Who's your bet to win?

Not a clear front runner. Here's my opinion why. Plus/minus:

Michelynne. Plus: young, gorgeous, quick learner. Screen presence. Likable, lots of emotions (life experiences) to mine someday, if she digs down deep. Minus: Not really ready at this moment; would need acting coaching on-set for any meaty scene (they may be OK with that depends on director)

Cecile. Plus: Attractive, likable. Expressive eyes. Minus: No vocal control, no feeling of where she is in an emotional scene; Poor physical control when uncomfortable, too.

Katie: Plus: Good hair (shampoo ads), and perky Midwestern face; Good tv commercial appeal. Ambitious. Minus: Pot stirrer; poor social skills. Superficial charm may get her by short term on sets though. Scary the way she had no sense of reality in that improv. Would a nurse wrestle a patient's daughter down the hallway? Needs to know the difference between her real and onstage/screen emotions. I slow mo'd that improv: she not only pushed Lauren away too strongly but got a grip on her and threw her off the stage. I'd be scratching my head about that one if I saw it in an audition.

Mercedes. Plus: Great camera look; likable and sensual presence. Best training of the bunch and it shows. Talented. Minus: Insecurity runs away with her and she loses focus. Should focus on what she has not what she hates - others will go where she takes them! Her natural niceness takes away some of the edge of whatever ambition she may have. It's a highly competitive business. She has to get her priority set. Right now she is too easily distracted and loses some of her edge. Should not be hanging back from giving her all. Teh way other ones coasted on their looks she is coasting on her talent. A starlet needs more. She can also give more acting wise I agreed with Faye D. Would love for her to surprise me, either with unpretty emotions on screen, or more drive off screen. Why isn't she giving this her all? She needs to give it the glamour, the presence, etc. in every moment they're seeing her. That includes the audience in tv land... agents are watching. Gotta hone in on the biz part a bit more. Loving acting isn't enough to make it usually.

I can see a final two between Mercedes and Katie. They're the two I can see on One Tree Hill, based on looks and ability. Cecile, who I really like, doesn't look like a teenager. She'd be good in a travelling theater company, where her accent wouldn't make or break her. And she can get a dialect coach after the show.

Mercedes has natural ability, and just needs to bring everything to the table. Katie has an advantage in that her look is more WB, and she seemed natural playing with David Gallagher last week.

I think there are 2 separate questions. I remember the line from the movie My Favoroite Year where Peter O'toole struggles with a skit on live TV and says "I'm not an actor, I'm a movie star."
The judges seem to pretend that this is about acting and the winner would impliedly have star quality but also be the best actress in the bunch.

If you asked who do you think is the best actress. IMO it would be
Mercedes
Cecile
Katie
Michellelynne

If the question is who would fit the WB mold....as in who looks and possibly could act like someone on a WB teen role series.
Mchellelynne
Katie
Mercedes
Cecile (though I could see her on Jack and Bobby)

note that my 2 scales are almost exactly reversed and I don't know exactly which of the 2 the judges are actually looking for. ie casting for One Tree Hill or finding the best potential actress....(not always the same thing)

so I have no clue who's going to win....
I find myself rooting for Mercedes though.

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Originally Posted by Brandy

Would a nurse wrestle a patient's daughter down the hallway? Needs to know the difference between her real and onstage/screen emotions. I slow mo'd that improv: she not only pushed Lauren away too strongly but got a grip on her and threw her off the stage. I'd be scratching my head about that one if I saw it in an audition.

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I agree with Katie needing to know the difference between real and onstage emotions. I think she would have done better if her partner had been anybody other than Lauren, there was just too much anger there for both of them. A good actor is able to dig down into their emotions when they need to but Katie took it way too far.

Thanx Marleybone - eezakly.

I was in an improv before w/someone I didn't get along w/too well in an acting class. But we never laid hands on each other. There's a line. We channeled it into the scene which really took off. That's what she should do next time her feelings are running that strong. The power of that much emotion can be really useful in acting.

