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News for the week of 13-Dec-2015

by Carol Banks Weber

When director/writer David O. Russell brings a movie (I Heart Huckabees, American Hustle, Joy) to life, he likes to go as authentic as possible, including real fighters in The Fighter and now, real soap opera actors in the upcoming Jennifer Lawrence (Joy Mangano) film, the recently Golden Globe-nominated Joy. Russell picked out the queen of soaps, Susan Lucci (ex-Erica Kane, AMC), while the lead actress Lawrence favored GH’s Sonny & Carly, Maurice Benard and Laura Wright, from their semi-recent prison scenes together. “These two people talking in prison, to us, was sort of like Joy and her husband feeling unable to live their dreams and feeling trapped,” Russell said.

Donna Mills (ex-Madeline; ex-Abby, Knots Landing) auditioned for the role of Joy’s mother Terry. Virginia Madsen, a real-life soap fan, won the role instead, but Mills appears on the soap within the film.These soap actors are featured in a fictional daytime drama Joy’s mother is depicted watching religiously, The Joyful Storm, to glean insight into the main character’s childhood influences. In the latest issue of Soap Opera Digest (December 11th preview online), Mara Levinsky interviews Russell about his choices and his impressions.

Before filming, Russell and Lawrence watched current episodes of GH and past episodes of the now-defunct classic soaps, like As The World Turns and The Secret Storm. When Russell found out that Mills and co-star, Diane Ladd, were on The Secret Storm, and he’d recreated an ATWT scene between his pal Julianne Moore’s Frannie and Steven Weber’s Kevin, he was even more amazed by the serendipity. Moore even stopped by to check out the editing and remembered that ATWT scene.

The soap actors impressed Russell with their professionalism, humility, and unearthly ability to churn through scores of script dialogue like it was nothing. “They are not precious, they are not egotistical. You say, ‘Go for this’ and they go for it, because they do 100 pages a day. Those guys were like Olympic athletes. They impressed all of our actors with their bravery. They’re such good storytellers.”

That respect goes deeper than the soap actors’ ability to rock a stack of scripts faster than a normal movie star. The daytime drama genre provides the public with essential narrative and “populist art. … People say to me, ‘Well, what are you saying with this film?’ I’m saying, No. 1, that narrative inspires people. Populist art is extremely powerful. I am not saying [soaps] are all nonstop genius, but I am saying there is genius in them and there is art in them and there is mastery in them, and that is something I am happy to wear proudly.”

Gossip for the week of 13-Dec-2015

by Carol Banks Weber

Bravo again to Kelly Monaco (Sam) and Rebecca Herbst (Elizabeth) — Sizzle — for their Emmy-worthy scenes last week in the mother of all confrontations over Jason’s embezzled identity. These two actresses share more chemistry than with any of the actors, past and present, which speaks to their real-life talent, character, and bond. Instead of condescending to talk down to Herbst the way Laura Wright (Carly) did earlier in the week as the unbelievable holier-than-thou, god-like narrator of all creation, Monaco gave Herbst equal platform and Herbst’s rival character a tough-love, grown-up chance to man the f*ck up and be real with Jason while she still has a chance. And Monaco did it by letting Herbst’s Elizabeth (and later, Billy Miller’s Jason) fight right back. I won’t even go into the emotionally gripping break-up scenes with Patrick and his daughter Emma. If Monaco and Herbst don’t earn Emmy nominations next year, there is no hope for this industry. Sisters are taking care of business — on crumbs.

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