"Very few people run around and get amnesia and have comas and come out of them and do all the silly of people have strokes and have comas and come out of them and do all the silly things we do on soaps"
About this Quote
Soap operas are basically the only workplace where catastrophic brain trauma is treated like a wardrobe change. Erika Slezak, a veteran of the form, is letting the genre’s biggest absurdity speak for itself: in real life, people don’t “run around” collecting amnesia, comas, strokes, miraculous recoveries, then bouncing back into romance plots and revenge schemes on schedule. The jumble of her phrasing isn’t a flaw so much as a tell - it mimics the breathless pileup of soap storytelling, where one medical event is never enough and the next twist arrives before anyone’s finished processing the last.
Her intent reads like affectionate exasperation. Slezak isn’t attacking soaps as worthless; she’s naming the bargain they make with the audience. These shows borrow the language of real suffering (amnesia, stroke, coma) because it instantly raises stakes, wipes clean inconvenient backstory, and hands writers a reset button without admitting they’re pressing one. The “silly things” line is doing heavy work: it’s both a wink to fans who know the rules and a quiet critique of how often soaps instrumentalize illness as narrative fuel.
Context matters because Slezak comes from inside the machine. As a long-running leading actress, she’s had to sell these turns with sincerity, which is why the comment lands. It’s not moral panic; it’s craft talk. She’s pointing to the strange alchemy of soaps: emotional realism performed atop plot mechanics that are proudly, shamelessly unreal.
Her intent reads like affectionate exasperation. Slezak isn’t attacking soaps as worthless; she’s naming the bargain they make with the audience. These shows borrow the language of real suffering (amnesia, stroke, coma) because it instantly raises stakes, wipes clean inconvenient backstory, and hands writers a reset button without admitting they’re pressing one. The “silly things” line is doing heavy work: it’s both a wink to fans who know the rules and a quiet critique of how often soaps instrumentalize illness as narrative fuel.
Context matters because Slezak comes from inside the machine. As a long-running leading actress, she’s had to sell these turns with sincerity, which is why the comment lands. It’s not moral panic; it’s craft talk. She’s pointing to the strange alchemy of soaps: emotional realism performed atop plot mechanics that are proudly, shamelessly unreal.
Quote Details
| Topic | Movie |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
More Quotes by Erika
Add to List






