Soap operas are usually held up as shining examples of overacting and melodrama, and I’m sure this is thoroughly enforced by the script and directing. Are there any actors or actresses that have managed to transcend all of that crap and put forth consistently good, nuanced performances in a soap opera?
The question is necessarily going to have a very subjective answer, but I nominate Justin Deas. He has a very subtle, realistic acting style which has won him a total of six Daytime Emmy Awards for three different roles on three different soaps.
One of the problems with putting in a really good performance in a soap opera is that there’s just so much work. I can name dozens of actors and actresses who have moved me with great performances at some point, but to do it consistently, day after day for months or years is very difficult, especially because the material you’re given will vary widely in quality. My next thought after Justin Deas was Jon Lindstrom, who has done some very high quality work, but not when he was playing the evil twin serial killer.
Yes. Deas and Lindstrom are great answers!
I’d put forth Matthew Ashford as a terrificly nuanced actor. He played Jack Deveraux on Days of Our Lives, and took what had been a mealy-mouthed goody-goody into a hellish decline to scumbag and then a slow, painfully angst-ridden climb into redemption.
Back in his early days, Jack did many repulsive things (like raping his wife) and Ashford managed to show why he was such a self-destructive asshat. Unlike every other redeemed rapist on soaps, Jack struggled for several years with what he did and never forgave himself (as well he shouldn’t). That’s in large part to Ashford’s portrayal; the actor’s said that he always played the subtext of Jack’s guilt and dark side, long after the writers and producers wanted to forget these aspects of the character.
Ashford had an amazing ability to play Jack’s bitterness, cynicism – including some amusing self-referential adlibs – and self-hatred, and eventually the painful hope that he could rejoin the human race and redeem himself. Plus, unlike many other soap actors, he knew how to emote without saying a word. And he was funny and charming in the role, too. After getting fired from DOOL (which happened about three times due to stupid headwriters and producers who didn’t seem to like the Jack character much), Ashford played a troubled doctor on General Hospital and a wonderfully creepy serial killer on One Life to Live.
Sadly his more intellectual style doesn’t mesh well with the craptastic stuff they’re putting out these days on soaps. Right now he’s doing theater and an indie film.
Other excellent actors include Stephen Nichols, Peggy McKay, Charlotte Ross, Melissa Reeves (Steve, Caroline, Eve and Jennifer on DOOL, respectively), Charles Keating (Carl on Another World), and the wonderful Genie Francis (Laura on General Hospital).
My Soap watching is limited to CBS soaps, and has not continued consistently through the years. There have been performances I found moving, and many of those actors have moved on to prime time TV or film acting. Kevin Bacon was excellent as T.J. Werner, angry teen alcoholic.
Michael Zaslow as Roger Thorpe on Guiding Light was, in my opinon, very talented. Best when Roger was villainous, but still believable during the inevitable bouts of niceness.
I’d also vote for Justin Deas. My admiration of him started when he played Tom Hughes on As the World Turns. In fact, even though Scott Holmes has played the role for years I still think of him as “the new Tom”.
dang - I came in to mention Michael Zaslow, though I’ll third Justin Deas too. Before my daughter started walking I watched a lot of various soaps with different friends. I thought “Guiding Light” had consistently high quality of acting, but this was approx 10 - 15 years ago.
This is going back 14 years or so, but Jackie Zeman and Kristina Wagner did some INCREDIBLE work on General Hospital with the BJ/Maxie storyline. I’ve never seen anything come close.
One of the most outstanding soap performances of all time was given by Judith Light as Karen Wolek on “One Life to Live.” She had a suitably melodramatic storyline - bored housewife becomes a daytime hooker - but turned it into a showcase performance. During a murder trial story, Karen had to take the witness stand and was forced to reveal the truth about her prostitiution to the town of Llanview (including her clueless husband). It’s generally regarded as one of the single best episodes of daytime soaps. You can see the crucial scene here and here.
Me too, even at the risk of revealing to the world that I used to occasionally watch the Guiding Light. I stopped watching the show in disgust when Zaslow was fired, shortly before he died.
To be fair, TPTB at Guiding Light didn’t now he had ALS and didn’t know he’d die a year after letting him go from the show. At the time, they only knew he was having difficulty speaking. Guiding Light was the only soap I watched back then and I remember that his words were slurred.
