General Hospital
James Franco on the art of soap acting and more!
Courtesy/NY Festival
I have to say, James Franco is doing a fantastic job bringing attention to soaps right now, not only with his acting, charisma, and performance art connections, but also his writing. Check out his entry in a new piece out today by the actor entitled, The Limits of Control which is on Lapham’s Quarterly website. In the piece, he details the control actors have in certain parts of the medium they work in, which adds to their performances or possibly subtracts. Franco wrote these words below, which to soapers, means he completely “gets” the soap actor’s style and what they have to work with.
Franco, Recently, I performed in the soap opera General Hospital. It is easy to make fun of soaps, with their melodramatic plot lines, constant exposition, unnatural lighting, swelling music, and lack of action. Most of these aspects are due to the extreme speed at which soaps are produced. With five episodes a week, at least sixty pages need to be shot in a day. That’s a feature film’s worth of material shot every two days. This pace allows for very few takes, usually one. Soap acting is generally considered inferior to other acting, with the lack of takes cited as the reason. However, there are many fine film performances that are made up of just a few takes: Clint Eastwood is famous for doing one or two takes when directing; Robert Altman was very loose with his direction, always looking for spontaneity and truth; Gus Van Sant does very few set-ups, and very few takes. Innumerable directors of Oscar-winning films have used such techniques. The reason that soap actors look the way they do is context—how they are filmed, what they are saying, and how they are blocked. There is absolutely no way to act in a soap and pull off a performance like Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood, Robert De Niro in Raging Bull, Meryl Streep in Sophie’s Choice, or Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront. These incredible performances are supported by the incredible filmmaking that is behind them. They are given the time, dialogue, space, and aesthetic of films made by great directors.
This isn’t to say that soap opera performers are worse than film actors, or that their performances are inferior. The soap opera performance should always be perceived in context: it involves actors working in a tradition that soap audiences have come to expect and love. Soap actors are delivering exactly what they are supposed to—they are in tune with their audience and they are not attempting to transcend it. If Brando had tried to play Terry Malloy in a soap, he wouldn’t have had the time to sculpt the performance into the brooding, tortured, nuanced emotional force that won him an Oscar. The contender wouldn’t have been a somebody, instead he’d just have been another mumbling dope with bad eye makeup.”
So what do you think of Franco’s thoughts on soap acting?
General Hospital
ABC Previews General Hospital’s Halloween Episode
General Hospital
GH’s Ingo Rademacher Shares Insight With His Son On Parenting & Anger On Maurice Benard’s “State of Mind”
General Hospital
Gregory Harrison Is The New Gregory Chase On General Hospital
Tom Pelphrey Set As Series Regular For Amazon’s Mystery Drama ‘Outer Range’
‘This Is Us’ Preview: Kevin Drops Baby Bombshell On Toby and Kate
The Bold and the Beautiful Celebrates Taping 100 Episodes Since Returning to Production Amidst COVID-19
THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL: Thomas Gets Creepy As The Hope Mannequin Talks To Him
DAYS Alum Molly Burnett Promoted To Series Regular on ‘Queen of the South’
ABC Previews General Hospital’s Halloween Episode
DANCING WITH THE STARS: Chrishell Stause Shares & Performs Emotional Tribute To Her Late Parents
Kiara Barnes To Perform Her Original Song On The Bold and the Beautiful
As the World Turns Cast To Perform Virtual Reading Of Final Episode
Days of our Lives Returns To Production After Temporary Halt Amid COVID-19
James Scott Comments: “I Will Never. Never. Never. Never. Never, Go Back to Hollywood Let Alone DOOL”
ABC Previews General Hospital’s Halloween Episode
Marla Adams Talks Her Final Scenes As Dina Mergeron, The Alzheimer’s Storyline, and Her Touching Farewell
Gregory Harrison Is The New Gregory Chase On General Hospital
Kristian Alfonso Bids Farewell to DAYS as Final Episode Airs Today Sharing; “Thank YOU From The Bottom Of My Heart For Welcoming Me Into Your Homes All Of These Years”
GH’s Ingo Rademacher Shares Insight With His Son On Parenting & Anger On Maurice Benard’s “State of Mind”
Y&R’s Peter Bergman Talks On Dina’s Death & How It Will Impact Jack, His Final Scenes With Marla Adams & Taping During COVID-19
Judi Evans & Vincent Irizarry Set For Virtual Guiding Light Beth & Lujack Reunion
‘This Is Us’ Cast, Julianne Moore, Allison Janney & More Ask NBC To Move President Trump’s Town Hall Opposite Joe Biden’s To A Different Time Slot
B&B’s Jacqueline MacInnes Wood Reveals Baby Number Two On The Way
GH’s Ingo Rademacher Shares Insight With His Son On Parenting & Anger On Maurice Benard’s “State of Mind”
Y&R Shares ‘Most Memorable Moments Of Dina Mergeron’: What Was Your All-Time Favorite?
