All those teens sucked and it was no big deal getting rid of any of them. That bunch created in 2002 consisted of bad acting as well as bland and ill conceived characters. I always found Michael B. Jordan as Reggie to be highly overrated and I hated the character with a passion. I never got over how he backstabbed Trey and was responsible for his dismissal. Joni? There was nothing special about her. She was a very generic blonde and kinda annoying at that

I didn't like Reggie for a while but once he was part of the Montgomery family I thought he got a lot better.

I think Seyfried had some presence, and a unique look (the eyes), but I wasn't exactly surprised when she was written out. It's interesting though because she didn't look that far off from Babe, who came in later that year.

Word to it all. I wish there were some great actors and actresses who aspired to be soap stars (LAUGH! all of you LAUGH AT ME!!), and I think with the steadily increasing suckage of soaps, it's impossible. The ones who end up in a soap town are only there for the time being...some who appreciate the experience and don't mind sticking around until a really good "next step" comes and others who are just mean and nasty about it and pop off as soon as they get a call from The CW or whoever. MBJ definitely stuck around AMC longer than he needed to, but that's perfectly fine, he's getting his good karma.

My understanding is that MBJ left AMC not to pursue other acting gigs but because he wanted to finish his education THEN get back into acting. Yep. Good karma, indeed.

William Fichtner bashed ATWT and Doug Marland in some interview he gave a couple of years back. He said the caliber of daytime writing is not good, and joked that his backstory of Josh/Rod having killed a dog, or something like that, was so bad and amateurish. Patricia Kalember said in an interview about her time on Loving as Merrill that all anyone was interested in was her hair, not character motivation, etc. Just her hair.

I loved Reggie once then cleaned him up and had him living with Trey. I didn't have a problem with him sending Trey to prison because Trey burned down a house of Kane, and nobody gets away with that. It's time for him to return, though.

For Joni, I mainly liked her because of the potential storyline with her and Reggie. It would have been nice to see that story play out, but I don't even remember if they ever gave it closure. Didn't she move away to Nebraska or Kansas or some place like that?

William Fichtner bashed ATWT and Doug Marland in some interview he gave a couple of years back. He said the caliber of daytime writing is not good, and joked that his backstory of Josh/Rod having killed a dog, or something like that, was so bad and amateurish. Patricia Kalember said in an interview about her time on Loving as Merrill that all anyone was interested in was her hair, not character motivation, etc. Just her hair.

Since Patricia was supposedly fired because she cut her hair, I can't blame her for that one.

That's too bad that William has such a bad view of soaps. Compared to many actors he had a real opportunity. He had some very very strong writing, and very risky writing, stuff that Marland really made an effort for.

Reading and recalling some of these names and stories it seems to me aside from Meg Ryan (and perhaps Shemar Moore to an extent) none of these stars are exactly household names. I wonder if there's a connection, perhaps they are venting their own bitterness about not becoming A-listers.

Matthew Morrison (Glee) Said He Didnt Like His Time On ATWT As Adam. Not Because Of The Acting because He Loved & Respected The Actors. Matt Didn't Like Having To Mezmorize all That Dialouge. He Said Being On ATWT Gave Him No Social Life.

That worked out well for him since all he has to do now is sing covers of other people's songs.

I always found Michael B. Jordan as Reggie to be highly overrated and I hated the character with a passion.

He's on that show "Parenthood" now.

A lot of these comments the actors have made seem to be more about how the shows were run than being on a soap opera, and i see nothing wrong with that.

We all have had those jobs where the work conditions or TPTB suck hardcore.

I think Fichtner's take on soaps is a little more nuanced, not negative per se. Here's a little I dug up from different interviews:

Q: I remember when you were in a soap opera. How difficult was it to make the transition to the big screen?

Fichtner: I had a three-year contract on As the World Turns. Now for a young actor in NYC with a contract on a soap, we're talking a lot more money that you are going to make on plays Off Broadway. And I realized that this was a great job. And as soon as I realized that, I asked the producers to write me off the show. Because I'd get real happy with that money, and I was afraid that I would lose the challenge and desire to go further as an actor. Now that's not knocking anybody working on soaps; I worked with some mighty fine actors on ATWT. But for me, I definitely needed to take a step back to take one forward. And after leaving the show, I had a little money in the bank, so I could go back to focusing on theater work. But even at that point, the films were not flying in my direction! It seemed to me that I was the last of all of my fellow actor friends to get a film. And then a few years ago, when things shifted and took a new direction in the area of film, well, let's just say this, if the bike's not broke I'm not going to fix it.

