ALEX7000.net - Bionic Woman Fan Forum

Judd · Sun Mar 25, 2007 4:06 pm Michelle Ryan Peeps Thread

Are you a fan of Michelle Ryan? Discuss her work in movies and television.

moxx of balhoom · Sun Mar 25, 2007 10:34 pm

Guess I'm first here for this one.

Big Michelle Ryan fan here, Saw "I Want Candy" yesterday, thought she was the best thing in it. I also have to confess that 95% of my excitement over this BW revival comes from Miss Ryan's involvement.

I'm really hoping that this pilot will be successful and lead to a series because I think she deserves it.

moxx of balhoom · Wed Apr 04, 2007 12:54 pm

Michelle was on BBC Radio one earlier today talking about the role.

You can here the interview here, as part of the Entertainment news, occurs 1hr 59 minutes in on the show for Wednesday April 4th

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/jowhiley/

Michelle talks about adopting an American accent for the show, learning "Krav Maga" which she describes as a type of dirty street fighting, and Jaimie's look "trousers and jackets, she's a bit of a tomboy"

Andy · Thu Apr 05, 2007 8:42 pm Michelle Ryan peeps thread

I had a little trouble finding Michelle's segment. How long is it? Who was interviewing her? I only caught, what I think is the tail end of it.

Paul117 · Thu Apr 05, 2007 10:13 pm

I was a fan of the original Bionic Woman, and also a fan of Michelle Ryan, so when I heard the news she would be playing the role in a pilot I was thrilled. I've seen her in several TV roles and also on stage, and although i'm no film/theatre critic I think she can act. I really hope the show gets picked up, it will be great to see a powerful female on TV again and i can't imagine anyone better to play the role. Good luck to her. :lol:

moxx of balhoom · Fri Apr 06, 2007 11:21 pm Re: Michelle Ryan peeps thread

Andy wrote: I had a little trouble finding Michelle's segment. How long is it? Who was interviewing her? I only caught, what I think is the tail end of it.

It's just shy of the 2 hour mark, I suggest skipping forward in 15m and 5m segments until you hear KT Tunstall singing, then let it play. IIRC the "Entertainment News" is straight after that.

There's a small piece on Tina O'brien leaving Coronation Street, then the presenter says something like "One actress who can prove there's life after soap is Michelle Ryan".

It's not presented as a straightforward interview, rather the presenter says "We asked Michelle.." and "she told us..."

alex · Fri Apr 13, 2007 11:09 am Michelle - a hidden talent?

Since learning Michelle was going to be the new BW I've tried to catch her most recent acting work. I wasn't a fan of her in Eastenders, her character was very bratty, but then again she was a teenager in a soap!

She didn't have too much to do in the recent ITV MANSFIELD PARK, so it was it was difficult to gauage her current acting level from that. She is due to co-star in the BBC's JEKYLL series in May, so we might learn a little more there.

To be honest, Lindsay Wagner was a relative unknown at the time of the original series, and wasn't the best actress around, but did a great job with Jaime Sommers and really made the character her own. Some people just seem born to play a role... we can only hope this is Michelle's break-out role!

moxx of balhoom · Fri Apr 13, 2007 1:22 pm

Yeah I understand what you are saying there, I think a lot of people's reservations about Michelle come from only seeing her as Zoe - or in some cases I've come across not even that, they just have an irrational dislike of "Soap Stars" as if they are an inferior breed of actor.

Jekyll should be a good showcase for her, according to some reports her charector is pretty much second lead to James Nesbitt's Jekyll/Hyde.

