OLTL: Mia Korf's Blair

[Vee]

Two things.

One: They DID mention Frank and Leslie when Max came back in 2007. He said he and the twins were having the time of their lives in Argentina, and extended an offer for Blair to join their family.

Two: The decision to Caucasi-fy Blair was made by that great, progressive modern HW Michael Malone. He had always envisioned Blair as a "Scarlett O'Hara" Southern belle spitfire, and he viewed hiring KDP as something closer to his original vision for the character. Mia Korf was hired in '91 because she was, at that time, the best actress for the role, which is the way it should be. But when the character was written out, Malone found a chance to retool Blair to what he wanted.

I love KDP and do not begrudge her any of it, but I do still think it's a shame that such an innovative Asian lead disappeared. I have always thought it would be amusing if they had white, blonde Blair suddenly bust out with the fluent Japanese on a business call - after all, she may not be Japanese anymore, but her fluent grasp of the language and international background (which she used to help Cord and Andrew in the Mia Korf days) is still in continuity.

[Scotty]

^^Ah, okay....thanks Vee. I've slept a time or two since then, and couldn't recall with certainity if Max had mentioned the twins when we last saw him at Asa's funeral. Thanks.

[NorrthCafe]

Thanks for the history lesson. I never knew why Mia Korf left or why TPTB decided to change the character's ethnicity. I'd always wondered if they were trying to undo the nastiness of creating their first Asian character (that I'm aware off) who was mostly offscreen, of course, and described as having raped Addie. That always bothered me.

It makes sense, given ABC's track record, that they didn't care about that issue at all... sad that there wasn't more of a concern about how the recast would affect the show's history in the eyes of fans. This, after GH dismantled the 'Asian Quarter' storyline and got rid of all of the great actors and characters that were showcased during that time.

[Jonathan]

Slightly off topic but I remember a quote in a magazine from Mia Korf as she was exiting the show. She said something like, "I wish I had stayed long enough to win an Emmy." When I read that, I fell out of my chair. She definitely had confidence!

[SFK]

That's hilarious. In tune with Faye Dunaway's, "I didn't expect this to happen quite yet" when she won the Oscar.

Michael Malone's vision of Blair is reminding me of Lisa Peluso's Lila on AW. The least he could have given us was an exotic-looking Roya Megnot who could pass as part asian. I mean, look at Rob Schneider. But talk about taking a character in a different direction... when you've got a great character with a cool background and a lot going for her like Korf's Blair, why not save the southern-fried stuff for Kelly cramer, or some other such character?

This would make my life.

[CSF]

I always thought Kassie would have made a good Kelly Cramer and because I think Kassie is a strong actress, if she were in the role of Kelly, Kelly would still be around today.

[DRW50]

I don't think acting was the problem with Kelly. Gina Tognoni is a wonderful actress. Heather Tom is a wonderful actress. There was just something hard to like about Kelly. Her entitled, arrogant attitude, her hypocrisy, her selfishness, her coldness, all while she was supposed to be a heroine. Blair isn't a traditional soap heroine. She's called on what she does (and what she hasn't done), she struggles, things don't just fall into her lap. I think Kassie blurs the line between sympathetic and unsympathetic, she plays all her scenes in a brutally honest manner, but it helps that she's not a big heroine, because OLTL is more likely to write those in a manner which makes them hard to like.

I wouldn't have minded seeing Mia Korf return as Cassie. Wasn't Cassie somewhat Asian in her first incarnation (Cusi Cram)? She looked like it in the photos I've seen. Laura Koffman was a capable actress but I think Cassie could have been more.

[SFK]

Mia as Cassie would sorta be like Elaine Princi as Melinda. Bolivian/Scottish Cusi was definitely the most "ethnic" looking Cassie (just as Robin was more "ethnic" looking than Nancy Pinkerton or Claire Malis), but when you look at Mia you see asian woman pure and simple, David Renaldi would have had to have been asian. Not a race thing, but I always thought that the Cramer women should have always been dark brunettes. I know the original Dorian and Melinda weren't, but Malis, Strasser, Princi, Badler, Gabet, Cram, Haddad, Gagnier, Koffman, Korf, Gallo... I just like that look.

[Rhiannon]

Her name is spelt a tad differently but here's Keesha from Big Brother 10.

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[Vee]

I vastly preferred Heather Tom to Gina Tognoni. She had the long-suffering upper-middle-class trophy wife/antiheroine down pat, and she never condescended to the audience about Kelly's flaws. I thought she and DG would have made Kevin and Kelly the new Alan and Monica or even a kind of junior Victor and Nikki. When Gina's Kelly turned hard and cold in later years (along with her features), it was imperious and sneering. That works for Dinah Marler, not Kelly Cramer. With Heather, those aspects of Kelly were more tactile, a bit more camp, yes, but mostly very visceral, whether she was sobbing or screaming or getting wasted on booze and pills. There was always the humanity, especially when she did the ugly cry or her overt bitchface.

[Cheap21]

Kassie is too old to have been Kelly. Blair was in her late 20s/early 30s when Kelly came on as a teenager.

[Cheap21]

Mia was DListed's Hot Slut of the day...lol

http://www.dlisted.com/node/31028#comments

[Marc]

Old topic, I know, but I wanted to chime in...

I, too, was baffled at KdP's taking over the Blair role. Not even so much because of the Asian thing, but more because of how a jet raven brunette was replaced by a splashy blond. However, as someone else said, when MK played Blair, they really didn't spend a whole lot of time focusing on Blair's Asian roots, or making it an integral part of her characters outline. I think they made a few quick refrences to Addie being raped by an Asian man, just to *answer* how this woman with strong Asian features could possibly be Dorian's neice. Also MK is biracial. Her mother is Japanese and her father is white. So maybe they thought it wasn't a *complete* 180 to replace a half-white actress with one who was full.

The same thing actually happened on OLTL again a few years later, when Sandra Grant played Rachel #3. Ellen Bethea and Mari Marrow were both biracial and looked it. SG was full black.

[Angela]

I remember the switch as a viewer, don't remember the magazine reaction. I liked Mia Korf. I remember her and Max had this really great dance scene to "Set the Night to Music" and I absolutely loved it. Then one day I tuned in and Blair was no longer Asian with black hair she was white with blonde hair (sort of country too) and I was like "wow." I think that's part of the reason it took me ages to like KD's Blair, I had liked Mia's work in the role.

Someone brought this one up, but the Dorians too. It wasn't as big of a difference but it took me a while to take to RS because I had started out with EP.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Unpopular opinion, but Kassie Depaiva f-cking sucks, and Mia Korf was the better Blair...