Y&R: Shocking Role Recast

[alphanguy74]

No, it doesn't make you homophobic unless it's your CHOSEN CAREER to portray ANOTHER PERSON on screen. That other person you are hired to portray is just that, a fictional character. I've never seen an actor quit over a show writing a character that commits murder. It disturbs the hell out of he that an actor can play a killer, a rapist, or in this case, a misogynistic ass who is currently mentally torturing a pregnant woman.... yet locking lips with sweet little Yani Gellman is somehow the dealbreaker? If he's so immature to not be able to rise to the challenge of the part of Adam.... then he doesn't really CARE about his craft, and he's just in it for the money, the adulation, or both. So if the kiss really IS the problem for him..... he deserves to be out the door on Y&R. He can go make blizzards at the Dairy Queen, .. oh WAIT!!! He needs to cook french fries at the Burger King... Dairy Queen sounds too GAY.

[YRBB]

Tell me about it!

[Vee]

Why are people falling all over themselves to apologize for an unprofessional, unproven young actor who committed a major error in judgment by calling in sick and breaching contract over storyline issues that neither he nor virtually any other actor in daytime has any right to dictate? "Oh, they shouldn't have given him bad storylines or uncomfortable scenes!" Guess what: Every actor in daytime has had to deal with those problems. They suck it up and go forward. They don't do a Camille routine, call in sick and then break their contracts.

The only reason people are excusing Engen's foolish and likely homophobic behavior are the following reasons-

1. SON board bullshit about the Y&R writing staff and Maria Bell; Engen's walk-out is a 'vindication' of all the lame back and forth you guys do about the writing team, regardless of whether his conduct is, in fact, immature, unprofessional, and bigoted. This is bigger than some tiff about whether Y&R is good or bad.

2. He's cute.

3. Homophobia.

Pick your poison, bitches. If this was any other young actor on any other show, we'd crucify him.

[quartermainefan]

No one is asking him to kiss guys on his own time, but he is an actor, this is what actors are supposed to do. He supposedly is willing to portray anything, from a serial killer to a child molester to a cannibal to a necrophilac to a guy who kisses other guys, right? And when you think of all the actors who have portrayed gay characters, it isn't like this is an unheard of thing. He is supposed to be willing to sink his teeth into anything, not decide that something goes against his personal beliefs. Jesus H Christ, John Travolta wore a dress in Hairspray and kissed Christopher Walken. It's acting. If this guy is not willing to be open to stuff, then maybe he should consider a new career.

[Vee]

Exactly! He's an actor! They get asked to do uncomfortable [!@#$%^&*] all the time, especially in daytime! You think Christian LeBlanc is dying to pound vag? Hell no! You think Ned Beatty was dying to do that redneck rape scene in Deliverance? No, but he did it because it was the job.

[a2sassy]

I agree that it's acting and he was dead wrong to walk off set and quit because he didn't like what was written for him to play. My thing is that so many have branded a man that we don't know outside of him as Adam Wilson a homophobe! Now if in fact he told people "I'm not kissing a man because I don't like that [!@#$%^&*] and I hate all gays" or something along those lines, I'd agree 100% that he is homophobic. But right now it's premature to just say "Chris walked because he didn't want to kiss a man...he MUST be a homophobe!".

[Vee]

Let's not gild the lily, okay? I find it extremely implausible that after months of questionable storytelling he suddenly decided "it's enough, I must destroy my career by breaking contract!" It seems very convenient that this only happens when a gay storyline rears its head. I think even his defenders have to admit the timing is suspect.

[Cashton]

Defintion of homophobia (from Princeton): prejudice against, fear or dislike of homosexual people and homosexuality

If it bothers him so much so that he would risk his career, name and reputation all solely out of his aversion to kissing another male for a television show, I call it homophobic. There is a fear there, there is a severe fear.

[MarkH]

I cannot lie. It biases me. But like Ruxton Hills, I'll quickly get over it.

[Sapounopera]

We never discussed whether it was foolish or not to leave the set like that, we only talked whether his behavior was homophobic or not.

It's very nice to see that you have written down three reasons why someone defends that guy, but none of them works for me.

