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


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I think it's less of a stigma because soaps are much less known to the public today.

I feel like a lot of the younger people who leave soaps and don't get big roles probably just never would have in the first place. They either have no talent or don't have the look. Bree Williamson, someone I see as very untalented, still gets a lot of primetime work, probably for the right look.

That's interesting. I appreciate getting to learn more about the process.

I think Jennifer wore the getups more for the magazine interview than she might have in an actual audition, just to put a face to what she meant. Either way, it was a very insightful look. It's one of the reasons I hated what became of Soap Opera Weekly in those last ten years (the interview was from a 1996 Weekly).

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Actually, a lot of them DO have agents. Particularly the younger actors. Without an agent, it's damn near impossible to audition for a soap to begin with, unless you pay to meet a CD at one of those audition workshops or get seen in a school showcase and are lucky enough to get called in. A lot of the NY soap actors were signed with Abrams for example. The thing is, say Abrams submits you for Guiding Light and you book it, well, Abrams gets their 10% every time you get a check (and the longer you're with the show, the more they continue to negotiate your contract and get you more money). That's good money compared to another actor with the agency who may only do two plays or a commercial over the course of several months. So the agency is getting paid, yet they are limited in terms of what other projects they can submit the client for depending on his/her contract and availability with the soap. Here's where "heavily recurring" is nice.

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Yeah, SAG used to have a website where you could type in a member's name and see who they were represented by. This info is still available to IMDB Pro members. But I remember Strasser and Wyndham for example were both with Don Buchwald at the time, Lucci and Young were with Innovative, and like I said, several were with Abrams.

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I remember Don Hastings saying when ATWT was over he'd have to go back to having an agent, as he hadn't in years (I will say any primetime show would be lucky to have Don, but then, I'm biased, as I'm a fan...).

I wonder who the most successful people are who don't have agents. Daytime or primetime.

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I heard that Jonathan Jackson was once considered the favorite for the role of Anakin Skywalker, but got turned down because George Lucas didn't want to hire a soap opera star.

I know that when Genie Francis took the role of Diana Colville on DAYS it was considered a step backwards as far as the industry was concerned. Coming out of the L&L heyday, with Genie so young, sexy and famous, she was thought to have a big future. But she also hadn't had a regular paycheck coming in for quite awhile. Genie seems to recollect her time on DAYS negatively, but she did come very close to coming back in 1990 (at that point, neither Deidre Hall nor Marlena were anywhere in sight).

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But another reason it is tough is because if you are on a soap for years and years then you become identified with your character. Soaps still get millions of viewers a day and even those who don't watch anymore might've watched a certain actor a few years back playing the character they are playing now. Here recently we were watching that thing on I.D. Discovery with Susan Lucci and what was the first thing out of both my mom's and grandmother's mouths? Hey there's Erica Kane! LOL some people become identified with a certain character and that is all people think of them as.

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+1 +1 +1

I agree Mark is one of the best. Maybe he didn't have all these stars go to primetime but GH has an amazingly talented cast because of him. He is responsible for most of the great actors we see on GH. Seriously GH has a lot of talent.

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I still believe any movie Jennifer Aniston appears/stars in that she's not only playing Rachel Green, but Jennifer Aniston. She's a one note actress who I can't see playing anyone other than herself or a version of her NBC persona.

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