Friday, June 26, 2009

J.R. Martinez Responds to Ehlers Feud Rumors

Last week on "Stardish Radio," ALL MY CHILDREN actress Beth Ehlers made some pointed comments about Charles Pratt, her (lack of) storyline as Taylor on the show, and her co-star J.R. Martinez (Brot).

As many times as I would casually try to go into my boss's office and say, 'Uh, you are going to start integrating me, right?' When you've been doing this as long as I've been doing it, you know how it's supposed to be done. But you can't tell you bosses that because it's like any other job in the world, you can't know more than your boss because they hate you for it. And so you have to be careful when you go in that you don't tell somebody how to do their job. And I wanted to scream at people. I wanted to go in and say, 'Hello, you're burying me here. You're making this really hard. First you give me somebody who, God bless him, I love J.R. but he's not an actor.' And so that's hard enough with somebody who...it's going to be a long time before he gets out of second gear. And I'm constantly having to hedge my performance cause I can't be doing Shakespeare while he's doing something else.

Today, Martinez tweeted in response to fan inquiries asking if there was a feud between himself and Ehlers.

Apparently there are rumors going around about Beth (Taylor) & J.R. (Brot) are having a feud between each other. C'mon peeps. were not.

I simply didn't agree with her chose of words in her radio interview, I never expected her to coach me. Just give tips to help the s/l.

When I was listening to this interview, I was having the same thoughts as Mr. Martinez. I am a longtime fan of Ehlers but I thought she poorly chose her words or was "too" honest at times.

I wonder if we will hear Mr. Pratt respond to the comments she made about him.

Chuck's been writing in a different medium for a while. Chuck's been doing primetime which is one episode a week. He's been doing a different genre entirely. He has not been writing soap operas. He's been writing camp basically and that's a whole different kind of thing. You don't have to commit to history. You don't have to commit to the gravitas in a situation when you write camp. Camp's all making fun of stuff. It's all broad comedy stuff. And so maybe he needed to be reminded that soap audiences don't take kindly to you messing with history. And even if you can't see the seriousness of a situation, they see it. And they want you to write it seriously. You're asking them to trust you, and soap audiences are very generous. They'll forgive you as long as they think you're taking it seriously and trying. If they feel like they're being, pardon me, f*cked with is when they get pissed off. He's clearly a talented writer and has a good resume. I hope the show can find it's way back on track.

Despite the somewhat negative direction of some of the discussion, Ehlers had a lot of positive things to say as well about Ricky Paull Goldin, Laura Wright and many other things. It's an interesting listen, so I recommend checking it out if you haven't yet.

9 comments:

  1. Thank you. Your transcripts here will give the interview far more traction than it had without this.

    One of the failures of this internet interviews, IMO, is that they require people to sit and listen. If these interviewers REALLY wanted their chats to have wide impact, they would quickly release transcripts.

    Michael Fairman is the master...he releases the print transcript, but he also releases at least sound clips. So, too, Nelson Branco types up his interviews. That makes all the difference.

    In this case, though, these intemperate remarks are surprising for one of Ehlers' long experience. It makes one wonder if she, like Victoria Rowell before her, may have forgotten how widely disseminated these interviews can be.

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  2. Mark, I definitely think Ehlers was just really comfortable and talking as if she was among friends. But as a celebrity, you have to be aware, especially after 20+ years of interviews.

    I agree about the audio with transcript. That's one reason I used audio in my Ellen Wheeler interview because it really enhanced it.

    Look for We Love Soaps to do this on a regular basis beginning July 7. :)

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  3. July 7? Hmmm...

    What's another date-to-watch-for? I had to wait a month till the 6/25 debut of Michael Muhney. Now, several weeks till the debut of John Driscoll. I can surely wait another couple of weeks for whatever you have in store :-).

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  4. Her comments regarding the Nielsens were, to say the least, interesting.

    She doesn't believe in them since she still gets recognized the same amount on the streets. WHAT????

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  5. marley, that same night, an hour earlier, Billy Miller said on "BuzzWorthy" that he didn't buy the Nielsen ratings either. But his explanation was more about people watching in different ways and not about how many times he's recognized.

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  6. I like the transcribing idea.. and i agree Michael Fairman is wonderful at what he does.. But in my defense, I have been doing it 1 year versus his 20+ years. So thanks for the suggestion, and you may just see this happening now..
    I think that Beth was extremely comfortable with myself and the caller, and she felt that she could say what she wanted..That is the thing about these shows, they are uncensored, and the guests feel they can be candid.. I am sure what she said on air, is something she probably has said before, just maybe the right people were not paying attention..

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  7. Jo Ann, hopefully this will get you a lot more hits on that episode. :)

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  8. Jo Ann, I strongly urge you to consider transcripts.

    1. More people will get it

    2. It will get cited more.

    3. Hearing impaired people (like me...I admit we are a minority of the audience) will be able to participate.

    I KNOW it is a hassle, but I strongly encourage it!

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  9. I have been a fan of Beth Ehlers for many years. She had chemistry with every one of her leading men on GL. I don't count Cyrus :) Still remember her pairing with Josh fondly. But, it was very shocking what she said. Even more shocking that she said it, is that she believes it. That is what troubles me a bit.

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