I was never a fan of Couch Activism and some people are getting out of control here with their remarks. I am sorry that your Adam-Rafe fantasy was ruined, but you are getting very bitter and cruel here for no reason. You have no idea what happened backstage, you just want to join the party with Nelson, Perez and the other guys. And one other thing. One can be racist and gay at the same time.

[detroitpiston]

Elsa, this post of yours and that pic of Stephanie Beacham in your avatar quickly makes you one of my fave posters

[MarkH]

As I posted elsewhere, I have come to a similar mindset to yours. In real life, I believe one can be totally egalitarian, unbiased, supportive of equal rights for persons of different sexual orientations, and even have close personal relationships with people of different social orientations....but still not want to kiss someone of the same sex. Per se, a dude not wanting to kiss a dude does not make him homophobic.

There are lots of people we don't want to kiss, for lots of reasons. They don't all involve bias or prejudice. I agree with you.

However, in this post:

There is another implicit bias here.

You're lumping all kinds of people in with Nelson and Perez...assuming that everyone has a common agenda. You are, de facto, buying into this "Gay Mafia" bullsh!t.

That is AS "overgeneralizing" as those who say the failure to kiss a dude makes you homophobic.

In the end, if Engen walked off, REGARDLESS of why he walked off, it was unprofessional. An actor doesn't break contract. A contracted actor doesn't refuse to play what is written. Period. So, in the end, if this is true (i.e., Engen walked off), he deserves the consequences...and it doesn't matter what his beliefs about sexual orientation are. Period.

But you want to make sure you're not automatically lumping groups of people together. Heck, one can be a person of color and homophobic at the same time.

Everyone has biases...we're all just differentially aware of them and honest about them.

[titan1978]

Actors on soaps, especially a Bell show do not get to dictate storylines. It has been that way for as long as I have been a viewer.

All this talk about Adam being writeen into a corner, not liking what was written for him doesn't make sense for me. If Kevin can still be on the show, Adam could have been redeemed. Michael Baldwin and Phyllis both tormented Bill Bell's signature heroine, his daughter Cricket, and that did not stop him from making them vital characters, and now both are boring as hell but todays fans would not understand why Christine should be nasty to them. Anything can happen on soaps, even a Bell show.

Also, CE has so much integrity he doesn't want to play anything from the last several months, because of how it damages his character. This is the kind of material that makes a soap star. Being psycho, or in a great romatic storyline are the things that make or break young soap actors.

We care about the future of killing off a legacy character. Vets care about those sorts of things. New soap actors on their first contract care about what happens next when they are done slumming, and a great one cares about making their character work, no matter the storyline. Harsh but true. (it was a wonderful training ground sound familiar to anyone?)

What if the young actress that plays Cassie had decided she did not want to be written off, so she walked before the storyline involving her death. While that decision was not popular with fans, I personally hated it, that was the direction the show wanted to go in, she had a contract.

I can understand some people feel it was TPTB's responsibility to inform this one actor where the show was going with this plot point or revelation about Adam, depending on where it goes. I think the conversation is fine, but he should do his job. Whatever prevented him from doing his job we don't really know yet. I hope it wasn't just because of the upcoming scenes/storyline, but if it was, shame on him. If Victoria had walked because she did not want to kiss Neil, I would have never looked at her the same way again.

[MarkH]

As they say around here:

TOTAL WORD!

[Vee]

I don't have an Adam/Rafe fantasy, honey; I don't even watch the show. Which brings me back to my point - Y&R's quality of writing is not the issue here. The issue, simple enough, is that Chris Engen committed a major no-no, breaking his contract over something at the same time we learn Adam was taking part in a gay storyline. I hate Nelson Branco and I hate Perez, so I'm sorry, we're not all part of a gay Mafia or the Borg collective. But in this case, a homophobic unprofessional actor is a homophobic unprofessional actor. And in case you haven't noticed, it was not this alleged unified, one-thought-one-voice Gay Mafia you've invented in your mind that got Chris Engen replaced. He did that himself, and Y&R's production staff obliged him by recasting the role.

Please explain to me how I am racist, though. I can't wait to hear it.