Catholic World News News Feature

Actress Refuses High-Profile Role On Moral Grounds September 05, 1996

BRANSON, Missouri (CWN) - An up and coming young actress said this week she refused a potentially career-making role because it would have forced to compromise her morals.

Stephanie Stephenson, 20, quit the touring production of the Broadway musical "Les Miserables" one day after landing a role when she learned she would have to play a prostitute in a big production scene. "People work all their lives to get to 'Les Miz.' I knew that I may be giving up a lot," said Stephenson. But she added: "There's a fine line between the morals and going over that line."

In the scene, Stephenson would have had to wear a revealing costume and be poked, prodded, and fondled by male actors. "Depicting that role is not what I had the problem with," she explained. "It was with actually the men touching them. They touched them everywhere."

Stephenson returned promptly to the job she left in Branson -- understudy for the Virgin Mary and a couple of bit parts in "The Promise," a Christian musical about the life of Jesus Christ.

"Les Miserables'" executive producer Richard Jay Alexander said he was shocked Stephenson quit the play. "She's gorgeous and she's talented and she could have played the daylights out of that role probably to great acclaim and probably ended up on Broadway," he said this week from New York. "I respect what she did. I think she's a brave young girl to forgo an amazing career boost."

Stephenson said: "I feel that God has something out there that's even better than that -- otherwise I'd be in trouble."