Y&R: Shocking Role Recast

[MarkH]

And they say soap fandom is dying out....

[MTSRocks]

LoL! Sometimes I wonder tho.

It still is, LoL.

[TheDSA]

After reading the entire statement, my opinion of him is slightly more favorable than it was after reading NB's column. Yes, a lot of things are vague, especially whether or not he walked specifically because of the kiss. However, he does clear up things for us, that the situation between his quitting was not as hostile as it was painted before.

There are certain things that I personally do not agree with in this whole debate. As a homosexual male, with many heterosexual friends, I am a little bit bothered by branding Chris Engen a homophobe. When you call someone a homophobe, he is assigned a vast array of negative qualities such as hateful, prejudiced, a bigot, a gay basher. That is very much different from a person who is simply uncomfortable kissing someone of the same sex. It's sort of how we all have unconscious racist tendencies but that doesn't necessarily mean we are racists. I have a lot of very close straight buddies who would be very uncomfortable to kiss me. It doesn't take away from our friendship, the mutual respect we have for one another. Yes, it is a phobic reaction, but that doesn't make them homophobes any more than it makes me a racist.

Sometimes one cannot control whether or not they feel uncomfortable. It s all about how you were brought up that conditions you on how to deal with certain situations. Since I was little, I've always been a nervous person when it comes to talking to a large audience. You better damn believe Im going to do what its takes to get out of the situation. Ultimately, its my choice. I could give the speech or I could walk out and accept the consequences. And I think that this is what Chris was implying when he was talking about "choice". Homosexuality is not a choice but a homosexual action like a gay kiss IS a choice.

I'm not patting Chris on the back by any means. I simply do not agree with how loosely the word "homophobia" is being used in his situation especially since we are people on the outside and are purely speculating from the vague and conflicting information we are given.

[MTSRocks]

I agree. If everybody puts aside the whole gay issue for a second, his post truly does sound that way. It's like he's ashamed of being on daytime. He comes off pretty snobbish, acting like this story affects his artistry.

[DeeeDee]

Eh. Don't get carried away.

[Vee]

It's only a choice when you're not on a contract as a professional actor. If Engen couldn't handle playing a villain, or kissing a man, he was in the wrong business, and while I may not consider him to be, say, Hitler, I do consider him to be a homophobe. You're correct in that it's one thing to have a private, phobic reaction to something in everyday society. That's normal. As you say, your friends don't have to kiss you, but no one has obligated them to, there is no contract or personal responsibility as an employed performer. Engen signed a binding contract in California knowing he would be playing a complex character and knowing that soaps traffic in sex, violence, deception and questionable behavior. So it's one thing to have a private reluctance or opposition; it's another to choose to have your feelings blown-up publicly by choosing to quit a high-profile national television job rather than play out gay content. Despite the understanding that you are simply playing a role, not committing your own personal feelings, and despite the fact that you knew you signed up for this. Doing that knowingly indicates homophobia to me.

And there's all kinds of homophobia - whether it's subtle, casual, relatively harmless, or violent and psychotic. Do I think Chris Engen is going to go out this weekend and string up the local school glee club and leave them for dead? Absolutely not. Do I think he risked his family's livelihood just to avoid kissing a guy? Yes. And that's homophobia, too. At least, as far as I'm concerned.

[DeeeDee]

[MTSRocks]

There is a difference though. He's an actor, and I doubt there is any closeness between him and Yani.

[All My Shadows]

I just don't get this [!@#$%^&*] anymore. I just don't [!@#$%^&*] get it.

[TheDSA]

which more reason why he would be more uncomfortable kissing Yani....they barely know each other. It terms of an actor, he freely addresses that he is not strong enough of an actor for the material.

[MTSRocks]

Huh? It's not like there going to become a real item. Actors barely know each other and still kiss and/or engage in sex scenes....

You see, if he actually came out and specifically stated that he was not strong for the material without all the babble and political correctness, then I could get behind that.

[cara mia]

I did not get the impression that CE thought Y&R or soaps were beneath him at all. He did, however, implicitly criticize the material and the writers of this show at this time. He is far from the first actor on the show to do so. DDi, CLB, TEB, NP, JM, all come to mind. I know there are others. We know that Paul Rauch has a reputation as being a hard-ass and is proud of that. CE's vagueness and statement that other actors would agree with him in public if they felt free to could be as much about the general unhappiness with the writing & producing of the show as it is about anything else. Taking all the various actor problems in context, there is something not quite right about how Y&R is run. It might be because MAB wears two hats. It might be because PR is tough to be around. It might be because the actors are spoiled and encouraging the worst in each other. I don't know but there was just something plain creepy to me about how Nia Peeples was treated, for example. I wish I could remember the details but I remember an interview with Billy Miller that surprised me at the time because he seemed a little sad about not being at AMC when talking about his friends there and I had (assumed) that just being at Y&R would be enough to dispel any nostalgia for AMC. We've been hearing stories about CE leaving since Dec '08 and a feeling of being disrespected may have been as much of a factor is anything.

I don't know if CE is ever going to act again. If his statement is generally truthful & he did give Y&R time to find a new actor, they might let him out of his contract with a relatively minor slap on the wrist. If he does act again, for his own reputation, he's going to need to play a gay character sooner or later or the homophobe label will stick. If he doesn't realize that today, he will soon enough.

[alphanguy74]

I think there are "spotty" problems with a few actors, but in general, I'm pretty sure most of the cast is pretty happy with the new regime. At least that's what Beth Maitland told me. When Latham was in charge, she said EVERYBODY was "Freaked out"... but last time I wrote her, she said the working conditions and the morale of the actors was very good now, and the cast as a whole was pleased with Maria and her respect of history and Bill Bell's vision.

[KLN]

What did I ever do to deserve this bitch tossed so unexpectedly in my face? I thought we were FRIENDS!

[rhinohide]

I never intended to defend Engen, and I'm far too brittle to contort. The guy made a decision for whatever reason and he lost his job as a result. Seems a reasonable consequence for his actions, but that doesn't seem to satisfy some people. Not sure what people want from him. Blood?

Furthermore the implications seem to be that since I haven't jumped into the "He's a homophobe" boat with both feet, I'm painted with the same extremely broad brush by some nonexistent association.