AMC: SMG AS KENDALL

[marceline]

That's the benefit of providing a lot of distance between recasts. There were years between the two Kendalls. There wasn't even seconds between the Babe recast. In cases like this I think of it as two different characters with the same name. I truly don't think of them as the same character.

[Antoyne]

Why exactly didn't SMG and SL get along? I read an interview where she first came on in which she highly praised SL and said she was so nice to her.

[Pine Charles]

I posted Kendall's fake suicide attempt in the VideoBash section....

http://boards.soapoperanetwork.com/index.php?showtopic=28289

[detroitpiston]

I LOVED SMG as Kendall. AM doesn't hold a candle to her IMO.

Amen! Charisma Carpenter is

Basically, SMG got mega popular and a wee bit stuck up, and SL got jealous and territorial. Sarah winning an Emmy before Susan didn't help.

[JackPeyton]

amen to all the Cordelia/Charisma love!

[David_Vickers]

Sarah Michelle Gellar was good as Kendall, but she always seemed too young for the role and in fact, WAS! Alicia Minshew much better fits the role imho and has made me almost forget "SMG's trying to play grown-up" Kendall. Alicia is perfectly cast as Erica Kane's daughter and looks like she could be Susan Lucci's daughter. She looks a helluva lot more like Lucci than Lucci's own daughter does.

[R Sinclair]

This is just my interpretation of something SMG said during her interview with Jules Asner on E! television, SMG and SL didn't get along because there was a certain way things were done at AMC and SMG, being young, didn't necessarily jive with those ways, and that caused a rift between the two. That's paraphrasing what she said, go on YouTube and search for the actual interview and you'll see I'm pretty much accurate.

Now, for my opinion on what she said (considering that she didn't say anything direct), I think that with the hype surrounding Kendall and SMG's acting abilities, maybe SMG (being only a hormonal teenager portraying a 23 year old woman) probably got a little big in her britches and that made SL a little standoffish (too put it kindly and as objectively as I can) and that made their working relationship difficult. Maybe? Possibly? But it's never been said publicly, as far as I know, as to what it was exactly that made it so difficult for the two actors to work together. You know, it's not as if it's been "rumored" or "said by an insider" that SMG slept with SL's husband or anything juicy like that. It's just been very vague over the past 13 years as to what it was that made it difficult for them to work together.

That said, I think both of the ladies were very professional. SMG was mature well beyond her years which is what, I believe, lent itself to her ability to act as a 20something even though she was only 15 years old. And of course SL's always been a graduate of the school of "If you can't say anything nice..." with a major in "Never air your family's dirty laundry for the whole world to see..."

Moving on, I've always loved SMG's version of Kendall and have always believed that any actress coming into the role after her (because it had been rumored for years after SMG left and went on to prime time and movies that Kendall might return) would have difficult shoes to fill and walk in at the same time. Alicia Minshew was... green (shall I say kindly) during her first few months, but has been able to portray a different yet believable side to Kendall. Kendall's vulnerability, insecurity, stubborness, deviousness are all still there in AM's version -- but it took time and it is different than SMG's version... as it should be. Alicia and Sarah are two different people that are two different actresses with two different takes on the same character. I've grown to accept Lish as Kendall. I've just grown bored and tired of Kendall -- having nothing to do with Lish. Just the character. I haven't had a chance to miss her since she came back to Pine Valley in 2002.

[YRBB]

I just gotta start watching BUFFY!

[dragonflies]

I HATED SMG's Kendall, she was pretty much a one dimensional character, I never thought SMG was all that great, she was better on Buffy

[cct]

God knows.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I LOVED SMG's Kendall, she's one of the few people over the past 15 years that actually made Susan Lucci act, IMO. Lucci hasn't come as alive on screen since Gellar left, IMO. Their personal struggles might have played a huge part of what we saw on screen, but the chemistry between Gellar and Lucci was off the charts. SMG's Kendall was one of the greatest younger bitches in all of daytime.

Lish has a completely different take on the character, but I think SMG owns her in the vindictive bitch with emotional scars category, which made Kendall so interesting to me initially.

[JONNYSBRO]

SMG was only 15 when she was cast as Kendall in 1993. Judy Blye Wilson said of all the contenders that SMG stood out by a mile. The role of Kendall was supposed to be 21 at the time but SMG just captured her very well. I heard that the reason Susan Lucci and Gellar did not get along was because SMG stole all Lucci's scenes. SMG was a very very good actress for her age. Even Kelly Ripa said SMG was wise beyond her years when she met her. She said SMG was the girl who got straight A's all her life, she is extremely smart, and she was a very very focused actress. Gellar was a spitfire and she got alot of buzz when she was on the show. There is a big reason why SMG was one fo the few that made a name for herself outside of daytime. Buffy was fabulous because of SMG she owned that role to a tee. SMG played Buffy for seven years. SMG said even after AMC and winning an emmy, it meant nothing in primetime/film. She said she got so many doors slammed in her face and a big reality check. Then she got the role of Buffy and she was on the map. Also it led to film roles in I know what you did last summer, Scream 2, Cruel Intentions(My favorite SMG movie),Scooby Doo and the Grudge. She has been doing alot of indie movies lately since leaving Buffy but is returning series television for HBO. SMG has been huge in demand for a TV return but she never wanted to go back until now. SMG will be an exec producer on her new series. Gellar is now twice as old as she was on AMC and has grown into a very mature woman. She is one smart cookie. She has been married to her hubby since 2002 and said she is a homebody. She does not drink, smoke, do drugs, and just spends time at home with her husband. I love SMG.

[Adam]

SMG was clearly amazing as Kendall and she was a big presence on the show when she was on. Alicia Minshew's take is quite different, and although effective and she clearly made the role her own, I must say I preferred SMG.

But as some others have pointed out regardless of who is playing her, the character has grown old and tired.... I just hope Pratt can salavage the character.

Having her still in a coma for two months is a good start. It will be nice for the first time in almost 7 years to not have the show circulate around the character.

[EricMontreal22]

She wasn't at first--she was intended, it was obvious, to be the proper age--till fan reaction, etc, thought tha tmade the story make even less sense and she was boosted. I'm glad they kept her anyway.

[Sylph]

Bottom line: Sarah sucked. Minshew sucks. Plain and simple.

Send Kendall to Neptune. Or wherever...