If she could channel it, it'd work for her, not against her. They both lost track of the reality of the scene actually, (to be fair), but Lauren I felt was mostly defending herself (although I think she laid hands first, but, a distraught patient's family member MIGHT do that - but from there Katie should've defused it somehow - even if one of them had to break character and say 'security' jokingly, that would've defused it too.) Once Lauren touched her, Katie looked furious and it was nothing to do with the nurse scene any longer. :ohno

One guy in a (different) acting class I was in, never knew what was real or not... It was scary being in a scene with him. He eventually dropped out. Luckily he didn't get hands-y but he did turn deep shades of red when angry and so forth. Beyond the limits of the improv. Nobody wanted to go up there w/him.

I've heard tales of people being really strangled on stage (others had to pull him off the guy), or props really destroyed (heirloom pieces someone loaned) because a green actor would insist "I'm in the moment". No they're not... eesh. Still get chills thinking about that! No excuse for losing control. Just self indulgent.

Some of those examples were community theater, or college theater; but others were professional or aspiring actors in a major city. They especially should know better! (If they are making it their life work).

People can literally get hurt or killed that way so seeing someone lose it in a scene and get hands-y just raises the red flag for me.

I've noticed when Katie has to work with anyone else, she has real trouble. If she isolates herself and zeroes in she does better. But what would that say about her being in a long running series or something? Trouble on set?
She seems to resent anyone else stealing her thunder. I felt she railroaded Donna into making the hot tub scene about 'friendship' which cost Donna, as that was one time she could've shown to her advantage. She even said it herself, sensuality comes easily to Donna. Katie knew it didn't for her, so, she changed the scene. Donna shouldn't have gone along w/it.

Also Katie called 'cut' in the Gallagher scene basically. An actor isn't supposed to say "Stop - can we do that again?" or direct other actors as she did in the hot tub scene, either.

She might win though (Katie) if the others don't get more focused/ambitious.

I think Michelynne is the big discovery and would be the most popular on a wb series like One Tree Hill. That said, don't discount Cecile just because she has a hard time playing teenage. Keith needs a love interest, and there are a few other adults on that show too.

well i genuinely like Cecile now most of all! But I think Michellyne will fit better in that show!

Michellelynne or Mercedes. Cecile should aim at movies. I absolutely detest Katie--the sound of her voice with all that flat twanging is irritating beyond belief to me, and she is simply nasty and excessively aggressive to the other contestants both in real life and in scenes--so I can't bear the thought of her winning. In the Friends scene, for example, Katie came on so strong that there was almost nowhere for her partner to go. There was no way to relate to her in the scene, she had no sense of fun or play (which is the essence of that character) and matching her intensity required going completely over the top. Which was out of character. I thought that Cecile did a remarkably graceful job in countering her blow-the-doors-in attack. Contrast that with the more personal, laid back way MichelleLynne played the same role. She invited her scene partner in, rather than pushing to dominate her. (Well, okay, she was almost TOO laid back, but still.) Isn't a sitcom supposed to be ensemble acting? Since when does Phoebe=Medea? I was very surprised that the judges didn't call Katie on that.

Seems to me Michelynne's being set up to win. The judges have been fawning over her since day 1.

Katie, whether you like her or dont, works the hardest, gives it all she's got. I admire that. But...I think she's not naturally gifted. At all.

Mercedes...what a whiney pain in the ass. She may have talent but who cares? There's no shortage of talented pleasant people trying to make it as actors. Wish they'd sent her home a couple of weeks ago.

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Originally Posted by boxhill

Since when does Phoebe=Medea?

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Too funny! :rofl

I'm betting on Michelynne at this point. They could be setting her up to win; she does fit the WB mold the best I think, but she has also won best in class twice. That says something if the instructors are seeing something in her. Mercedes won the first week but she's gone downhill from there, and Katie has never won. Katie thinks she should have won every week.