Saturday, January 30, 2010

50 Greatest Soap Actresses: #9 Sarah Brown

NAME: Sarah Brown
RANK: 9
SOAP ROLES: Sandy Sommers, THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (2009-present); Claudia Zacchara, GENERAL HOSPITAL (2008-2009); Julisa Larrabee, AS THE WORLD TURNS (2004-2005); Carly Benson Corinthos, GENERAL HOSPITAL (1996-2001)

AWARDS:
2001 Soap Opera Digest Award nomination for Favorite Couple
2000 Daytime Emmy win for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
2000 Soap Opera Digest Award win for Favorite Actress
1999 Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series
1998 Daytime Emmy win for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series
1998 Soap Opera Digest Award win for Outstanding Younger Leading Actress
1997 Daytime Emmy win for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series

COMMENTS FROM THE PANEL:
Jonathan Reiner: Brown burst onto the scene in blaze of raw, intense energy. Truly, one of the great finds of the '90s.

Connie Passalacqua Hayman (Marlena De Lacroix): Today's genius soap actress. She survived Guza's ugly GENERAL HOSPITAL -- twice!

Nelson Aspen: So many different characters and yet she always manages to infuse them with believability and sexuality. When primetime eventually scoops her up, daytime will have lost one of their best. Let's hope in the meantime she keeps trying out different hair colors and hits every one of the shows still on the air!

Alan Carter: She gave that character wings and soul...what she brought to the table made the role memorable and unforgettable.

Damon L. Jacobs:  From the moment Sarah Brown sauntered into Port Charles as student-nurse Carly Benson, I was speechless.  Here was an actress that could horrify me, terrify me, and make me root for her all the same time.  She could seduce a married man one day, drug a recovering alcoholic and throw him in a dumpster,  then sexually tempt a mentally unstable mobster, and still keep me in her corner.  This is because the complex Ms. Brown always brings spiritual and psychological depth into every one of her incarnation's behaviors, even when she is performing some of the worst crimes imaginable.  It is no surprise that her intelligent and multi-layered performances have had a hard time fitting it on television's current limited landscape.  My hope is that B&B makes the most of this unsinkable force of energy— the one that winks at you in one scene, and prepares to kick your ass in the next. 

Roger Newcomb: There is incredible depth in the performances of Sarah Brown. For her to come back to GENERAL HOSPITAL as a completely different character and make that believable was just a testament to her great talent.

COMMENTS FROM CO-STARS/CO-WORKERS/INDUSTRY:
Kin Shriner: (worked with Brown on ATWT and GH) What a firecracker she is. I had a great time when playing her brother on AS THE WORLD TURNS. She's a feisty little firecracker that could explode at any minute. She's fun.

5 comments:

  1. This is the one I've been waiting for. I ADORE Sarah Brown! I was amazed from the start with her as Carly. I was so sad when she left GH the first time, but was thrilled to see her eventually on ATWT. I've even followed her now to BB. What an amazing talent!!

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  2. I couldn't agree more! Sarah is the reason I started watching soap back in 1998. I remember flipping through TV stations and came across her confrontation with Robin after she returned after giving birth to Michael. I though she did such an amazing job in that scene and I was instantly a fan. I've been following her career closely ever since. She truly is a powerhouse actor and I cannot wait to see how her character on B&B turns out!

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  3. Sarah Brown is the best and the worst thing ever to have happened to General Hospital. She was so incredibly convincing and stunningly dangerous as Carly, that the creative team misunderstood her own original creativity to have originated in THEIR vision for Carly. Sarah's Carly was a wrecking ball - she had a powerful masculine side that made her feral and thrilling to watch as she blew apart Port Charles, but a devastating self conflict which made her endearing. She could make Carly into the lost little girl that you wanted to sit on the ground with and hold, then in the next scene make her a repugnant neurotic control freak.

    We watched as Carly self destructed week after week, and then made a pact with the Devil.... thus Sonny & Carly became the Todd & Blair of Port Charles, licking each others wounds. Even people with no taste for the characters understood their tremendous appeal. As long as Sonny and Carly operated as outsiders in an ENSEMBLE cast, they were as safe as houses!
    The death knell of this show was both Brown leaving, coinciding with Sonny and Carly, the outsiders of all time, written as the LEADING characters of the soap. In our face day after day, having their mystery stamped out, as they proceeded to get everything they wanted, with their cosy mob family in that dank penthouse... and become the Perons of Port Charles!

    Sarah Brown knew the game with Carly. She exhausted her, and when it comes down to it, the character should have been killed off as soon as she was installed and made 'complete' by Sonny. Tamara Braun, an excellent actress in her own right, was too refined and feminine as Carly, too comfortable in her skin, to actually come off as the same bloody character. Laura Wright is a joke - in Sarah's day as Carly, she'd say a bitchy thing but always have a streak of guilt or "Did I really just do that?" in her expression after delivering the sucker punch. Laura Wright is simply one note. There is NO inner life to her Carly. She's a mannequin and a stereotypical soap bitch.

    Back in the late 90s, Sarah Brown and Cynthia Watros over on Guiding Light were creating characters who were deserving of their own series on primetime. They are actresses who not only went to the edge, but jumped into the void with a lyre in one hand and a club in the other. Brown and Watros brought poetry back to soap opera. I just wish Doug Marland had lived to see these women take to our soap opera stage.

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  4. In the daytime world, she's best known for her work as Carly (and understandably so), but my favorite of her roles is her work as Julia on ATWT. Originally, I was completely prepared to hate Julia just based on what I thought was an unoriginal, unrealistic storyline, but her portrayal of the character was amazing. I only wish the show had managed to keep her, as I haven't enjoyed or rooted for a female character on ATWT as much before or since.

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  5. I am a huge fan of the actress its amazing because I loathed her Carly yet couldn't wait to see her act her out.

    The acting of her was her saving grace. I am so glad to see her on B/B. I thought I'd lost her again..

    I agree with AdamTG she is the "best of the best" but when they tried to reinvent her x3 the character lost its steam for me.

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