Ilene Kristen Appreciation Thread

[DRW50]

Ilene, one of a kind. Hanging in there even as daytime has put vets out to pasture. Not just hanging in, but thriving. After barely featuring Roxy for most of Mitch's return, suddenly these desperate rewrites are thrown Ilene's way and she more than knocks them out of the park. Even when they ask her to do made up flashbacks of almost 30 years ago, with little more than a shaky, slightly gauzy camera, she's right there and she makes you believe it really happened. Seeing an actor reach inside themselves and give such a phenomenal, balls to the wall performance, it's what soaps should be about.

[alexisfan07]

She should have NEVER been bumped to recurring. She's used constantly, might as well put her back on.

[Eric83]

I was thinking about starting this after her amazing performance in yesterday's OLTL.

I love her.

[DRW50]

I wasn't sure if she already had one but apparently she didn't. If RH starts over on Soapnet again we can also enjoy her timeless work on there.

Roxy does leave or barely show up for fairly lengthy periods of time. This was another one of those breaks and then she was pulled out of mothballs to try to give the end of this story some juice. She more than did that. I hope that they won't use her not being Rex's mother as an excuse to write her out. I'm optimistic they won't, as they chose not to have it where Roxy knew about this all along and kept quiet.

Remember those scenes from 2002 where Allison locked her in a trunk. That was when she was married to Max. I really liked that relationship.

[alexisfan07]

She had a contract from 2001 to 2004. I don't think she's missed significant amounts of airtime. I think she's been seen monthly ever since her bump to recurring.

[darraholic]

I her. Roxy's got to be my favorite character in daytime right now.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Roxy is OK and she sells the character, but my heart belongs to Delia. I don't think anyone else could have played that role the way she did, and it showed with the recasts.

Delia could be an annoying mess, but somehow, Ilene made her sympathetic and layered. I'll always cherish that when I watch her on RH re-runs. Somehow, Ilene understood Delia's motivations and sold the hell out of this complicated role.

[DRW50]

She said that no one in the audience ever really got angry at Delia, at least not when fans came up to her. I think that's because she did make Delia understandable and sympathetic.

I loved Randall Edwards in the role, at least when the writing was decent (up to about mid-1980), but certainly Ilene was the originator and she was the one who really sparked with Roger. I also loved her hatred for Faith.