Two Faces, One Soul

"Wilson is the new half on WilSon!" read the Soap Opera Digest headline.

With a heavy heart, the fans bid farewell to Chandler Massey, who brought life to Will Horton for nearly four years and single-handedly transitioned the viewers into DAY's gay storyline.

Many fans are sad to see him go, but still support the show and are excited to see Guy Wilson take on the role. Others are swearing to never watch the show again because apparently "there is no WilSon (and no show) without Chandler."

Um...no!

Yes. He was a big asset. But the show must go on. The storyline must go on. And after all, this isn't the first character to switch actors in the middle of a storyline. And this won't be the last.

Characters like Cameron Davis and Taylor Walker lost their actors without notice and had to be replaced immediately. Characters like Gabi Hernandez and Will Horton were switched to accommodate   a different storyline and to take the character in a new direction.  This is where Chandler Massey got his break.

Some actor switches are the result of a character coming back and the show is unable to get the original actor. Abby Deveraux was on in 2006 and came back as someone else in 2011. Philip Kiriakis left in 2002 and returned as a different face in 2003. (And then the reverse happened in 2006 and 2007). Brady Black was one actor in 2004 and then another in 2008.

To see a chart of these recasts view my Tumblr posts Here

And Here

The famous couple, Shelle, was played by four different combinations of actors. Originally, at Salem High it was Kirsten Storms and Jason Cook. Then, Storms left and Charity Ramher stepped in for two seconds. Then, they cast Martha Madison as Belle alongside Cook. These two were the ones who were involved in the infamous year-long paternity secret regarding their daughter Claire. Jason Cook played the man in love with his best friend's wife and secretly wishing Claire was his. Until..the secret came out. He was!

Unfortunately, that's all Cook got to play. He found out he was the father, had a fight with the step-father, Philip (the replacement, Kyle Brandt), and then was recast!

Brandon Beemer was thrown into the middle of a love triangle and a custody battle. And then started the last version of Shelle, Madison and Beemer.

Interestingly, the custody battle included another recast. When Philip reappeared for the hearing in 2007, Jay Kenneth Johnson, the original Philip, returned to the role.

So, the award for most recasts in a storyline goes to...this one!

If Brandon Beemer can transition into a 7-year supercouple role in the middle of a paternity reveal and still carry the story with the support of the fans... then, I think Guy will be fine.

The key to a recast is keeping the character true. If the new actor doesn't have the same motivation in the scenes, or the same demeanor, or the same chemistry with their scene partners, then the recast fails


The transition must be seamless, so much so that it doesn't seem like a different person.

If the fans don't like it, then it tanks. In the world of soaps, this kind of thing happens all the time, and the fans deal with it. We pretend it has been the same person all along. Like nothing has changed.

Within the two actors, the characters themselves stay the same. Although they may have two different faces, they have one soul.

Shhh...It's a Secret

"I hate secrets." Said Will Horton before he went to testify at his mother's trial. Little did he know that his boyfriend was actually keeping secrets from him at that very moment. More than one, in fact.

Indeed, the award for secret keeping this week goes to Sonny Kiriakis and Chad DiMera. Our friend Sonny is keeping secrets from his beloved partner, both pertaining to the mother of his child. Last year, he discovered that Gabi was responsible for what happened to Melanie and consequently the explosions. He has not, however, told this to Will. And recently, Sonny learned that Gabi was sleeping with Nick. He is also refraining from telling Will this information. Meanwhile, Chad is spinning a secret inside a secret. Chad told Cameron that he had a brain tumor, which he does not. And he has Cameron believing that he is keeping this "secret" from Abigail.

Phew!

Both are participating in the most infamous and yet most popular strategy for soap drama: secret keeping.

In Chad's case, he is manipulating the situation and doing it for his own personal gain. This sounds suspiciously like a DiMera. Oh, wait...

Sonny, on the other hand, is being manipulated by a) Chad so he doesn't go to jail for breach of contract and b) Gabi as she is threatening to leave and take Ari with her. Sonny is clearly also doing it to spare Will's feelings...or so he probably tells himself. It is odd because he says that he hates it, and he knows it's wrong... but he does it anyway.

The worst, the absolute worst thing you can do (on a soap and in life) other than cheat is lie and keep secrets from your partner. When a connection between two people is strong and built on trust, one cannot ever betray that trust, otherwise hellfire will burn the relationship to the ground.

"Will and I do not keep secrets from each other," Sonny said to Gabi.
"Keeping secrets, especially about something this serious is NOT a good way to start a relationship," said Kayla to Chad.
My post on Tumblr inspired this and can be viewed here

Indeed, Kayla was correct. It is never a good idea to keep secrets at any point in a relationship. Yet, so many soap characters do it. And it ALWAYS backfires.

If we look at Chad, he has already lied about falling for Melanie while he was with Abby the first time and that did not end well. Sonny is keeping two secrets currently. However, Will also kept a pretty big one from Sonny--the fact that he was the father of Gabi's baby.

Interestingly, the most popular secrets, and the most dramatic, are paternity secrets. They are very easy to lie about and almost alway cause domestic issues. (which are infinitely fun to watch). When the paternity of a child is called into question it usually will involve a lot of people, thus increasing the number of scenes a show can have. With a bunch of people enveloped in the story, either directly or indirectly, keeping paternity secrets are sure to stir up a lot of drama.

Will has had first hand experience with paternity secrets. His mother instilled in him the art of secret keeping. For even at a young age, Samantha Brady had everyone in Salem either believing her lies or keeping her secrets.

And her secrets continue to this day. To name a few there was: Will's paternity, drugging Austin, all her Carrie-stunts, custody-battle lies, pretending to be Stan, Grace's birth, shooting EJ, sleeping with EJ, and her most recent secrets from her attorney including knowing Bernardi, Will's involvement, Nick's incident, and the video.

Now we know why Will hates secrets.

One of the most well done paternity secrets was the one occurring throughout the year 2010. Chloe Lane slept with two men and had no idea who the father was. We still don't know! (I still believe we don't know the whole story for the explanation was rushed, too easily accepted, and Parker looks like Phil). Read about it in "The Lost Storyline" here

Chloe's paternity secret took the whole year of 2010 and extended into the aftermath in 2011. Her secret kept leaking and springing up more holes. Too many people found out. And that is the reason that it all came crashing down in the most heated baptism ever.

Other secrets, such as the Sydnapping, locking Vivian in a coffin, locking Carly in a coffin, locking Marlena in a basement, and faking a pregnancy because of a miscarriage, are the product of Days drama writing over the years. And this is not even including all of the secrets the DiMera's had.

So, we can safely assume that keeping secrets is the catalyst for dramatic revelations in soap operas. And since our beloved soaps are so thirsty for drama, the characters keep secrets even if they don't want to and know it's wrong. (Or they are a DiMera)

We suspect that Will will soon find out about the Gabi/Nick secret. Chad could possibly get away with his tumor secret for a while longer before Cameron starts digging. Gabi's secret should come out eventually. Although, it possibly already did when Chad found out and gave her grief.

With all of this secret keeping in Salem between Sonny, Chad, Sami, Stefano, Kristen, Marlena, and Nicole, drama is bound to unfold once these secrets are exposed.

Like the law of gravity: what goes up must come down...on a soap opera, a secret must always come out.