Monica is killed of Soap Star
OK, last week I was complaining about the size of the bathing suits for the male contestants on I Wanna Be a Soap Star, saying that they should have been smaller. Well ladies, this week we got our wish with the episode titled “Strip…Tease”. But as the show went on I started to feel a bit guilty about getting ready to enjoy seeing the men barely dressed.
The scene this week would be the first time the contestants acted without another contestant. The scene had many emotional layers, a fact which acting coach Eric M. Stuart told them in their workshop type session in the morning. He told them that they would need to develop a backstory in order to pull of the scene and brought in actress Julie Pinson (who plays Billie Reed on Days of Our Lives) to give them some advice on creating a backstory. Her advice – make it up. If you can’t draw on a real life experience make it up to make your performance genuine and believable.
Next we get to see the wardrobe being delivered to the contestants, and the men were kind of curious as to one article of clothing they were given – a flesh toned thong to provide some modesty as they stripped. The girls were given costumes that were influenced by a school girl’s uniform. How cliché. Clad in their stripping clothes the contestants went to get some instruction on how to strip by two dancers from Pole Position Fitness. The dancers choreographed a routine for them for their performance in front of the judges, and I though everyone looked kind of nervous during the practice session.
The contestants are then given some advice by Bryan Dattilo (Lucas Roberts on Days of Our Lives) on stripping on television. I guess he’s taken off his clothes several times on the show. I’ll take Cameron Mathison’s word for it, since I don’t watch the show. Dattilo also was the guest actor in their scene, playing a bar owner/manager.
After dress rehearsal, we see some footage of Monica, Jimena, Travis and Justin having lunch. Justin tells the other three that he’s thinking of walking out and not doing the scene. He felt as if he would be exploiting himself on national TV. Travis tells him that he wouldn’t let him do that – he’s worked too hard to get this far and he would not let him walk away.
The contestants gave their performances, and I thought they all kind of looked awkward. Jimena’s awkwardness worked really well for the judges. All three of them loved her performance. Hogan Sheffer compliments Travis’ strip tease, later saying that even though he is a confirmed heterosexual he found his performance to be hot.
The main criticism the judges had with many contestants is that they did not play the depth of the scene. The judges said it was the best written scene to date and it had nothing to do with taking off their clothes. It had some deep emotional levels that the contestants did not reach. Here is where I started to feel just a tad guilty – I thought it was about taking off their clothes. Heck I wanted it to be about taking off their clothes (the guys that is)! However, I only feel the smallest bit guilty and it’s going away pretty quickly. Maybe if the contestants were not so good looking you could believe it was about more than just taking off their clothes.
After the judges’ critique Justin says that he’s really glad he went through with the performance but that he felt as if he choked and would most likely be packing his bags and going home. He goes to the girls to vent and get some support, while Bo tells Travis that he thought it was funny and that he could not wait to see Justin on the chopping block. Is this the beginning of some discord and back stabbing? I guess it was just a matter of time – you can’t spend 24 hours a day with people for days on end without starting to find fault with each other, and it is a competition after all. Maybe some people’s competitive nature is starting to surface.
During the elimination challenge the bottom three were Yves, Bo and Monica. I wanted to laugh when I saw that Bo was in jeopardy of being eliminated after laughing about Justin and his performance. In the end the judges kill off Monica. Her youth was a drawback in the scene today, but overall the judges thought that she was lacking in the skills necessary to be a successful actress and needed to take some acting classes to get the technical aspects down. The judges also said that if they kept Monica around they would be penalizing Yves and Bo, and they did not want to penalize anyone.
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