ant and believing whatever they told her to entice her back. I don't know what she expected, but she has been in the business for almost 20 years, and she KNEW that she was leaving sooner rather than later. This wasn't a three-year deal TIIC fired her from. This was a six month run that ran for five. TIIC didn't have ONE reason to not "destroy" Rosanna to further the Meg/Paul romance. Boo-frickin'-hooo if she feels the soul of Ro was "ripped" from her (or whatever that silly hysterectomy-alluding quote was.) Yeah....she wanted to work. On HER terms, just like her entire tenure at ATWT. We don't know what the story might have been, had Cady agreed to a longer stay.

It is easier to "tell the truth" when you're not sticking around. (Not that Cady's ever kept her opinions to herself...) She got her paycheck. And I'm sure if CG calls her up, she'll come back for another one.

[dragonflies]

PJ I'm gonna marry your post

IMO it's disruptive to shows when they bring on actors who won't commit long term, and I mean longer than a year.

That's the biggest reason I hated when Vanessa Marcil returned to GH for what was it 6 months a few years ago, all the other actors have to work their butts off ALL YEAR LONG and then we get one or two actors who just swoop in for a few months taking away airtime from those who are there for the long haul....

[stenbeck212]

'Nuff said.

People find flashbacks disruptive too. I don't get that either! The last assertion I would make is that McClain stole anybody's airtime. The fans wanted to see Rosanna wake up and stick it to Craig. Did that put Elizabeth Hubbard's big story in jeopardy? Oh yeah, she wasn't getting a story anyway. Even if it were true, celebrate, because nobody's getting pushed aside for Rosanna now! But McClain still gets grief for leaving and Marie Wilson gets it for being the writers' darling in the quad.

[Kubla Khan]

We don't know how Cady and ATWT came to agree on that six-month stint. Cady could've requested it, or the show could've suggested it. As we know, ATWT is in the financial shitter. Perhaps Goutman wanted Cady back for six months only (max), tell a story with her in it, drum up fan interest, and let her be on her way. Or perhaps Cady wanted only a six-month stay, for whatever reason. She's certainly entitled to ask for it. Nobody forced Chris Goutman to hire Cady. He hired her for six months, and if talented professionals were running the show, there would be no "disruption" to the show -- actors and storylines alike can last for six months & then the show can move on, for crying out loud.

Cady didn't sign a long-term contract, but she certainly has a right to complain about the ruined integrity of a character that she played for a total of four years. She also has the right to comment about the lost integrity of daytime television in general -- everything Cady says rings true. Daytime TV is in an awful state, and the way soaps treat their characters (not to mention their actors & dedicated crew members) is pretty much disgusting! Bravo to Cady for saying something about it.

Lastly, she's frustrated w/ daytime TV, but it is a PAYING job. Cady is only in her late 30s, and unless she's independently wealthy, her soap money isn't going to last forever. I think she would come back to daytime if asked. In fact, had she not been fired from AMC, I bet Cady would still be on that show today, even if she was frustrated by the writing. She WAS willing to commit long-term to AMC, but they were fools & threw it away.

[P.J.]

I find that oddly unsettling. And I want a pre-nup. Ditto....these short-term returns are totally disruptive and ATWT seems to have cornered the market on doing them badly to boot. One only needs to review Simon's last go-round as a primer of exactly what NOT to do. I don't see airtime "stolen" to give Rosanna story...I see a bad decision to continue a bad story. Ironically, Howarth's down to the wire negotiations only added to the misery the story became, since Rosanna was the reason Paul stayed away longer from Oakdale.

Y'know why Cady gets hammered for leaving? Because she leaves. Whether it's true or not, it appears to a lot of people (including me) that the show has danced to Cady's tune, and the minute she's not happy, she's GONE. That's why I'm "shooting the messenger", even though I agree with her assessment of daytime. Where the HELL was this "honesty" back in '04-'05, when it was HOGAN turning Rosanna into baby-obsessed spineless shell of who she'd been? THAT'S when Rosanna was "destroyed". (Hogan had her forced to marry Jordan, begging a complete stranger on her knees...) This paternity switcheroo doesn't damage Rosanna anymore than that. Cady would probably disagree, but Rosanna's never been above playing dirty to get what she wants. I'm sorry, but her "ruined integrity" argument is total bullshit. In her last interview, her complaint seemed to be that when she switched the results, it wasn't linked back to Craig's switching the babies as an excuse. She doesn't want Ro to be the "bad guy". I don't know why the reason given---Rosanna's reliance on Paul after her coma---isn't as compelling to her. It is to me. I blame this more on everyone else in the Quad--Paul, Meg and Craig---than Rosanna.

Cady certainly has the right to say what she feels. But there's always an undercurrent of whining in her interviews. And it doesn't help that she's using Hinsey, Goddess of Brownnosing, as a mouthpiece either.

[Darcy]

ICAM. Even she admits that it's easy to criticize (as so many who love soaps do) but she does acknowledge the positive things too. I love that she is willing to come back as Dixie to give many fans the story they waited decades to see with Tad, Dixie and Kate - now I just hope that AMC is willing to work on fixing the many mistakes they made (the worst for me being when they killed Dixie with a poisoned peanut butter pancake).

[juppiter]

ITA PJ! This is the character that paid Carly $50 million to have a baby and be married to the father before January 1, 1999 (leading Carly to try to induce labor on New Year's Eve, potentially harming the baby.) This is the character that, along with Craig, conspired against *teenagers* (Lucy and Aaron).

BS Rosanna was ruined. Sorry, but people have the attitude they have about Cady because it seems like every time she's not happy, she just leaves. I have more respect for the actors that tough out the bad times, like normal people that tough out the bad times at their jobs.

[Darcy]

I didn't see that version of Rosanna but at least she had strength, money and power and her company. This time around the writing for Rosanna did not reflect this (with the way she let Craig take advantage of her without fighting back and acting so pathetic and desperate about hanging on to a man who you know is in love with someone else).

I think it's VERY important for actors to speak out when they see something wrong with their soap - it just shows how much they care about their characters and their audience and that they want to fix things for the viewers. Cady has toughed out the bad times - I feel bad for her that she has had to act out these horrible stories that obviously have hurt her very much and were quite disheartening.