Stars Who Left Daytime & Talk Smack About It

[Cheap21]

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

[DRW50]

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.

[marceline]

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.

[LoyaltoAMC]

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.

[All My Shadows]

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?

[DRW50]

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.

[soapfan770]

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.

[WatermelonPie]

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

He's on that show "Parenthood" now.

[JackPeyton]

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.

[Vee]

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:

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.

[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.

[JackPeyton]

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.

[Paul Raven]

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.

[All My Shadows]

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?

[DRW50]

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.