Frankly, I think that if more actors were allowed to be honest about what they experienced working with soaps and if fans didn't engage in such reactive protectionism, the genre would be in a much healthier place today. Perhaps bad managers, writers, producers, (and other actors,) etc... would've been pushed out instead of allowed to drive talented people away.

Soap fans are more than happy to point out that Actor X got his start in soaps but if Actor X dares to say that it was just a job he took to pay his rent, they want to roast him.

Bullshit. There are jobs you love and there are jobs you just do. That's like saying I shouldn't trash my gig at Burger King when I was 16. It's freaking Burger King and nobody in their right mind would look at the job I do now and say it's equal to my job working the drive thru.

No medium may be better than any other but there are certainly jobs that are better. Taye Diggs was on GL for a few months. Do you want to tell me that RENT and what he does now on Private Practice aren't considered more respectable? One of your benefits of working your ass off is that you don't have to keep doing the same crappy work for your entire life.

Honestly I think Taye Diggs has been given so many poor roles in his career that if he were going to talk about the best, he'd have little to say.

I think generally actors are given as much freedom to talk about soaps as they are most TV shows or films. People who have spoken openly and negatively about their experiences, like Debra Winger, have been frozen out, and they never had soap experience.

Some of the biggest times of soaps, and of primetime television and film, in terms of money and success, were when everything was stage-managed, when actors had to play characters every time they left the front door of their home. I don't think the failure of soaps in recent years has been down to actors not being more outspoken -- Roger Howarth, for instance, certainly was able to do what he wanted and speak to the press about his issues with OLTL, and ABC took him back and generally went along with what he wanted. I think the failure of soaps has been in not changing with the times and in assuming viewers are morons.

The Thing about RWP & SB Is That She completley Trashes it and if she had a contract with them and they agreed to let her do the film as long as she made up the time she missed. I Dont See That As a unreasonable request

I worked at Taco Bell when I was 17, but that sh!t hasn't had any influence that I know of on my current career...at all. So I can look back at that and say it was a crappy job that was all about a paycheck and nothing else, a means to keep going towards what I really wanted to do. But when you're an aspiring actor, given a chance to spend an outrageous amount of time acting on national television and expand your reel infinityfold, it's just seems very entitled to act as if the whole thing was beneath you and a waste of time.

But I don't it as saying it was beneath *them* specifically. It's just acknowledging that it was a crappy job that served it's purpose. How is a year on a soap any different than your Taco Bell gig or my stint at Burger King? They served their purposes but do you want to answer a bunch of questions about it? What if some middle aged woman came up to you at your current job wanting to discuss in detail the Mexican pizza you made when you were 17. ("The flour tortilla was the best! And the tomatoes were so fresh! Did you season the beef yourself? What about the cheese? Did you shred the cheese by hand? I just knew you did!")

The Thing about RWP & SB Is That She completley Trashes it and if she had a contract with them and they agreed to let her do the film as long as she made up the time she missed. I Dont See That As a unreasonable request

That's not what they did. She missed, at most, about 6 months of work, though I'm not sure it was even that much. She was forced to extend an additional YEAR onto her contract.

Santa Barbara was a crappy soap opera so RWP has every right to trash it....lol

But I don't it as saying it was beneath *them* specifically. It's just acknowledging that it was a crappy job that served it's purpose. How is a year on a soap any different than your Taco Bell gig or my stint at Burger King? They served their purposes but do you want to answer a bunch of questions about it? What if some middle aged woman came up to you at your current job wanting to discuss in detail the Mexican pizza you made when you were 17. ("The flour tortilla was the best! And the tomatoes were so fresh! Did you season the beef yourself? What about the cheese? Did you shred the cheese by hand? I just knew you did!")

I get what you're saying, but my point is that wrapping up burritos didn't have anything to do with teaching high schoolers. Working at Taco Bell didn't make me utilize any of the skills I would need to become a teacher (except, possibly, working with the public, which I do credit them with giving me that experience). Acting on a soap opera, on the other hand, gives an actor experience that they can use in primetime, on the stage, in movies, etc. They might not enjoy doing soapy stuff or being known as a "soap star," but hell, if you want to be an actor, don't turn your nose up at an acting job (unless, of course, it's more personal, and if you worked for Paul Raunch or Jill Phelps, it's perfectly understandable).

