OLTL: Robin Strasser exit interview

I love Robin, but Princi was screwed. She brought a depth, edge, and multi-facet to Dorian that was lacking in Strasser's previous run. She was certainly far less over the top, and therefor perhaps not as colorful and entertaining to some. But Princi was the actress that got me to see Dorian as a real person with a history and emotions. I came to know her as a woman who fought back, even in misplaced battles, because of a painful upbringing. It was so much more substance than I had seen prior to her assuming the role.

When Strasser came back, she adopted several of the traits that Princi brought to the character. Even back then, Strasser would make thinly veiled digs against Princi's run in the role (one of her first was "with all due respect to other actresses who played my role, Dorian is more than just Cassie's mother!" - which could have only been directed at Princi, but was nonsense considering that Princi played more story than just "being Cassie's mother.") I took these not as confidence, but insecurity - because her return was not universally well received. Many fans - and co-stars - were stunned by Princi's exit... and knew that Strasser basically used an offer to play GL's Alexandra as a bargaining chip to get a better deal at OLTL.

Strasser was initially tossed into a shallow, scenery-chewing part of a story with Viki & Sloan - that clearly was designed to showcase Strasser's trademarks of Dorian. But by now it was so jarringly different, like SHE was a bad recast of Princi. The gears shifted drastically after that, and Dorian was given a breast cancer scare that was heavily promoted but short-lived. She would eventually get to revisit a storyline defined by Princi's version when Claire Labine re-explored Dorian's upbringing. That is where I saw some of Strasser's best performances, and felt that she had finally showed the depth I knew Dorian had.

Elaine Princi played most of her scenes with an underlying grace and subtlety - even when Dorian was just sniping at the Buchanans - that offset the cartoonishness of the writing for her. The show got away with a lot of odd material for Dorian because of Elaine.

When Robin returned, much of the grace and layering she brought to the role in the 80s seemed to be gone and there was a lot of shrillness which went hand-in-hand with tacky revenge plots (which she, rightfully, complained about) which she wasn't suited for. Elaine was much more suited to stuff like the Emily Haines story, because of her velvet-glove-iron-fist performance. Robin did a good job with the cancer story (there was a good scene where she was in front of her bedroom mirror wearing only pearls), but it really took about a year or more to finally start calming her down and bringing back the multi-layered, stunning creature RS Dorian can be, one that uses and builds on her decades of history in Llanview. Unfortunately it went back to silliness after Malone left the first time (I think Marlena de la Croix trashed that book story as well as Dorian being dressed like Minnie Mouse), but you're right, I do think the Labines had a lot of juicy material for Robin.

I have felt for a while that the material Robin has had over the last 3-4 years has again been much more suited to Elaine Princi, with the exception of the Dorian/Ray stuff. When the writing tells Dorian to get loud, it's time to underplay that. I also think she was more suited to balancing out the bizarro moments where Dorian goes around yelling BIZATCH and behaving like she's auditioning for Real Housewives.

I don't think Robin has ever personally said anything against Elaine and I can understand why she resents that whole time on OLTL but it does make me feel a little sad (not like global warming sad, just soap sad) that Elaine doesn't get more credit. But fortunately the material available on Youtube can help viewers who weren't watching then reevaluate their opinions, as it did mine (like the comment I read that all Elaine did in the role was cry).

Edited August 3, 201114 yr by CarlD2