The daytime community was thrilled by the 2019 news that One Life to Live actress Erika Slezak (ex-Victoria Lord) was making an appearance in the Jeff Daniels film Guest Artist, and the fabulous news is that the film is slated to be released digitally on Tuesday, July 21.
Daniels -- who's known for films like Speed, Dumb and Dumber, and Arachnophobia -- wrote the film that follows Joseph Harris (Daniels), a legendary but troubled playwright who comes to a small Michigan town to mount his latest play. The cynical New Yorker is met by a young, aspiring writer by the name of Kenneth Waters (Thomas Macias), who challenges his hero to be the man he has always idolized. However, Harris wants no part of Michigan or small towns and he has no interest in being the young man's hero. Kenneth must now face the circumstances he's given and navigate the relationship between heroes, reality, and hope.
Guest Artist is semi-autobiographical, as it's partially based on true events from Daniels' life. The film was adapted from a 2006 play Daniels wrote and staged at the Purple Rose Theater Company, a small-town Michigan playhouse he founded in 1991.
As Soap Central previously reported, Slezak plays the role of Helen alongside Daniels and Macias, as well as actors Richard McWilliams, McKara Bechler, Dan Johnson, Lynch Travis, and Ruth Crawford.
Guest Artist will be available in Digital HD on most streaming platforms beginning Tuesday, July 21.
Slezak took on OLTL's Victoria Lord in 1971 and played the role until the ABC series went off the air in 2013. She won six Daytime Emmy Awards for her work as the Llanview matriarch and still holds the record for most wins by an actress -- though she now shares that honor with Heather Tom (Katie Logan, The Bold and the Beautiful; ex-Kelly Cramer, OLTL), who took home her sixth Daytime Emmy award earlier this year.
What do you think about the casting and premise of Guest Artist? How do you feel about seeing Slezak in a new project? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