I’m surprised that Justin Deas has been mentioned here. There are times that I love him and other times that he’s just so unbelievable over the top.
I don’t have all of the actresses names, but he character of Carlie on General Hospital has gone through three actresses. Assuming the script writing has been of the same general quality, it was quite obvious that the first Carlie was quite good, the second Carlie was truly horrible, and the current Carlie is probably the best of the lot.
Yes, a lot of the soap actors are not all that great, but to be fair, this is one of the hardest jobs out there for an actor. You have lots and lots of dialog to memorize, often changed at the last minute, and it never ends. If you are a major character, you are memorizing ten pages of script of more every day! Plus learning the direction, keeping track of your relationship to the other characters and trying to play into the direction the character is going.
So if it sometimes seems rushed and a little clunky along the way, cut them some slack…rehearsal time is almost non-existent and they are indeed rushed and scenes can’t be filmed over and over and over again…they just don’t have the time or budget.
Sometimes it’s between 20 and 30 pages of dialogue a day, especially for a major character in a front-burner storyline.
There is very little rehearsal time, like DMark said. Usually, for an actor, you memorize your lines prior to that day’s show (and changes can come as late as the day before - when the show I worked for put out scripts, we put them out a week in advance. We had changes constantly. I knock some actresses for not being able to remember their lines, but I don’t think I could have done it. It’s a friggin’ tough job.).
A soap actor typically shows up around 7 AM for rehearsal. From rehearsal, you go into blocking (around 8 or 9 AM), from blocking, you go straight into hair and makeup, get into costume, and you try to knock off a few scenes before lunch. After lunch, you work until you’ve taped everything. Typically, on a normal day, this would end around 5 or 6. If you’re lucky enough only to be in straight scenes - as in, no location/set changes - you can sometimes be out by 2 PM. If you have location/set changes (which are really just moving from one part of the studio to another), you’ll probably be there much later. If you’re in a heavy storyline, you hang out for awhile after your scenes are finished taping, and rehearse for the next day. Otherwise, you go home, memorize your lines, and show up on your next scheduled day (again, if you’re in a heavy storyline, it could be 7 AM the next day), and do it again.
It’s grueling. Extremely grueling. And anyone who can turn out a good performance under those circumstances is amazing.
I’ll just throw out Kim Zimmer and Martha Byrne - Reva from Guiding Light and Lily from As the World Turns. Both are typically in front-burner storylines, and both turn out excellent performances consistently.
(And as far as the writing - there are some VERY talented soap opera writers out there - I know several who are incredible. The problem is, when you’re fighting with executive producers and networks who think they know more than you about writing a show, you fight a losing battle. When the writing for a show is good, it is GOOD. As the World Turns had several years where it was absolutely first rate and could have competed with any show in primetime, as have Another World, General Hospital, and Guiding Light. But when the network executives make you kiss their asses for every tiny little storyline you want to write - it’s a lot harder to get quality stories on the air, which in turn, doesn’t always bode well for the material that the actors have to work with.)
Ooh, I came in here to mention Judith Light, as well. Her performance in those clips just blows me away.
Lane Davies as Mason Capwell on “Santa Barbara” is widely regarded to have been a very good actor who brought a lot of nuance to the role. One poster on another message board described him thusly:
Anne Heche as twins Vicky and Marley on “Another World” gave terrific performances.
Yes, but my highschool friend Jensen Buchanan–my first piece of serious writing was adapting Snow White for Jensen to star in my sophomore year–who replaced her, was just as good. (The only times I’ve watched soaps is when I’ve known the actor. My cousin was on Jensen was awesome! Plus she married the guy I had a crush on all through highschool, so she’s my hero there too. And I watched DOOL while my cousin was on it.)
Pound for pound, I think Another World had the most consistent stable of quality talent. Helps that they were located in NYC and had a deep bench of theater performers.
Hmm, I dunno, I think Heche did a better job at Vicky – she kept her more of a livewire, trashy character in those days. Buchanan toned her down. (Which, in fairness, wasn’t a bad thing for the part longterm. I really loved her in the role, don’t get me wrong.) JB was freakin’ gorgeous, too. Her Vicky and Paul Michael Valley’s Ryan = hot city.
