Can being a long-time soap actor be a burden?

[MrQuartermaine]

That's true. Take an actor who's doing a 6 week run of a play. They only have to learn their lines and such just once. Every performance has the same dialogue and direction. In Daytime, every day has a different script, set, and staging.

[Mr. Vixen]

I've done a lot of theater, and yes it can be very demanding, but like others have said, you're given so much more time to master the character. With soaps, you get that script and you have to know the lines, the emotion, the portrayal, etc. by (in many cases) the next day.

[frequentsoapfan]

I didn't know Kim was married to a casting director. I will also check out her resume.

[Pine Charles]

Clueless

[DRW50]

I didn't know that either. I didn't really watch Passions but I liked what I've seen of her work on ATWT. She had the right look and charisma, and has aged well, She had a recurring role on Supernatural a few years ago, although she didn't have all that much to do.

[DaytimeFan]

Kim is married to Robert J Ulrich, who is a seriously prolific Emmy winning casting director: Glee, CSI, The Mentalist, American Horror Story, Drop Dead Diva etc...

She has indeed aged beautifully, has a very adaptable look and natural charisma. She is an ideal television actress.

[SFK]

Yeah, I don't remember either.

[Chris B]

The smart actors who want to work will work, end of story. Look at someone like Debbi Morgan, she has YEARS and YEARS of high profile soap work, but she has maintained an agent (the most important thing next to talent) and she can go from primetime to daytime to film and back again. Since most of these actors don't have agents and don't pursue anything primetime during their time on the soaps, it's harder when the show ends. People like Maurice Benard or Kassie DePaiva think their soaps will last forever, but they won't. This is why the smart actor needs to stay active and auditioning for other things and having an agent to prepare them if they want to continue their acting careers.

[DaytimeFan]

Absolutely. Staying on the circuit is the key and the fact is most soap actors don't stay on the circuit because they become complacent and others likely don't see any point to it since their contracts and/or schedules prevent them from working.

Lauren Koslow is one who goes on auditions even when she knows she can't do the job just to keep her face out there.

[DRW50]

There was a good interview with Jennifer Bassey about fifteen years ago where she talked about all the efforts she made to differentiate herself in auditions (complete with photos of her wearing wigs and various outfits if she wanted to audition for a cop role or a grandmother role). I don't know if it made a big difference for her or not but it was probably one of the most open I've seen where a soap actor spoke about their primetime efforts.

[DaytimeFan]

Jennifer Bassey is a hustler, always has been, she never has a problem going back and forth to California if it meant a job. She's an older Kim Johnston Ulrich, blond, charismatic, aged beautifully, confident and capable. It also helped that she was married to the playwright Luther Davis who has since left her a wealthy woman.

[MrQuartermaine]

Heck, at one point, Jennifer was going back and forth between New York, Florida, and California. She's 70 and open about the fact that she's had plastic surgery. I personally enjoy Jennifer's acting and wish we'd see her pop up more often and in larger roles.

[DRW50]

I think I may have posted that in an AMC thread a few years back but if I find it again I'll put it up.

Kathleen Noone talked about that some too, the effort you make in auditions, as she said she had a tough time getting casting people to believe, post-AMC, that she could play bitchy or tough roles.

[JackPeyton]

Being a soap star is a great thing if you make it work. People like Bernard, Geary, Braden, Hall, Zimmer are superstars in the soap world, get paid well, and still get to live a somewhat normal, private life. People like Lucci and Sweeney are able to turn themselves into a celebrity and brand. As for trying to break out of soapstar into movie/tv star, well that seems to be harder. Soaps are full of returns after failed attempts and promising soap stars forgotten all together after taking a stab at moving on. I do belive actors from back in the day when they say they didnt get a role because of their soap past, for some reason it was looked down upon but that seems to be over. Molly Burnett for example has days listed on her resume and booked roles on True Blood and that disney show while on days and since leaving the show has booked gig after gig after gig.

[SFK]

Composite heashot photos went from being the norm for character actors, to being cheesy, outdated, and discouraged, to being sort of in again. Frankly, CDs don't have time to be imaginative anymore. The days of being discovered in a peasant dress and made over into a star are long gone. CDs, particularly in L.A., want to see you looking like the role they're trying to cast, which brought back a trend over the last ten years or so for actors to take role specific headshots. If you look at the pics on Linda Dano's IMDb (like the one with the cigarette) or those photos of the young girl who was let go from GH that we were talking about the other week, you'll see what I mean. For years, you were encourage no to "dress the part" in an audition but that's changing more and more. Trends come and go.