DARK SHADOWS FORUMS
General Discussions => Current Talk Archive => Current Talk '24 I => Current Talk '03 I => Topic started by: TERRY308 on May 29, 2003, 05:25:23 PM
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Have you ever noticed someone who "acted" like they were made of cardboard. Oh I don't know, someone like Peter Bradford/Jeff Clark/Charles Deleware Tate and Sky Rumson.
Well, Sabrina Stuart is on that list too. Where did she learn to act? I don't mean that cruley....she just can't act.
I'm sure that Lisa Richards is a very nice person. But, as I said before...she can't act.
And that hair, the Beauty Salon that took her "grey away" and left her with something that was a brown football helmet on her head. That had to be a wig...right.
She has no emomions. Like Chris Jennings, she should be happy to see him, and she is...for about a second, and then it's just her face with this blank look on it. Take some acting lessons and tell those people in hair/make up, that your going to wear your own hair.
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What's ironic is that the scene done in flashback in which she sees Chris morph was a really fine example of acting. The way she is all bubbly and bouncy as she enters his apartment to set up for the surprise birthday party. And she does have a few other moments throughout her tenure as well. But overall, much of what she does does come off rather flat.
Gerard
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And that hair, the Beauty Salon that took her "grey away" and left her with something that was a brown football helmet on her head. That had to be a wig...right.
She had really pretty hair in real life. Why they didn't let her work with that, I don't know. Lisa Richards did well in other things. It might be a combination of having a pretty much thankless part and fairly inept actors to work with most of the time. They never really bothered to give the character much of a personality either.
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As I recall, she was quite impressive in Henry Jaglom's EATING.
As I was watching part of today's episodes, it struck me that DC and Company seemed determine to keep Lisa as plain/frumpy as possible. She was really quite lovely and deserved better than to be saddled with bad wigs and colorless characters.
Regards,
John
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I cannot stand Sabrina. I like Hallie better.
Of course, I still hate Amanda worse.
n
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I cannot stand Sabrina. I like Hallie better.
Of course, I still hate Amanda worse.
Now, who would have ever guessed Amanada will always be at the top of that list for you? :D
I don't mind any of those ladies. Actually, I think they all have their good points. Of all of them, though, I think Sabrina is the most sympathetic. And, of course, she's certainly a member in good standing of that DS sorority (Kappa Kappa Killer?) that accepts and loves their man, no matter what sort of beast he is. [wink2] (Though at least in her case, Chris is completely worthy of her devotion. Pity the same can't be said of all the men. ::))
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I cannot stand Sabrina. I like Hallie better.
Of course, I still hate Amanda worse.
n
heehee i'm with you!
jennifer
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I cannot stand Sabrina. I like Hallie better.
Of course, I still hate Amanda worse.
n
GO WITH ME TO THE PROM!!!
(that's right...you're perfect)....I too would prefer Hallie over Sabrina.
Patti
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Sabrina is OK in my book. She's not too good, but not too bad either. But then again, Sabrina doesn't really seem to have much of a defined role...she just pops in occasionally and then just pops right back out.
I don't see why they used the wig. Lisa Richards' natural hair isn't bad at all. And she refers to herself as looking the way she did originally, but didn't she have longer, MUCH better hair in a flashback from when Sabrina and her brother Ned (ick) first came to town?
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TBH, what is there for an actor to really do with a character like Sabrina? I mean, she's just so flimsy - there's no dimension in the scripts to draw any characterisation from.
I'm not saying that a lacklustre character should be matched with an equally lacklustre performance, but I don't blame Lisa Richards for just turning up, saying the lines and leaving it at that...
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I'm not saying that a lacklustre character should be matched with an equally lacklustre performance, but I don't blame Lisa Richards for just turning up, saying the lines and leaving it at that...
I don't fault Lisa Richards for Sabrina's blahness either - particularly when she went on after DS to prove she can act with other daytime roles, like that of Susan Barry on OLTL, and numerous primetime guest appearances.