After studying criminal justice at the State University of New York, Fichtner enrolled at the New York Academy for the Dramatic Arts in 1979, but spent only one year there. "It was just baby-sitting kids with a lot of money," he says. In 1988, he landed his first major TV role: a misunderstood rapist on As the World Turns. "Did you ever read a soap description?" he says with a laugh. "This character is hard. He's got a killer edge, but there's this inner soft part. He loves children. He killed a dog once." When Fichtner started work he felt anxious in front of the cameras. "I was so terrified," he says. "The first day I had to change a tire and flirt with a girl. That was like asking me to chew, walk and do jumping jacks. I was sure the boom mike was picking up my heartbeat." He eventually got over his nerves, and the intense character established Fichtner's screen persona: sexy, dark yet sympathetic. Still, he found working on a soap unsatisfying and asked to be let out of his three-year contract after only abut 18 months. "The truth about soaps is that 90 percent of it is its own world," he says. "I don't think it has a lot to do with film."

One moment of dread led to another. "Oh no, I'm going to be a soap actor for the rest of my life," he remembers thinking to himself. "I didn't get it at the time. I was sitting pretty." And he sat pretty for the next few years, working alongside such talents as Julianne Moore, Steven Weber and Parker Posey, paying dues, learning on his feet and actually making the rent. It was his first bad-guy character, one for which he is occasionally stopped on the street to this day. "I was just misunderstood," he clarifies with a somewhat devious smile. But hardly a day went by that he didn't try to get out of the soap, and when offered the opportunity to continue for a third year -- "during which I'd make a lot of money" -- he demurred.

PM: After trying out playing somebody's lover, do you think you'd want to do it again?

WF: Oh, absolutely. I've done that in TV soaps, but I was misunderstood in soap operas.

PM: Soap opera fans are going to want to know more about your thoughts on that.

WF: Let me think...I think every time I've ever talked about soap operas, I pay the due to soap operas the fact that, you know, to work in front of a camera now with fifty people left and right of it, I find that to be a very peaceful situation. That happened because of As The World Turns. Those first months working on a soap opera, I was quite sure the boom was picking up my heartbeat. I was just terrified. But it was a great process to go through. But I left, because I knew that if I stayed there, it's a whole world of its own. I mean, I was so freaked out when I got on a soap, thinking, oh my God, this is going to dictate my life. I'm going to be on a soap for the rest of my life. So I had a lot of unnecessary anxiety.

I think that the soap world, ninety per cent of it is truly of its own. And I don't think it crosses over much into the world of film. So I would be sitting there working on a soap thinking, hey the money's great. It's not that difficult. The trick is sometimes saying the same thing in a different way, you know, just repeating a story line. But I knew the time came for me, where if I was ever going to shift things, I could either stay there a very long time, or leave. And I left, and...made no money the year after I left! But I never regret the choice of that. And I never knock that experience. Soaps were not my life journey, and I didn't want it to be. But I sure was grateful for it when it happened.

And yes, these were all compiled on one fansite, I didn't actually obsessively compile these myself. Fichtner was also nice enough to do a very reasonable little intv with SOD as recently as 2002.

I believe Morgan Freeman is pretty down on his soap days, though I may be confusing that with his fury over The Electric Company. He's crotchety in general but I can't blame him given his usage on AW. I remember Ellen Holly saying Freeman was passed up for the role of Dr. Jack Scott, the man Carla cheated on Ed with on OLTL. And I remember Charles Keating from AW bitching about how poorly Morgan Freeman had been utilized.

Edited November 22, 201015 yr by Vee

I'll never understand why soap fans get so offended when actors express negative opinions about their previous shows or the genre. So what? It was just another job to them.

Edited November 22, 201015 yr by Ann_SS

I'll never understand why soap fans get so offended when actors express negative opinions about their previous shows or the genre. So what? It was just another job to them.

Exactly.

I have had like 11 jobs, and i trash almost all of them because in the end, they were awful for one reason or another. I would not be in the job i am in if it wasnt for at least some of them, but i owe them nothing, they owe me nothing.

Its the same with actors.

A minor soap personality,but I always remember Jon Cypher (Alex Keith ATWT) stating that the 1 script from Hill St Blues (where he landed a supporting role) was worth more than the 3 years of scripts from his ATWT stint.

He did come back to soaps on SB as Arthur Donnelly.

Exactly.

I have had like 11 jobs, and i trash almost all of them because in the end, they were awful for one reason or another. I would not be in the job i am in if it wasnt for at least some of them, but i owe them nothing, they owe me nothing.

Its the same with actors.

I sorta agree. Brian Bloom hasn't said anything negative about ATWT per se, just that it wasn't something that he really wanted to do. He doesn't down the people who were there or act like the whole experience was beneath him, but I remember reading him saying that he didn't form any long-term friendships there or anything like that. I can respect that because it's honest.

It's the people who take subtle pot shots at people who choose to stay in soaps that irk me. "That was high school," my ass. And what was Soul Train? Community college?

I'll never understand why soap fans get so offended when actors express negative opinions about their previous shows or the genre. So what? It was just another job to them.

In many cases it's a job which helped them build their career in the first place.

I don't care if someone disliked their role, but if they are ashamed just because it was a soap, or just because they saw themselves as better than daytime, then I think it's kind of arrogant and delusional, especially if you're Meg Ryan, who barely ever made any good movies even when she had the choice of anything she wanted to do.