Mansfield Park was a difficult one because Michelle's charector is hardly in it, would have been interesting to see how she handled the far more showy Hayley Attwell charector IMO

If you are really interested in catching Michelle it might be worth checking your local multiplex, she was in a British film called I Want Candy released about 3 weeks ago, should still be showing in some parts of the country though it wasn't a huge success. Again her charector's fairly secondary but I thought when she was on camera she exuded a real screen presence (Then again I am biased)

Andy · Tue Apr 17, 2007 7:20 pm Michelle Ryan peeps thread

How popular is Michelle in the UK, really? How much media focus is there of her being cast in the lead for BW over there? Is she well liked ? If BW is a big hit in the US and starts airing in the UK, will it do well mostly due to her staring in it?

moxx of balhoom · Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:33 pm Re: Michelle Ryan peeps thread

Andy wrote: How popular is Michelle in the UK, really? How much media focus is there of her being cast in the lead for BW over there? Is she well liked ? If BW is a big hit in the US and starts airing in the UK, will it do well mostly due to her staring in it?

Michelle has her followers, she played a popular charector in a top rated soap for 5 years but from the experience I'd had I'd say opinion is pretty much divided.

There has been strong support from those who like Michelle and a good percentage of those who don't are prepared to at least give her the benefit of the doubt but also there are people who are more sceptical, who feel that she might be a one-trick pony, or totally unsuited to the role. Then again that could have been true of whoever was cast (though I've seen almost universal approval of the other big Brit casting, namely Lena Headey as Sarah Conner so there may be a degree of snobbery involved - in my experience those who don't watch or enjoy soaps tend to look down on the actors who appear in them).

Certainly the press seem to be behind her, and the announcement of her casting was well covered here in all media, she's photogenic and there seems to be a genuine interest in her career on their part. It was also such a left field announcement I think it caught everyone on the hop,

From a personal point of view I'd have liked this announcement to have been made after Jekyll had aired in the UK, as I think most people have a problem disassociating Michelle the actress from Zoe the charector (an inevitable consequence of playing any role for a prolonged period) and the chance to see her play someone different might have made the sceptics less so, As it is I think when the series does air Michelle's performance will be under intense scrutinity from all sides

As for Bionic Woman I believe it could do well over here, House which as you probably know also has a British lead, gets decent ratings although it is shown on a minority channel. While I don't think Michelle is a big enough name to make this the major prime time viewing that the original was I think that it could fare very well on one of the 'quieter' terrestrial channels such as BBC2 or Channel 4. I don't believe anyone would snub the show just because Michelle is in it, even those who don't think she's up to the role. It will all depend though on the advance word from the States

Hope that helps to answer your question.

Andy · Wed Apr 25, 2007 6:59 pm Michelle Ryan peeps thread

Where is Michelle now? Filming for Bw has ended in BC. She was staying in a hotel there, so she must have left BC. Is she back in London? She might be in Los Angles. The next time we see her might see her might be at the NBC 2007-2008 upfronts in New York on May 14th. You guys from the UK could consider her appearence there as her introduction to the American press and public.

alex · Fri Apr 27, 2007 8:47 pm

No news of her back in the UK, I reckon they may keep her around for the mid-May publicity for the show in New York and it wouldn;t surprise me if she and some more of the cast showe up at the San Diego Comic Con in a couple of months time.

JEKYLL is due on the BBC next month, she may be back in town for some publicity for that, or she may have filmed some interviews already. I'll keep my eyes peeled and post anything that shows up!

Judd · Mon Jan 28, 2008 3:47 am

Mansfield Park was on PBS tonight. I decided to give it a try. There are other things besides Doctor Who and Bionic Woman. So I watched an adapatation of Jane Austin's novel starring two actresses from Doctor Who and Bionic Woman. I didn't think I would care for it since I'm not a Jane Austin fan. I read Emma for a class when I was college. I thought I would only watch a bit of it but I watched the whole thing mostly since Billie Piper was so good in it.

I thought Michelle was very good in her scenes. She can act and she does it well. Now I've seen her in other projects she is very good and perhaps even better than she is in Bionic. I don't know if she was given better direction in those other programs or if they couldn't quite settle on who Jaime was. Michelle can really sell a scene and character.

I was impressed with her and Billie in the show.

The two sides are talking and hopefully the strike will be over soon and production will start up. Maybe Jason Cahill can redo the show and make it a success.