(A sort of funny but not really story: my most vivid memory of LR on OLTL was when a friend, who's also a big DS fan but who'd never seen LR on OLTL, happened to be visiting one day when Susan was prominently featured in an episode agreed that her character/performance was quite good and had decided she'd like to watch OLTL just to see more of LR had that idea come to a, uh, "crashing" end when Susan was later struck and killed by a car in that same episode. Oh, well...)
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I think the problem with the character of Sabrina is that she fufilled her function with her very first appearance: she gave Roger Davis an excuse for showing up again.
I suppose he could have shown up ranting about his "dead" sister Sabrina and how awful it was....but I'm SURE having an actual female form to maul made the whole thing work MUCH better for RD. Once they had her, they needed to do somthing with her, but I think writing for her character was somewhere near the bottom of everyone's list of things to do.
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I don't see why they used the wig. Lisa Richards' natural hair isn't bad at all. And she refers to herself as looking the way she did originally, but didn't she have longer, MUCH better hair in a flashback from when Sabrina and her brother Ned (ick) first came to town?
Yes, VWR, Sabrina did have much longer and nicer hair in the flashback scene. So I dont know why they chose to have her sporting a wig? Maybe they thought that this would make her appear older or perhaps more sophiticated looking, although I thought she looked much better with the long hair myself.
Deb
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I get the feeling that they had planned more prominence for Chris than he ended up having. 'Cause that's a typical soap move for a character they're going to build up: bring in family and/or love interest. Perhaps Selby's popularity was greater than expected.
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Sabrina wasn't one of the show's best characters, and she and Chris had IMO little next to nothing chemistry, but no one was more wooden than Angelique's second hubby Sky Rumson and Randall Drew. Next to these two, Sabrina, or I should say Lisa Richards, looks like an award-worthy performer. [santa_rolleyes]
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I don't fault Lisa Richards for Sabrina's blahness either - particularly when she went on after DS to prove she can act with other daytime roles, like that of Susan Barry on OLTL.
Susan was prominently featured in an episode [but] was later struck and killed by a car in that same episode. Oh, well...
MB,
I actually remember watching that same episode - around 1975!? Lisa Richards' Susan was an alcoholic nurse, as I recall, and she'd accidentally shot and killed Tommy Lee Jones' character. Upon remembering what she'd done, Susan ran into the street and was mowed down. Lisa must have done a decent acting job on "One Life To Live," 'cause I was bummed that her sad character got bumped off. But she was a long way from werewolves and vampires by then, so I knew she wasn't coming back to OLTL as a ghost or in a parallel time warp.
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i never got the impression that the writers ever intended to evolve sabrina into a fully developed character.
she was used more as a plot device to further a few storylines along and then she had served her purpose.
that said still i couldn't help but feel terrible when[spoiler]sabrina was killed during the parallel time story...she was just such a victim.[/spoiler]
as for the wig it was the late 1960's and wigs and falls were all the rage(goodness knows our girls wore plenty of them)so perhaps it's not that big a deal.
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Sabrina is OK in my book. She's not too good, but not too bad either. But then again, Sabrina doesn't really seem to have much of a defined role...she just pops in occasionally and then just pops right back out.
I don't see why they used the wig. Lisa Richards' natural hair isn't bad at all. And she refers to herself as looking the way she did originally, but didn't she have longer, MUCH better hair in a flashback from when Sabrina and her brother Ned (ick) first came to town?
I SECOND that ick and THIRD it "Ick" I couldn't stand NED! Uh no....