‘The Bachelorette’ Releases Two-Minute Hot Mess Promo Ahead of Tonight’s Season Premiere
The General Hospital Promo Featuring The Arrival of Kim Delaney
‘Tiger King’s’ Carole Baskin Gets Emotional In ‘Dancing with the Stars’ Preview Leading Into Tonight’s Competition
WATCH: Ellen DeGeneres Address Toxic Workplace Issues & How She is a ‘Work in Progress’ in Talk Show Season Opener
DANCING WITH THE STARS: Anne Heche. Jesse Metcalfe & Chrishell Stause Make Their Ballroom Debuts; While Tyra Banks Bows As New Host
Chandler Massey & Freddie Smith Discuss Their Departure From DAYS, New Beginnings & WilSon’s Journey
WATCH: Matt Bomer & Tuc Watkins in Official Trailer for Netflix’s Film Adaptation of ‘Boys in the Band’
The Bold and the Beautiful Shows How They Shoot Scenes With Blow-Up Dolls & Mannequins On Access Hollywood
-
Days Of Our LivesOctober 14, 2020James Scott Comments: “I Will Never. Never. Never. Never. Never, Go Back to Hollywood Let Alone DOOL”
-
General HospitalOctober 20, 2020ABC Previews General Hospital’s Halloween Episode
-
InterviewsOctober 16, 2020Marla Adams Talks Her Final Scenes As Dina Mergeron, The Alzheimer’s Storyline, and Her Touching Farewell
-
General HospitalOctober 14, 2020Gregory Harrison Is The New Gregory Chase On General Hospital
-
Days Of Our LivesOctober 14, 2020Kristian Alfonso Bids Farewell to DAYS as Final Episode Airs Today Sharing; “Thank YOU From The Bottom Of My Heart For Welcoming Me Into Your Homes All Of These Years”
-
General HospitalOctober 18, 2020GH’s Ingo Rademacher Shares Insight With His Son On Parenting & Anger On Maurice Benard’s “State of Mind”
-
InterviewsOctober 19, 2020Y&R’s Peter Bergman Talks On Dina’s Death & How It Will Impact Jack, His Final Scenes With Marla Adams & Taping During COVID-19
-
Guiding LightOctober 15, 2020Judi Evans & Vincent Irizarry Set For Virtual Guiding Light Beth & Lujack Reunion
James franco is so full of it. This whole article is somehow “justifying” his film star self going into soaps. And it’s quite backhanded. Can’t he say “I went to soaps so I could try all kinds of mediums. Period.” and then he could shut up abt it forever. He’s saying that soaps are crappy bec that’s what the audience expects them to be. Certainly majority, if not all of the soaps are in bad, crappy states, and the ratings reflect that. There’s a lot of disatisfaction now bec of the bad writing and worse performances. But most probably nothing… Read more »