DR George, that link you posted re: THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS is all the talk on the soaps message board i frequent.
For those who didn't read it it pertains to one of the actors quitting the show because he didn't want to do a gay kissing scene.
I'm sad because i really liked this actor. Although i wasn't happy with the direction his storyline was going (this is before any gay kissing scene).
I am curious though since another character came out a couple months ago (rafe the lawyer) and there were rumors of a big gay romance. I'm curious if this actor was going to be part of that couple. Or if this was merely a single gay kissing scene we are talking about here.
If it was the former then i think the show should have talked to the actor before forcing him to do it. If it was just one kissing scene then i think he should have done it.
Although it makes no sense to me that the character would be gay since he's been engaged and in love with a woman, with no signs of confusion.
I know it's acting, and i don't agree with someone quitting, but it seems like the writers/producers could have just talked to the actor and found out what his reservations were. Perhaps he's religious. Who knows. It just seems odd to me to force someone who has been on the show for a while to do something they are not comfortable doing.
I believe it is called acting.
I'm sorry,
Jennifer, that was rather flippant on my part. But honestly, I have no sympathy for this actor, at all. Actors, and especially soap opera actors, seem to relish playing murderers, rapist, drug addicts, alcoholics, and adulterers; but they take offense at playing a scene where they kiss a member of their own sex? I find that extremely hypocritical, even to use the cop-out of it being against their religious beliefs.
Should I, as a gay actor, be excused for refusing to kiss an actor of the opposite sex? Wouldn't that be ridiculous? I have played characters, and had to say dialogue that is personally offensive to me, TCB; but is part of the character that I am portraying. I had a real problem using the "
N" word, especially in a play that I knew would be seen by a large number of African-American audiences members, including my friends; but I said it onstage, because my character would and did use that word. I would feel far more sympathy for an actor, if he refused to play a serial (or cereal) rapist or an adulterer because
that was against his religious beliefs.