Bless her heart Lisa Richards, I hear that she did good in a lot of other projects but she didn't do it for me on Dark Shadows. I do agree with one poster who said that she was particularly good in the flashback ep with Chris' transformation!! She just wasn't strong enough (at this point) to carry a soap while "the old timers" as Curtis affectionately called them, worked on HODS. I think PT could have been a lot better if there were a few "STRONGER" actors peppered throhout the cast. I think Lara Parker could hold her own by this time and I also think David Selby enjoyed playing a different version of Q and I enjoyed his performance. However, by the time everyone came back it was wearing THIN! HELL bring back Humbert to spice things up!! He was a pro!! Sorry I slightly got off topic I suppose!
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I also think David Selby enjoyed playing a different version of Q and I enjoyed his performance.
I'm glad someone was able to enjoy watching the 1970 PT Quentin act like such an insufferable boor. I couldn't stand him. Of all the different Quentins on the show, he was my least favorite. The way he treated Maggie at times, screaming at her even, was horrible. [ghost_angry]
Lisa Richards strikes me as being a very nice lady. She can't really be blamed for Sabrina not exactly being a memorable character. She probably did the best she could. The writing for her character is probably more to blame than anything else. The writers never explored Sabrina deep enough, either in regular time or parallel time.
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Sabrina seemed like she might have potential to me, but I think it was because of some strange lip thing, some bit of asymmetrical facial expression involving a lip, that made me expect her to be a little ironic or sarcastic or at least intelligent. So I'd wait to hear something like that from her, and nothin'....
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I did like PT Sabrina better than RG Sabrina, truth be told.
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Agreed, Taeylor, or rather, I found PT Sabrina less annoying than her RT (that's what you meant, right?) counterpart.
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The renewal of this thread has given me a fresh and optimistic perspective regarding LR. I've made negative comments regarding Sabrina but next time she comes around I'll try not to fast forward. Someone made a comment once about how they wouldn't give up one second of DS by ffwding and I've tried to take that approach since then.
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I don't forward through anything. It's DS, warts and all. :) And yes...Midnite...I found PT Sabrina less annoying!
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There's this thing with her lip, can't describe it, that always makes me expect her to be interestingly sarcastic or something... then I wait for some wit and it never comes.
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She definately has a lip thing going on!! I swear I am so sleep deprived. This has been a horrid week for sleep in my world! [easter_shocked] So I just endlessly surf old topics!
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Sleep, my elusive quarry.
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Lisa Richards is not a bad actress. She has worked pretty regularly over the years. I've seen her do some fine work, on One Life to Live and Moonlighting. She was not the best fit for DS though. Sabrina is a highly undeveloped character that might have worked better as a short term role
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She was very good opposite David Selby in the Big Finish audio Blood Dance.
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Agreed, Taeylor, or rather, I found PT Sabrina less annoying than her RT (that's what you meant, right?) counterpart.
WOW this was from 2009; however, yes I did mean PT Sabrina was much less annoying than her RT counterpart! :)
I have to say that I liked her in the audio dramas.
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Let's remember that acting on DS was arduous, a new script daily, and little prep time. I saw her in a movie, Eating? She was fantastic!
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I agree. She was fantastic on the audio drama. I think she was young actress who wasn't as prepared as the others for live TV. She was pretty stiff; however, I again she seemed to relax in her PT role and do best in it!
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I'm currently watching the PT storyline now, and I don't think she is a very good actress...
[spoiler]Her character was just strangled to death by John Yaeger, and she can't even play dead! After she fell to the floor, the camera zoomed in for a closeup, and her eyelashes were fluttering away, and it looked like she was clearing her throat.[/spoiler]
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I have to wonder if she was really near sighted; when it cuts to a scene with her she seems to be always looking at someone to cue her or see the light on the camera come on. I think a lot of other actors and actresses had this process down a bit better by looking out of the corner of their eye or looking up or something to that effect.
I have to say again though I really loved her in the audio drama. She did a fine job! :)
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One of the other actresses--I think it was Lara--said that Lisa was a very good actress but was simply not a good fit for the show.
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Looking back now, I'm sorry that we never got to see a scene between Sabrina and Amy. Two characters who really should have met but apparently never did--at least not on camera