For the record, if I were a head chef at a swanky restaurant and a guest recognized me from making her a burrito at Taco Bell twenty years ago and wanted to talk about how great it was, I'd have a laugh

http://santabarbara-online.com/index2.htm

Not sure about how much time she was physically out of the building, but RWP last aired on SB on August 18, 1986 and was back onscreen December 26, 1986. So she was gone 4 months and stayed an extra year.

Edited November 29, 201015 yr by juniorz1

The thing with actors is that generally through their careers they have to take a lot of roles they don't necessarily like. In Rue's case, I'm not sure if a small role in Starship Troopers was more of a career peak than her role on AW. In many cases it is more like an actor going from run-down versions of Taco Bell to more expensive versions. Someone like Katherine Heigl has made a practice of trashing her roles, and this was on one of the highest-rated TV shows of recent years, or very successful, critically acclaimed films.

Rob Reiner Was A Fan Osf SB & RWP & Wanted For The PB Role

Yes If she was only gone 4 months to sign for an additional year but she agreed and in the end PB brought her great success which SB provided her the chance to do

Regardless if she hated the show I just wish she'd recognize what it gave her

RWP doesnt even cop to that

I'm sure she recognizes it but it doesn't make her any less bitter about her experience there. I just don't fault her for it is all. I can understand her point of view. Frankly, that extra year that she stayed on was her most sh!tastic material and from what I've read over time, SB was extremely grueling for all parties involved in its formulative years.

Not to get too far off topic, but it's part of why I respect JFP so much- the ship tightened very much under her watch and I think the company overall benefited from her presence.

Edited November 29, 201015 yr by juniorz1

I'd also hazard a guess that quite a few young actors feel as though they were duped by soaps, sold a bill of goods. I'll never forget when a frend of mine had a big audition for ATWT and he was going on and on about that three-year contract and the money he would make/bills he could pay off. Despite the fact that he didn't get the job, it was I, not his agent, who schooled him on things like 13-week cycles and iron-clad contracts that are in the show's best interest, not the actor's. Meanwhile, this dude could barely learn his lines for scene work in class let alone be on time, so he probably wouldn't have lasted those first 13 weeks. But to riff off of college, being on a soap is kind of like what a lot of folks say about young actors being in college during the most marketable years of their lives (especially women). Most young actors don't know soaps like we do, they see landing a soap as steady, well-paying work that's some great steppng stone to bigger and better things ("Meg Ryan started on a soap! Julia Roberts auditioned for a soap and she didn't even get it! I DID!"). It's probably sobering for a great many of them who finally get out of their contracts and head to LaLaWood and realize that primetime and film execs aren't waiting for them at LAX with fruit baskets and Omaha steaks. They could care less about their cuckoo fanbase and tin Emmys. That's gotta sting when you look back at the HOURS you spent learning lines and not having a life (especially if you're one of the good actors), making a week what some dude in primetime made in a day (oh, and he had his own trailer, got to do multiple takes, and will probably have a glossier looking resume for it). You'd probably be a little salty too. Was it Victoria Rowell who called soaps the golden handcuffs? Definitely a blessing to be a working actor period, but if we'r playing "Would You Rather?", soaps will probably only beat out dinner theatre, web series, and porn, and I'm not so sure about that last one.

I think JC was miscast as Alexandra. That isn't the role she should have played...simply not the right part for her. She was faaaaaaaaaaabulous on the show mind you, but she didn't play Alex, nor was she written as Alex. She could have been written as a friend of Alex's or an old fling of Alan's...either way the context would have been better.

We might have discussed before in another thread, but I definitely agree, DaytimeFan. JC would have been more suited as a former in-law of Alex's through her marriage to the Baron von Halkein. Even better? She could have portrayed India's mother. ;-)

Marj/Justin worked well together but she was never quite that common, and Beverlee probably would have recoiled at this man.

Conversely, although I enjoyed the chemistry between Beverlee McKinsey and Jay Hammer (ex-Fletcher Reade), for some reason, it just felt hollow seeing Marj's Alex walk off the show at the end with him.

Definitely a blessing to be a working actor period, but if we'r playing "Would You Rather?", soaps will probably only beat out dinner theatre, web series, and porn, and I'm not so sure about that last one.

Actually, SFK, I think that's true of most media. Most TV shows and movies are so expensive to make, and everything has to be produced so quickly in order to save as much money as possible, that actors' needs and such often wind up becoming afterthoughts. In the end, the entertainment industry regards actors as little more than mere commodities.