j-sampiro — 18 years ago(September 12, 2007 01:36 PM)

for stealing an international hit television show from more veteran gifted actors! She's INCREDIBLE. If Hollywood were fair she'd be making $20 mil per picture while Cameron Diaz would be hustling for infomercial hosting. She took a scene away from Judith Light- that's pretty awesome!
She's one of the only actresses I've ever seen who stole a scene she WASN'T EVEN IN! When Ignacio sets off the alarm while Mark and his mom are at dinner and the phone rings instantly, Octavia wasn't in the scene but just imagining (based on her previous screentime) how she'd be reacting was hysterical!
Yet it wasn't just her comedy- she made you feel for the character. She beautifully captured the pathos of a woman who is holding onto sanity and hope by her fingertips and knows it, but at the same time infuses enough comic timing not to let her become depressing (plus, she makes the character believe in herself in spite of her illness). The comedy/tragedy of the woman is totally the gift of the actress- another performer could have made you hate the woman or just laugh at her, but she made you both pity and fear the character. Wonderful subtlety.
She has GOT to come back to the show. My suggestions for how to do it:

1. When Tavares's coconut shell shirts take the fashion world by storm Wilhelmina has to eat humble pie to do a shoot of his collection. He'll only consent if she'll hire his unemployed cousin Constance, who now goes to work as an Admin at MODE.
2. Wilhelmina becomes Mrs. Mead and her new husband, fed up with his sons, wants a new baby. Mina, still mourning what her daughter did to her figure 20 years before, tells him she can't have another one, but they can hire a surrogate- Constance gets a job! (Bonus points if they work in her and The Senator falling for each other while she's carrying his grandchild.)
3. She could be to Ugly Betty what Frank Nelson was to SANFORD & SON. (Nelson was the man who always had his back to Fred then turned around to say "Yessssssssss?!") Since she's unemployed now she keeps reappearing: she's a waitress when Betty goes to a diner, later she's working for Justin's school, etc..
4. Hilda's going to open her own salon. I think she needs an assistant, and who better than her almost stepmom?
   Of course however they do it, she has to be the same neurotic obsessive (but caring and capable) lovable she-demon that she was as Nacho's case worker.
   Anyway, rave over, other than to say this is a great actress with comedic timing and delivery on par with the Golden Era's best. Girl, I'd eat your gumbo anytime!;) (And she's from where I live- cool! Wonder if she went to C-Pac with my friends who are her age.)