When Stars Get Sick…What Should Soaps Do? The Surprising Answers!

Actors are as human as the rest of us, and like the rest of us, sometimes they catch common illnesses that can affect their work. Unlike other jobs, it’s not so easy to just call off work as soaps stick to a strict shooting schedule.

That seems to be what happened to The Young and the Restless (YR) star Christian LeBlanc, who contracted a case of laryngitis that became quite noticeable on the soap, leaving fans perplexed.

Soap Hub asked what you thinks soaps should do if actors get sick, and your top answer was pretty telling.

In Sickness And In Health
In a nutshell, you want the character to be more human and get sick too. Out of 13,000 votes, 84% are just fine with writing a character’s brief illness into the story. What would the problem have been if a line was written in for Michael to say he had laryngitis?

Laryngitis happens so it’s not an unusual thing for Michael to contract, explain, and then move on with the story.

Take Some Time Off
A much smaller 12% of you think that the actor should take some time to get well, and later tape the scenes when well enough. So what if scenes are shot out of sequence and later get edited into the full episode? That’s pretty much how Days of Our Lives (DOOL) does it all the time.

Just Find Someone New
A very small 4% of you apparently think actors are expendable, and soaps are like theater. Just have an understudy available to play the part for a few days and move on. However, we all know how much brief replacements fare on soaps and usually fans are in an uproar.

Cases in point: Molly Burnett as Maxie and Blake Berris as Spinelli on General Hospital, both in the past year.

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