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The Dame has spoken (Attittude interview)

Toni

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I´ve just seen this, Dame Joan Collins has given an interview to the Attittude magazine...and she´s ranting and whining again about her Dynasty days:


Dame Joan Collins has opened up about her real-life feuds with her former Dynasty co-stars, admitting for the first time just how far the show's onscreen aminosity extended off-screen.

Collins, 86, has revealed there "wasn't a lot of love lost" between the cast of Aaron Spelling's primetime drama, which aired for nine seasons from 1981-89 and made international stars of actors including John Forsythe and Linda Evans.

After a faltering first season which drew relatively low ratings, Dynasty's fortunes took a turn after Collins joined the soap as scheming Alexis Carrington during its second season.

But in the Attitude Awards issue - available to download and to order globally now - Collins reveals how there was "a lot of resentment" towards her from the cast during the show's run - and that their "antipathy" remains almost 40 years later.

"There was a lot of resentment", she recalls. "I’ve been asked this question a million times, and when I was doing it, I would poo-poo it. I’d say, 'Oh, no, no'.

"But yes. There was. And now I know there was because many people have come back to me who were around at that time and said, 'They bloody hated you, Joan'."

The London-born actress continues: "First of all, the fact that I was English, some didn’t like that. This English woman comes in and saves the show. This is what the media said, because the show was about to be cancelled.

She adds: "Even now, when we get together for Dynasty reunions as we did a few years ago, I see an antipathy towards me.

"Also, if you look at some of the things that John Forsythe, Gordon Thompson [Adam Carrington], and even Michael Nader [Dex] said about me in interviews, they were not nice.

"I have never said anything about it before, but now the time has come. Let’s call a spade a spade."

Collins, who earlier this month was honoured with the Icon Award at the Virgin Atlantic Attitude Awards, powered by Jaguar, goes on to explain how her co-stars' "dislike" of her was apparent from the outset - and that fellow lead John Forsythe and Linda Evans appeared to take particular issue with her.

"The first scene I did, which was me sitting in the defendant’s box in court, being interviewed by a fabulous actor called Brian Dennehy, and staring at the whole cast who were looking at me. I looked at them and I saw their dislike", she recalls.

"I saw, sitting in the audience, John Forsythe as Blake, Linda [Evans] as Krystle, Pamela Sue Martin as Fallon. Then John James, he was playing Jeff Colby, who I felt an affinity with.

"He was the only one who gave me the vibe of, 'I like you, Joan.' Because I felt that the others didn’t.

"In fact, in the very first scene that Linda and I had, I had to yell at her, 'So who do you think you are? You’re just a trumped-up little secretary who wormed her way into Blake’s life!'

"During the rehearsal, I played it down. I just said the lines, did the moves. Then when it came to actually shooting it, I saw Linda visibly shrink back from me. At the end, she said, 'Oh my God, that was so real. Did you mean it?'
"I said, 'Linda, it’s called acting'.

"From then on, she felt that I didn’t like her, and she didn’t like me."

Collins, who returned to television with a recurring role on American Horro Story: Apocalypse last year, continues: "There wasn’t a lot of love lost between [many of] us, particularly John, who played Blake.

"I don’t know if you’ve seen any of the DVDs of Dynasty - John had to have his picture twice as big as anybody else, even though Linda and I were important.
"He couldn’t bear that. He had to have more lines than anybody."

https://www.attitude.co.uk/article/...eal-life-feuds-with-dynasty-co-stars-1/22156/
 

tommie

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To be fair to Gordon - I don't get the impression that he dislikes Joan, but were more bemused by her more than anything.
 

Alexis

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I mean I can see what Joan means about the resentment that some of the cast may have had about her. That factor that the show did start to soar in ratings and popularity with the introduction of her character. It's fairly obvious that the actors who had been in the original cast, and starred in the first season would feel that way. Joan didn't join the cast and slowly become it's star. She came in like a tornado. Her first scenes in front of the cast, in the courtroom are a power house of acting. It's a lot of dialogue and it's her introduction to the cast and the viewer. She just shines, acts her chops off. I could see why cast members would be worried.

After that she starts getting more dialogue, and much better lines than anybody else. In her scenes she usually has the zinger line. Why? Because the producers and writers realised that they can have a lot of fun with this outrageous character. It is quite obvious that some people held resentment over that. Fallon is side lined quickly, and doesn't always get to bite the head of the sugar bride now that Alexis is biting the heads of off spring onions and whatever else. Krystle now has to share screen time with another Mrs Carrington and one who is a whole lot different from her. Krystle is nice and she has to nicely arrange her roses and be married and faithful to Blake. Alexis can sleep around, plot and scheme, wear things other than beige and blue and change her hair and become an empress of industry in her swanky penthouse. Alexis can do what she wants. Joan can do what she wants and the viewers and the network love it.

