2 hours ago, dragonflies said:

According to this article, Victoria Rowell says was asked to audition for Anita Dupree

https://apnews.com/article/beyond-gates-renewal-d7369f7a60a0a992483294acb950ef6d

Thank you @dragonflies ! Appreciate you finding this.
There's a lot in the article about Black representation on soaps, history, quoting quite a few people.
I replied on the behind-the-scenes thread here:
https://boards.soapoperanetwork.com/topic/66310-btg-history-behind-the-scenes-articles-photos/?do=findComment&comment=2023349

I feel like Leslie won't be lasting long on this show. Probably a murder mystery to be. She's alienated Mona and Jan, the best people she had, just to stick it to a married man.

Are we sure we're not going to go down a Natalia Grace storyline here? 

14 minutes ago, te. said:

Are we sure we're not going to go down a Natalia Grace storyline here? 

She painfully sticks out, it’s awful. I can’t believe the producers don’t see this. 

1 minute ago, BetterForgotten said:

She painfully sticks out, it’s awful. I can’t believe the producers don’t see this. 

It's a shame because I like the actress, but she was miscast. I'd say they should pull a DAYS and put her in another role. 

I don't mind her in the role. At all.

She's not a bad actress, but it's glaring how old she looks. She's 30 but IMO looks way older. I do NOT bash looks but her face she looks close to 40, her age shows on her face 

I just can't buy her and Tyrell as siblings close in age. That's absurd. 

Yes, soaps play around with age and we have to suspend disbelief a lot - but it makes things glaringly obvious when her character is supposed to be close to age as her sibling that's played by an actor closer to the age of his character. 

Edited May 15May 15 by BetterForgotten

Damn, there was a tiny pre-emption where I'm from and I missed the Kat/Nicole scene, according to recaps.

I thought it interesting that in the Claybon/Manning youtube with Michael Fairman, Brandon Claybon said Samantha and Tyrell were initially supposed to be 6 and 7, but aged up for technical reasons, first aged up to 10 or 11, and then finally to 16 and 17.  (Not sure what "technical reasons" means but that's what he said.)
Claybon didn't mention when this decision was made to change the ages of the children. No mention of when this happened during the process of casting/writing/preparation.

Just speculating: I wonder if Najah Jackson and Jaden Lucas Miller were cast later than other recurring actors due to this change? - so maybe that's how they selected Ms. Jackson? 

Edited May 15May 15 by janea4old

4 minutes ago, janea4old said:

I thought it interesting that in the Claybon/Manning youtube with Michael Fairman, Brandon Claybon said Samantha and Tyrell were initially supposed to be 6 and 7, but aged up for technical reasons, first aged up to 10 or 11, and then finally to 16 and 17. 

Honestly, either 6-7 and 10-11 would've worked better. But maybe they wanted actors who wouldn't be held to child labour laws and needed them to be able to act, especially if they're (eventually?) going to go with their bio mama showing up (June??). 

I don't think some of Samantha's hairstyles have worked with the ponytails and bows making her look like an older adult wearing a 10-year-old hairstyle.   
Bows work on Kat much better for Kat's age and personal style.

We've known since the start that Eva was a hairstylist before she began working for Nicole.  I like that they brought that back, with Ted arranging for her to work at a high-end salon.  Yesterday's scene with Martin bringing Eva over for pizza with his family, and then Eva doing hairstyles for Samantha worked (for me).

I did think that the new hairstyle that Eva created for Samantha was less "little girl" and somehow even though more mature, it made the actress Najah look less aged. Can't quite explain it, but she looks better now.

Edited May 15May 15 by janea4old

10 minutes ago, janea4old said:

I thought it interesting that in the Claybon/Manning youtube with Michael Fairman, Brandon Claybon said Samantha and Tyrell were initially supposed to be 6 and 7, but aged up for technical reasons, first aged up to 10 or 11, and then finally to 16 and 17.  (Not sure what "technical reasons" means but that's what he said.)
Claybon didn't mention when this decision was made to change the ages of the children. No mention of when this happened during the process of casting/writing/preparation.

Just speculating: I wonder if Najah Jackson and Jaden Lucas Miller were cast later than other recurring actors due to this change? - so maybe that's how they selected Ms. Jackson? 

What if they were originally cast as Vanessa and Doug's twins and then were moved to Samantha/Tyrell when the show decided to delay introducing the twins? It's a shame they didn't stick with the original plan.

BTW, does anybody have any new speculation on what Martin's secret will be? Brandon is hinting nobody is guessing it. Initially I thought it would be something where he was drunk and killed somebody or something like that but now I'm feeling like maybe it wasn't completely his fault. I don't get the vibe they're going to take him in a dark direction anymore.

Edited May 15May 15 by Chris B

11 minutes ago, Chris B said:

What if they were originally cast as Vanessa and Doug's twins and then were moved to Samantha/Tyrell when the show decided to delay introducing the twins? It's a shame they didn't stick with the original plan.

BTW, does anybody have any new speculation on what Martin's secret will be? Brandon is hinting nobody is guessing it. Initially I thought it would be something where he was drunk and killed somebody or something like that but now I'm feeling like maybe it wasn't completely his fault. I don't get the vibe they're going to take him in a dark direction anymore.

Something self-defense is my guess, and I have a feeling maybe he was protecting someone close to him and the optics looked bad so Vernon/Anita covered it up (my guess maybe he was protecting Vernon/Anita).

10 minutes ago, Chris B said:

What if they were originally cast as Vanessa and Doug's twins and then were moved to Samantha/Tyrell when the show decided to delay introducing the twins? It's a shame they didn't stick with the original plan.

I don't think that would be the reason tbh. Thinking about it, it's probably storyline related - I could see bio mom / dad eventually turning up (or maybe it's June as speculated) and wanting the children back. I could also see it being a part of the fall-out of Martin's secret being revealed now that he's backed down from a presidential campaign - his and Smitty's ability to be parents comes into question, which the bio parents use. They might've wanted the kids to be at a age where they could reliably speak for themselves what they prefer, but also have enough memories of their bio parent(s) not doing a good job. I'd also think that they might want to avoid having the image of this gay couple keeping a mother away from her small children, as it might skew the viewer to sympathise too much in one direction.