The villianess vanishes : Santa Barbara's Cassie is fired
Soap Opera Digest, 1992	Home   Cette page en Français

It looks like Warren, Mason and Angela won't have Cassie to kick around anymore. In the latest Santa Barbara casting shift, Karen Moncrieff who plays her, has been fired. The actress tapes her last scenes in early April and is now auditioning for various TV pilots.

While Santa Barbara says Moncrieff's departure is a storyline-dictated decision, the actress is skeptical. She says Executive Producer Paul Rauch "came in and told me there was not place to go with my character, but we all know what that means. My character was becoming evil, but people come back from the dead in soaps. Redeeming an evil character couldn't be that hard by comparison. Of course, it's nice to hear "There's no place to go with your character" rather than "We hate your acting.""

Moncrieff says Cassie's unsympathetic turn disturbed the NBC brass. "The network didn't believe the audience cared about Cassie," she explains, " Santa Barbara doesn't seem to keep villianesses very long."

The actress's dismissal is part of a major upheaval. When Pam Long took over as head writer in January, replacing Jerome and Bridget Dobson, Santa Barbara incorporated many new characters, including Reese and Jodie Walker. Cassie is the first casualty in the reshuffling, which began as an effort to save the ailing show from cancellation.

Moncrieff is optimistic about leaving. In fact, saying good-bye to her character is somewhat a relief for her. "It's funny," she says. "I was looking through my reel the other day to see what scenes I could use for auditions. I realized that Cassie has not been a very happy person. That woman has not had one good day in two years." Still, Moncrieff says she'll miss playing the part. "Part of the great fun of playing this character was that she crossed the line between good and evil. She wasn't a good girl, and she wasn't a bad girl. She changed a lot."