SHORT TAKES : Soap Actress Gives Career Hints

Veteran soap actress Frances Reid says times have changed for aspiring actors and actresses.

“In my day, you could have a career if you stood up straight and spoke your lines loud and clear,” the Emmy nominee said in the Sept. 1 issue of TV Guide. “Now, being prepared is more important than ever. To survive today’s competition, you have to be able to act, sing, dance . . . and strip.”

Reid, who once landed a stage role as Roxanne opposite Jose Ferrer’s Cyrano de Bergerac, today plays great-great-grandmother Alice Horton on NBC’s “Days of Our Lives.”

She also helps with career-orientation sessions for the television performers’ union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.