Proof soaps aren’t the Pitts
BRAD PITT has revealed his ready-made excuse for anyone who challenged his ability after landing his first role on ATV soap aged 24.
The A-list star, who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar three months ago and is now said to be worth £250million, admits he prepared this reply for detractors: “I’m just a dork from Missouri who had no training.”
Pitt, now 56, only appeared in two episodes of daytime soap Another World in 1987 before landing the role of Randy and appearing in four episodes of blockbuster Dallas.
“I just couldn’t believe my luck,” he declares in The Story Of Soaps, on US TV tomorrow.
As well as tracing the history of soaps, the documentary reveals how many other big names got their break on the daytime and early evening shows.
They include Demi Moore, who at 19 played reporter Jackietempleton in General Hospital in 1982.
She recalls: “I was figuring it out by the seat of my pants – the school of ‘Fake it till you make it’.”
George Clooney credits another hospital series – ER – with resuscitating his failed attempts to find fame. But before he became an overnight sensation as “dreamy” Dr Doug Ross in 1994 he says he would warn cast-mates: “Don’t come near me, I’m bad luck.”
Julianne Moore, who later won an Academy Award, hated her 1980s soap gig. “I played Frannie Hughes and her half-sister Sabrina on As Theworldturns,” she says.
“I was super-excited to learn they’d written two parts for me, then I discovered it was boring to act by myself.”
Meg Ryan was on the same show from 1982 to 1984, before becoming a star in 1989’s When Harry Met Sally.
Well before Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston was in two soaps, One Life To Live and Loving. He says: “The soap opera pace – filming 40 to 60 pages of dialogue per day
– really tests a performer.”