I do believe what Joan says about the cast and their resentment, and I have always believed it. However, I don't think she is right about Michael Nader or Gordon Thompson who I genuinely believe were very fond of Joan at the time and very grateful to be on a show staring Joan. They were not original cast so that resentment wouldn't have came from either. They were on the gravy train thanks to Joan and likely very grateful to her.

Though she seems to mix up names and times a lot.
 
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Alexis

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"In fact, in the very first scene that Linda and I had, I had to yell at her, 'So who do you think you are? You’re just a trumped-up little secretary who wormed her way into Blake’s life!'
Also does Alexis actually say this to Krystle in early season 2?
 

Alexis

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Also here's her accepting the Icon Award.
 

Willie Oleson

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OK, this is not for real?

I mean...
"and staring at the whole cast who were looking at me. I looked at them and I saw their dislike", she recalls
John Forsythe as Blake, Linda [Evans] as Krystle, Pamela Sue Martin as Fallon

...these characters were not supposed to be happy to see her back (I think it's called acting, or something like that).

Then John James, he was playing Jeff Colby, who I felt an affinity with."He was the only one who gave me the vibe of, 'I like you, Joan.
And Jeff kinda liked Alexis...is she getting things confused?

"I don’t know if you’ve seen any of the DVDs of Dynasty - John had to have his picture twice as big as anybody else
So he also disliked Linda Evans?



???

I can't believe this, it's like a passage from one of her trashy novels.
 

tommie

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I see a certified hater has entered the thread!

Cleanse your souls with this after reading the above message:

 

Alexis

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No she's right about Forsythe and some of the original cast. It's really quite obvious. John and Linda were never friends with Joan.

That American re-release of the DYNASTY complete DVD collection is not representative of how the individual seasons were designed and produced. There John was usually front and centre.
 

tommie

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Two haters.

Cleanse your souls before it's too late

 

Toni

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upload_2019-10-30_22-6-48.jpeg

I personally find absolutely understandable (and believable!) that she feels that way. After all, each one of the "Dallas" supporting actors have been saying the same thing about the original cast, that they were there since the very beginning and were part of the Who Shot J.R. phenomenon, so they were closer to each other (no matter what rumors hint about Linda and Victoria...) and all the actors who came later felt a bit like outsiders...even Howard Keel.


So I think the Dame actually interpreted that feeling of "we started together" in a somewhat paranoid way as "we hate you together" (...) when as you all say better than me, there was a lot of layers in that situation and Collins has already proved that she misreads and misinterprets a lot of "Dynasty"-related stuff. Just take a look at her autobiographies...I wonder if some of all this could be injected into the script of that biopic in works of the Collins sisters...It could become "The re-make of a Guilty Pleasure".

 

Alexis

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Imagine signing on to do a show which at first has middling ratings and is not sure to be a hit. Then having another actor come on the show and make it a hit and in doing so
change the tone of the show you originally signed on to do. And also change your role on said show significantly. Then you find yourself working on this show that's completely different to the show you signed up for. But it is also probably the best paid job of your life. You find yourself in a hit show that's only a hit because someone else made it a hit. And you would be a fool to walk away from the show as you have achieved mega stardom and are making millions. You are now featuring on the Joan Collins show. How upsetting.
 

Alexis

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"I don’t know if you’ve seen any of the DVDs of Dynasty - John had to have his picture twice as big as anybody else
So he also disliked Linda Evans?

But this is a perfect example. Joan/Alexis was Dynasty's JR but she was never featured front and centre on the original Dynasty DVD releases like that. It was always Forsythe like that with the ladies/other cast flanking him.
 

Willie Oleson

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So I think the Dame actually interpreted that feeling of "we started together"
With George Peppard.

But it's not like these actors had been working together for years and years.
Then having another actor come on the show and make it a hit and in doing so
change the tone of the show you originally signed on to do.And also change your role on said show significantly
Wasn't John Forsythe feeling uncomfortable in the role of original Blake? Thanks to "Alexis" he became the nicer person by default.
To me it seems he got what he wanted.
 

Snarky Oracle!

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90% of this junk is made up. It's just Joan's usual attempt to get people to say, "Oooooo -- she's such a bitch...!" as if Alexis never died.

 

Richard Channing

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Wasn't John Forsythe feeling uncomfortable in the role of original Blake? Thanks to "Alexis" he became the nicer person by default.
To me it seems he got what he wanted.

He did, but maybe what he wanted more than anything was to be the star of the show?
 

Alexis

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Wasn't John Forsythe feeling uncomfortable in the role of original Blake? Thanks to "Alexis" he became the nicer person by default.
To me it seems he got what he wanted.
No, he got upstaged. Not what he wanted, but how to do you upstage Joan?
 
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