Overhyped Daytime Soap Actors and Actresses

[Skin]

I definitely disagree. I find the same problem with Miller exists with Marrow and Muhney. All of there male leads end up in cyclical stories which wind up making them deplorable characters and they lose interest. I find almost all of the males on Y&R to be distasteful and it's because they are all annoyingly written. Miller excelled in AMC and in his guest spots in other shows from what I remember of him to the point where he constantly showed up other actors like Jacob Young, Melissa Claire Egan, Thorsten Kaye and others. While those may not be the best actors/actresses/thespians in Daytime it shows that he can definitely control and light up a scene. His work with Kate Collins was also quite enjoyable.

JJ is a much better actor then Tom from what I have seen. As a child and as an adult.

I don't think one necessarily needs range to be a good soap actor. All you really need to do is have strong dramatic skills to be seen as good/competent performer. Of course the standard is higher for women usually, but that's often the case in acting regardless. A dramatic lead will always find work in soaps until they die, a romantic lead is also pretty strong but not as highly valued. Comedy isn't really needed in soaps a lot of the time. What gets noticed in soaps is a strong dramatic presence more then anything else. Range isn't really a requirement.

[frequentsoapfan]

But there won't be much soaps left so there's no working in soaps until they die anymore. And excluding most of the telenovelas the acting is better in international soaps because they have range. A good soap actor shouldn't only need to be over dramatic and that's a big chunk of the problem and why some people won't even bother to check out a soap opera. They already know what the acting will be like based off of paradies. What you wrote is just an excuse American soap actors use.

[marceline]

It's also interesting to note the people who leave soaps and manage to get other work vs. the ones who leave and have to come back. Soap hype doesn't equal employability.

[frequentsoapfan]

It is alot of the people who get the steady work( by steady work I mean movie roles, lead roles, reoccuring roles more than just a guest appearence here and there for 2 mins on a show) are people who were never hyped on their shows, some who's characters were constantly on the backburner. Of course there are the people who knew they had talent and used the soaps as a stepping stone to a better career.

[JaneAusten]

Kelli Giddish is a prime example of this.

[VirginiaHamilton]

You can say that again.

Sincerely,

Steve Burton

[frequentsoapfan]

Michael B Jordan as well funny that they're from the same soap!

[marceline]

Kelli Giddish blows my mind. I liked her but if you had told me that she would've been working this much after leaving soaps I wouldn't have believed you. One of the reasons I like seeing her so much is that she spits in the face of the soap hype machine. I will say that her acting has improved greatly since AMC, not that I thought she was bad but you can see that she's been "exercising the muscle." I think that's what kills a lot of soap actors who show initial promise. They get complacent and don't work at their craft. Those little roles in other projects, those guest gigs, give actors a chance to stretch and build a network.

[Ryan Chamberlain]

I love Kelli. She's great on Law and Order SVU. I really hope it doesn't get cancelled and she stays another season.

AMC was a launching pad for alot of good actors who moved up. Eva Larue, Josh Duhamel, Michael B. Jordan, and her.

As far as overhyped actors to keep this on topic. Umm. Maurice Benard. Don't like him. Never will. Don't see why he's so loved by the network.

[frequentsoapfan]

Some of them get the small guest gigs but it's playing the same character or it's just a guest gig that doesnt require much. But like you said it's the working on their craft. Alot think since they have a job, they must be great and don't attend classes to learn to get some range and skills. They are perfectly fine with playing the same one or two notes. And then wonder why when they go to auditions for primetime they don't get callbacks for good gigs.

[Skin]

Not really. Most of the successful daytime players who transition to Primetime and film are actors who had a solid base as a dramatic lead (Josh Duhmel, Levenn Rambin, Jensen Ackles, Eva La Rue, Sam Page, Vanessa Marcil, etc.). If you don't know how to do drama then as an actor you generally won't get far. Those who can build a dramatic scene generally have a much easier time making it to Hollywood then those who are just romantic leads (Eva Longoria, Meg Ryan) and comedic sidekicks.

[JaneAusten]

Except I'm not sure those you mentioned have had such thriving careers. Marcils has faded once her Vegas gig ended, Duhamel now is working in romcoms and in Iron Man films. I'd say both Meg Ryan and Eva Longoria have had far more successful careers outside of soaps than the rest of these peep even if Megs star has faded. Kelli Giddish and Michael Jordan have both had lots of varied success and roles outside

of one or 2 roles unlike Marcil. I like Vanessa but she got by on charisma and now that it's gone, so has her career for the most part. Marcil is also the only one out of that list that had run back due soaps due to her floundering short-lived post soap career

[Skin]

It depends on what you personally consider thriving. Josh has been apart of an action franchise in those Transformer films and was in all three. Marcil had two television series that were regarded well in their prime. Sarah Michelle Gellar is also another actress who was a dramatic lead in her time on soaps as well and she had a pretty good sized career too with a series of films, multiple television series and outside projects. Ryan Phillipe could also be considered in the drama category too with his gay coming out story on OLTL and he was in numerous films as a lead or supporting character. Jensen Ackles and Eva La Rue have both been casted in television series for multiple seasons and Sam Page is another one who hops around from show to show. They are by no means Hollywood A-listers but I would say they have done pretty well for themselves post-soap world compared to others. Those who can hack it are usually those who concentrate on their dramatic part of their craft. I don't think one needs to be a well rounded actor persay to make it big. There are some horribly one dimensional performers in Primetime and Film as well and they are pretty successful. I don't understand the idea/notion that one has to be a well rounded soap actor in order to appeal to larger audiences.

[SweetPea36]

I'm a non-fan of the hammy overactors, the scenery-chewers who think if they don't overplay, we might not think they're brilliant. I consider Tony Geary, Laura Wright and Nancy Lee Grahn to be unwatchable because they are all guilty of doing this. Geary is one of the worst hambones ever. Also, Sarah Jo Brown was horrible to watch during her return. I was never a big fan of her flaring nostrils school of drama, but it really seemed that all of her previous bad tics had been horribly magnified this time around and she had picked up some new ones.

Maurice Benard seems to think he's channeling Al Pacino. Unfortunately, nobody wants to watch Pacino these days either. Maybe not the best choice for a role model.

Steve Burton looks like he's had a lobotomy most of the time. Maybe he suffers from narcolepsy.

The writing was bad for Vanessa Marcil's return, but she was horrible too. She admitted in an interview that she made some deliberate acting choices, although she didn't admit those choices were what got her soundly criticized.

I used to enjoy Jonathan Jackson, but his return to GH was a total stinkeroo. I got sick of that boy either weeping or screaming every time he was on camera. No sutblety there, not even a smidgen. Not a fan of emo teen werewolves, so I was surprised when he received such accolades.

Unfortunately, I think a lot of soap fans expect overacting and hamboning ala Billy Miller, and they completely overlook the natural actors and those who tend to underplay. I see genuinely good actors criticized for not being able to act, probably because they aren't emoting to the rafters.

[Skin]

I like Vanessa's acting more this last time around then what she did back in 03' or whenever when she came back the last time. She was odd sometimes but I actually thought the cackling, her smiling at inappropriate moments and her odd little ticks made her seem more human and more like a fully realized person rather then Sonny's love interest #5. I can't remember the last time anyone on ABCDaytime did any of that in terms of layering their performances in realistic ways. Usually most of them seem like blank slates and none of them ever seem awkward, odd or like general human beings who respond in different ways to stress, anger or sadness. OLTL and GH were probably the most notable because everyone acts the same way on those soaps.