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James Franco on the art of soap acting and more!

Courtesy/NY Festival

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?

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bottomchef

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 »

Breaking News

Walt Willey Brings All My Children’s Jackson Montgomery to General Hospital

Look for another legal eagle character from a former ABC soap opera to pop up on General Hospital!

News today out of Soap Opera Digest has that none other than Walt Willey set to reprise his role as All My Children’s Jackson Montgomery on upcoming episodes of GH in July.

Willey played Erica Kane’s (Susan Lucci) love interest and the Pine Valley lawyer from 1987 through to till ABC’s cancellation of the series back in 2011.  The actor previously crossed-over to another soap opera in 1996, when he played Jack on ABC’s The City.

Photo: ABC

Taking to his Facebook account, Walt confirmed the news on his appearances on GH: “Hey Folks… Been sitting on this one for a while but now I’ve been given the clearance to announce that “Jackson Montgomery” is visiting Port Charles! I’ll be doing a few episodes of General Hospital, due to air mid July. So excited to reprise my character and see and work with old friends! I’ll keep you posted on any details. “Jackson” in Port Charles…who would have thought it? Let me, and ABC, know what you think about it!”

Could Jack’s sudden arrival in Port Charles have to do with the SEC and the trouble that Carly (Laura Wright) and Drew (Cameron Mathison) find themselves in?   Will AMC fans get to see Cameron Mathison and Willey share scenes together again?  Mathison played Ryan Lavery on the beloved former soap opera … or might Jack go up against Martin Grey in a GH legal battle, so Michael E. Knight and Willey could share scenes together again since their AMC days?

So, excited to see Walt on General Hospital? What do you think brings Jack to Port Charles? Weigh-in below and stay tuned.

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General Hospital

B&B’s Scott Clifton Reflects On His Conflicted Emotions on Winning Lead Actor Daytime Emmy Over Y&R’s Kristoff St. John

The Young and the Restless’ beloved Kristoff St. John (ex-Neil Winters) passed away back in February of 2019, and at the age of 52-years-old.  Back in 2017, St. John along with The Bold and the Beautiful’s Scott Clifton (Liam), were nominated alongside each other for the Lead Actor in a Drama Series category at the 44th annual Daytime Emmy Awards.

A win for either would put them in the Emmy record books to become the only actor to win all three of the Daytime Emmy acting categories as of that time: Outstanding Younger Actor, Outstanding Supporting Actor and Lead Actor.

During his appearance on Maurice Benard’s You Tube series, State of Mind, Clifton talked about the emotions and ups and downs of eventually winning the Emmy over St. John, while knowing how much it meant to Kristoff, and given late actor’s reel. In it, St. John shared scenes with the late Nichelle Nichols, who played Neil’s dying mother.

When discussing his three Emmy wins with Benard, Scott expressed: “It’s beautiful, but remember Kristoff St. John.  I got to do a couple of events with him, and I got to talk with him, and the year that I got ‘Lead’, he was nominated.  He and I both had a Younger Actor Emmy and a Supporting Actor Emmy, and if one of us won, everybody was telling us, we would have this record of the first actor in daytime to have a Daytime Emmy in all three categories.  And, he told me, and this was months before he passed away, he told me, it was really important to him to win that.”  It was then, an emotional Clifton shared: “That Emmy is not worth it to me. It’s bittersweet.”

Photo: NATAS

As to how Scott feels he wound up with the gold statuette, the B&B star acknowledged, “So much of that it is who happened to be submitting that year, etc, and this was the first year they changed the rules. All I did was take advantage of the new rules, and I was smart about it.  I did not have the best performance, but they changed the rules where instead of submitting one episode through the year, you could submit a 20-minute tape and you could grab (scenes) from whatever episodes, and I made a story with it. I was playing the voters, but I didn’t have the best performance.”

In tribute to St. John, Clifton said, “His performance  was beautiful, but it was all in a hospital.  It was so intimate and small, and controlled and authentic, and mine was all over the place, but I told a story.  I’m convinced that’s the only reason I won.”

Courtesy/CBS

Scott’s reel that year was also outstanding, so many could see why he won the coveted prize and made Emmy history.

Check out the poignant story as told by Scott to Maurice in the latest episode of State of Mind below.

Then, let us know what you thought about Scott opening up on of his career-defining moments via the comment section below.

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General Hospital

General Hospital’s Réal Andrews and Finola Hughes Deliver the ‘Power Performances of the Week’

Two different storylines, two noteworthy performances, and both from General Hospital, made our weekly kudofest.  The first, belongs to the heartbreaking performance that still has everyone talking by Réal Andrews as Marcus Taggert.

Last week’s episodes of GH, brought with it the results of the DNA test that ‘proves’ just who is Trina’s (Tabyana Ali) biological father, Taggert or Curtis (Donnell Turner)? When Trina opened the envelope to reveal the answer in front of Portia, Curtis and Taggert, she announced it was Curtis, who was her dad.

However, if you watched the scenes carefully, you saw the subtle work by Andrews as he was attempting to remain calm before receiving the answer and what followed afterwards, but that was in front of Trina, Portia and Curtis and his attempt to put on a brave face through it all.  In reality, Taggert was devastated by the news.  When he said his goodbyes, Taggert got inside the GH elevator.  Once there, he lost it and began to cry, punching the elevators walls with his fist.  A five-hank

Meanwhile, Finola Hughes once again showed us the layers and the veracity of Anna Devane. This time, while at WSB headquarters, Anna’s past as a double agent comes to light.  Agent Hersley had her under arrest, as she is being accused of treason against the state.

Courtesy/ABC

While Anna’s past as a DBX double agent were known to the agency, they weren’t known to the public. Thanks to Victor’s will reading and the revenge plot he set in motion against her, now Anna is up against more formidable foes.  When speaking with her lawyer, Martin Grey (Michael E. Knight), Anna says how can she dispute the charges against her when they are true?  She realizes in this instant that the WSB wants to hang her out to dry to cover their own asses.  Hersley threatens Anna, that if she fights the charges, they will be forced into looking into the actions of her associates, Robert Scorpio and Annie Donnelly.

Not having it, Anna throws down saying she will seriously embarrass the WSB if they pursue this … and if anything happens to Robert, Annie or anyone else she cares about, she will take the bureau down with her.  After Hersley caves, Martin asks Anna what happened. Anna states she is no longer an agent and will never be again.

This material gave the mighty Hughes the material to shine, as Anna went from having the rug pulled out from under her, to fighting back, to now not knowing what her future holds after saving others.

Courtesy/ABC

For all the reasons cited above, Michael Fairman TV names the work of Réal Andrews and Finola Hughes as last week’s ‘Power Performances of the Week”.

Do you agree with our picks of GH’s Réal and Finola? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below, but first check out some clips from their work below.

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Peter Reckell returns for a second visit with Michael Fairman following the wrap-up of his recent run as Bo Brady on Days of our Lives.Leave A Comment

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