There have been athletes that made a smooth transition to acting careers. Chuck Connors (baseball player), for one.
The thing with Streep, Close, Foster et al is that they had tremendous acting talent right from the getgo and HONED their craft in acting classes, and Streep and Close did years of stage work long before they got into the movies, and that is what helped them to become the great stars they are.
Tara wanted to go straight from the skating rink to movie stardom, and she is having a hard time. She's been trying to find acting talent in herself by taking acting classes, and the plain fact is you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. If you don't have acting talent, it isn't going to magically appear just from taking a few acting classes. She could have built a decent resume the hard way, by going for bit parts in off-Broadway or touring company shows and gradually learning what it means to be an actor. Looking at her actual resume is painful, because there is so little substance in it.
Tara's been pursuing an acting career since 1999, even while performing in SOI. In the beginning, she got TV roles based on her fame as a figure skater, but those opportunities dried up when her OGM got farther and farther in the past. She doesn't seem to be making any headway at all right now, except for a few more TV appearances in reality shows. Tara is lucky that she has all the money from her pro career and endorsements to sustain her while she makes the rounds. Most young struggling actors have to work as waitresses, clerks or whatever jobs they can get just to keep a roof over their heads and feed themselves. And many of those who struggle have real acting talent!
I wondered how long it would take Sasha's people to correct the mistake.
j/k
