with her co-stars. They all seem pretty tight. That being said--she is not Trina Robinson for me...still! Recasts have to make a role their own but the core essence and personality traits that character has been known for should remain intact. That didn't happen in several recast examples:
Nina Reeves: When CW took over as Nina. I had missed a few episodes and saw her and thought it was a NEW GH character. When someone called her Nina, I was floored. She was not at all behaving like the Nina Reeves we had been introduced to. Kooky, eccentric, sarcastic and a bitch on wheels. Now, I don't know if that was the character bio Michelle Stafford received or how she decided to play her, but CW plays Nina as a whiny, crying, begging, needy, wimpy woman. We only get glimpses of the bitch on wheels and CW excels in those scenes.
Drew Cain: Cameron Mathison is not Drew. He's not Jason. He's Ryan Lavery. That's all I have to say about that because he is horribly miscast here.
Trina Robinson: Sydney Mikayla played the role with spunk, attitude, and confidence. TA is a decent actress but she can't do heavy drama and she goes off the rails a bit when she is given too much to do. I still cringe when I think about her acting when Rory died. The spunk, attitude, and confidence are hardly there. We get glimpses and what we see more is soft-spoken and demure. Tabi and Brook (Portia) did an interview where they discussed TA taking over the role. TA said that she watched hours of clips of SM as Trina and she was still trying to figure out how SHE was going to play the role. Now Brook chimed in and said how much she loved and missed SM, but agreed that TA has to make the role her own. I get that but I don't agree with it if you change the character too much. Look at all the Carly recasts we've had. All but one was an overbearing, fiery, intrusive, self-important, shrieking shrew. Why? Because that's who Carly is at her core. Take away half of those traits and it's no longer Carly.
Anywho, I do believe today we were told exactly how they will explain NAC/Spencer's absence while he films the Ryan Murphy gig. Maybe they have plans for Nikolas to stalk Spencer and he kidnaps him for some father/son time--thus forcing him to work on their relationship. That would at least get TA back on the canvas and explain why Spencer didn't return with her.
We shall see.
