Acting Police: Soaps’ worst actors

[MarkH]

JP is right.

Heather is NOT and should not be a "tough as nails DA".

She's a sweet young girl with a bangin' bod, who is fairly recently out of Princeton and law school. She is professional and has ambitions and goals, but she should be in a mentorship position (yup--much as Christine was with Michael when he was -- unfortunately -- a sexual harrasser), and she should be dreaming of her man and ... having all the adventures of a young ingenue. She should be having trust issues with men because of evil stepdad and abandoning father. She should be trying to discover her roots--and that should be leading to a rebuild of the Williams clan.

If they could take her OUT of the "sanctimonious" bin and the "tough prosecutor" bin (neither of which the actress is well suited for -- either in talent or in age) and let her be like (don't hit me) Lily or Colleen or any of the other young women...that would work.

Susan Seaforth Hayes said in her book that Bill Bell once said to her something like -- I am paraphrasing -- that the "heat off the brow of a young woman" would fuel story for years. Making romantic mistakes. Desperately loving someone who gets tied to another. All that classic sh!t.

Vail would be GREAT in that, especially because (even yesterday) there is a connection with Chris Engen that just works.

[ReddFoxx]

I also agree that Bloom isn't bad, it's just the character. They are trying to make Heather the tough D.A. like Nora Hanen on OLTL, but it just doesn't work, it comes off as wooden and one dimensional.

[dm.]

Yes, I believe it was discussed a couple of times already. They just won't and don't know how to write for half of their characters. She isn't believable as the asst. D.A., but to the writers she is just someone they need to use to get through those storylines. If there weren't any, she'd be gone.

Once again, I feel as if they just write as they go along. If a storyline falls into their lap they'll use it, if not they'll keep the character and have them do nothing.

MarkH, I love how much time you invest in most of your posts; always so detailed.

[brimike]

Multi-board/site politics is fascinating to me, and the closer we get to cancellation with some of these shows, the more I'm intrigued by the general nature of all of these boards/pundits/opinions, and how they feed and thrive off of each other. By the way, I'm including myself in this as well. I don't think any of us are blameless either. It's fascinating to me to hop from one board to the next, and see the way one board/site reacts affects another -- sometimes by copying them, and sometimes by intentionally going against whatever they said just to go against the grain. Somewhere in here, there's a statement on fanbase psychology, but God help me if I know what it is.

[MarkH]

Now don't get me started!

[bellcurve]

In defense of two of the people on this list:

Jacqueline MacInnes Wood still has alot of potential. I think she's saddled with a crap story and doesn't want to try anymore. The "Can You Feel Me" stuff on the Forrester Terrace was awful, but I loved her scenes in the morgue. But, yeah, I can admit she's no Jennifer Finnigan.

And as for Ronn Moss, he's no Peter Bergman or Tony Geary, but that doesn't mean that he has always been bloody, bloody awful. There have been times where he has stepped up his game. He was great during Shane's shooting and his entire romance with Ashley Abbott. But yeah, those two stories are old news.

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Also, I agree with the sentiment of some of the people here. Vail isn't BAAAAD. Her character just sucks and always has.

[Cat]

Well. It's no surprise that Ronn Moss is close to headlining the list.

RoboColby probably belongs on there, too. And Maurice Benard who can barely stumble through a scene now without the support of Megan Ward, Sarah Brown and some cue cards. Sigh. Once upon a time, he was on the ball.

But Nelson -- who I always enjoy reading -- has not dared touch any of the "big stars" of Daytime. He's picked young kids almost exclusively (Big Ronn excepted) and gone for some easy "newbie" choices. I mean, isn't poor Crystal Hunt universally despised by the OLTL faithful right now?

And Nathan Parsons may play the world's most annoyingly toothy newbie, but I honestly do not think he is a bad actor. In fact, he is a very confident one. His overrated screen partner Julie Marie Berman, on the other hand? Should be on this list instead.

And picking on Vail Bloom is just mean. She's no Susan Flannery. But she delivers all her lines with conviction and rarely does she sound robotic or merely reading words off a page. That's more than can be said for many others.

[bellcurve]

And I don't think she's all that bad either.

She was hired to play a braindead, slutty vixen. Mission accomplished.

[classicmoment]

Once upon a time indeed!! The actor is probably bored out of his wits going witht he easy money. This is not the GH i used to watch Sonny used to vbe one of my top 5 daytime characters. So was Luke but last time I checked I don't even know who they are anymore.

*edit* Thank God Genie Francis got away from that mess

[RavenWhitney]

THere are sooo many to choose from:

The grand prize goes to: Lawrence St. Victor as Remy; he doesn't even know how to try to act. Poor dear

Michelle Ray Smith, former Ava

the first and second Eden on Y&R

3/4 of the cast of the defunct Passions

the guy playing Rafe the lawyer on Y&R..he's awful

[Rakesh]

Since Passions is no longer on air, it would really be stupid for him to have them on his list.

[Khan]

Yes, and that is, with some exceptions, fanbases, message boards, etc. operate on a herd mentality; and that whoever has the conch, is the leader.

[detroitpiston]

Honestly, I really liked Heather during the short time she worked at Jabot and was flirting with Brad. Then they made her the ADA again

[MarkH]

Alright--I'll go meta on this.

I do not -- NOT -- understand the function of negativity in this universe. It causes pain, but it never repairs behavior.

Why oh why single out these well intentioned individuals? It will not change behavior--indeed, it could cause to defensively circle the wagons around their offended stars, because such a negative column questions the judgment of TPTB.

Why not do a list of the ten best (if a list must be done), and hope the accolade helps promote similar future good choices?

Why leave ten mostly young performers sitting there feeling bad? Why not let ten performers feel good.

Damn--I also enjoy NB's column, and I will defend it to the end--but I feel tainted when I read a "hair model" list like this. (Hypocrisy alert: It won't stop me from going back). I want to send that man everything ever written by Leo Buscaglia.

[JellicleCat]

I couldn't agree more!!