And speaking of Jensen’s era at AW, one example of someone who surprised me with her acting chops was Alicia Coppola, who began as a sidekick on the MTV gameshow Remote Control and who played Lorna Devon on AW. At the beginning she was one of the worst actors on the show. After a few months she developed into a terrific talent, one of my favorites on the show. Coppola and Linda Dano (who played Lorna’s mother, Felicia Gallant) gave some heartwrenching performances during the murder of Lorna’s father/Felicia’s husband.
Seems like the daily grind of a daytime drama career can be one hell of an acting workshop – if you’re able and willing to learn.
Ooh, who? 
In its heyday Another World had some great acting. Douglas Watson, Beverly McKinsey and Victoria Wyndham in the Mac/Iris/Rachel triangle were superb!
Oddly enough, Victoria Wyndham had horrible chops near the end of Another World. It was all I could do to watch her (and growing up, she was one of my favorites). As much as I loved Charles Keating, as her acting partner, he caused her to develop some nasty tics and she seriously started hamming it up every time she was on screen.
Another World had some fantastic actors (glad to see Alicia Coppola mentioned). They were consistent, and I think it was in part because of the writing, too - they had excellent writers on a regular basis. And they all worked together really well. It was nice to have those three years or so of Another World on Soapnet until they took it off the air in April.
Oh, and yeah. Lane Davies as Mason. My elementary school crush :D. I would give just about anything to see Soapnet pick up Santa Barbara.
Anyone interested in the Mac/Rachel/Iris years of Another World should read Head Writer Harding Lemay’s book “My Eight Years on Another World.” He tells about getting rid of some stupid story lines (Pat has a brother who is a doctor and a sister who is a nurse and can’t find out why she is having such stomach pains? C’mon here), the story lines he wrote and the actors he casted and also got rid of (he hated the actress who played Mary Matthews and deliberately killed her). He is the guy who decided to bring the Frame family into the picture, noting that “Stephen Frame could have been hatched from a egg.” He was looking for a love interest for Mac Cory when he and Rachel had one scene together, noted the interaction between the two actors, and immediately paired them up. His best casting choices included introducing the young Joey Perrini and casting a very young Ray Liotta in the role.
A lot of the performances that stand out in my mind were given by people who didn’t stay in soaps very long. Julianne Moore as twins on As the World Turns, Melina Kanakaredes on Guiding light. But often I think those performances were enhanced by whoever they worked opposite.
At the same time actors who stay with the soaps for a long time are turning out really good work but are also open to more criticism because of their long runs. There’s also the influence of the writers and the front burner/ back burner storylines. Kim Zimmer as Reva, for instance, is frequently at the top of the heap, but when her character goes through ridiculous changes (like suddenly being Amish) the acting seems a little less natural. The same thing with Martha Byrne, clearly talented and dedicated, particularly for having started in the same role at such a young age but has been made to endure some ridiculous storylines.
I dipped back into the Guiding Light briefly this summer, but there were ghosts, and Josh was preparing to be a minister (am I the only one left alive who remembers that Josh was a bad guy - a rapist - when he first came to Springfield?) so I quickly gave it up.
Jackie Zeman? Her acting style involves making her eyes big and opening her mouth wide. No, Brad Maule was the best during that storyline, followed by Kristina. Jackie couldn’t help but be good around them and with that storyline.
Then they later screwed Brad’s character repeatedly with a rusty spoon. Maybe I am being a little harsh on Jackie, after all they don’t give her anything to do now but make her eyes big and try to be supportive to Carlie or Luke (during the 4 months out of the year that he works).
I’d like to add Eden Riegel, formerly (and now off and on) of All My Children. When she first started as Bianca she was really green and kind of annoying. But when she went through the rape and pregnancy storyline she really shined. I started to like the character and the actress at that point. I was sad to see her leave and made into a Babe supporter before she left.
DMark - There was actually another short-lived Carlie who was absolutely the most horrible of them all. Of course she had to try to be crazy, insecure whiny Carlie which may not have helped her make an impression because it was so unlike the character up to that point.
I have to agree that most really good actors on soaps are the ones that end up going on to bigger and better things.
Now if this thread were about really bad actors that seem to last forever and constantly get front burner storylines, I’d have a huge list, headed by Cameron Mathison on All My Children who’s acting style involves overemphasizing every other word, making his eyes big and licking his lips. He comes off as quite insane when he does this, but he’s supposed to be all dreamy and stuff.