Speaker 1: Still the Place with Laura Layton, Courtney thorn Smith.
Speaker 2: And Daphney's Aniga an iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 3: Hey everyone, so this is our Melrose Minute.
Speaker 2: It's a little different because Laura and I are here
Speaker 2: in the middle of these La fires. We really want
Speaker 2: to jump on and respond to our listeners. People are
Speaker 2: sending out love from all around the world. I've really
Speaker 2: been impacted by it and it reminded me that, you know,
Speaker 2: we're all so connected. And we'll answer some fan questions,
Speaker 2: but just FYI were all evacuated out of our homes.
Speaker 2: I'm waiting to hear about my home. Courtney's waiting to
Speaker 2: hear about her home. Laura and her whole family have
Speaker 2: moved out of there, so you know, we're really going
Speaker 2: through it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's quite a time in La and we
Speaker 4: know that by the time you're listening things may have changed,
Speaker 4: and really hoping that by that time they will be much.
Speaker 1: More peace in the city and the fires will be
Speaker 1: more contained.
Speaker 3: So pray for us.
Speaker 4: We wanted to be here to also just really express
Speaker 4: our gratitude for so many people who've reached out and
Speaker 4: expressing your concern and your thoughts, and we wanted to
Speaker 4: let you know how important you as listeners continue.
Speaker 3: To be for us.
Speaker 4: So this will be a little bit of a different
Speaker 4: episode today. We're not going to do a recap or
Speaker 4: regular content. We're really just here to express our gratitude,
Speaker 4: share our thoughts, and.
Speaker 2: Also connect with you guys on a real level. Right,
Speaker 2: Like this is a podcast, it's a rewatch, but we're
Speaker 2: also Laura and Courtney and I really care about each other.
Speaker 2: We care about you guys as our listeners, and we're
Speaker 2: telling you what is happening in real life now.
Speaker 3: So that's important to us to connect with you. We
Speaker 3: see your questions.
Speaker 2: You guys, DM are still the place on Instagram. We
Speaker 2: get tons of questions, and so here we are just
Speaker 2: we're relating to you as people.
Speaker 3: Yes, so let's do a couple of questions.
Speaker 2: Okay, ones we get all the time, or what are
Speaker 2: our favorite storylines? And what are our worst? So you
Speaker 2: had so many of Sydney, what were yours?
Speaker 3: Do you have that?
Speaker 4: Yeah? It is okay, very strange to shift gears in
Speaker 4: this moment, but maybe it's a good distraction.
Speaker 1: I think to talk about Melrose like this.
Speaker 4: All right, So my character got to do a lot
Speaker 4: of wacky things. Yeah, and I felt like it was
Speaker 4: super fun to just sort of lean into that and
Speaker 4: have a blast, like the ones that made me have
Speaker 4: an opportunity to like dress the part or whatever, like
Speaker 4: if Sydney was being a secretary, which I think was
Speaker 4: one of my favorite eras is when she was working
Speaker 4: in the burns Mancini Yeah, medical office, and she's like, oh,
Speaker 4: I'm a secretary, a better dress like one, And so
Speaker 4: that was super fun for me And also just like
Speaker 4: playing with those actors and having that sort.
Speaker 3: Of back in Thomas.
Speaker 2: You know, you had a lot of comedy in your
Speaker 2: character as Sydney. I didn't have a lot of I
Speaker 2: had zero comedy as Joe. So your storylines like that
Speaker 2: when you were the secretary hilarious, And it could have
Speaker 2: been another show. It could have been like this trio.
Speaker 2: You guys were all so funny.
Speaker 1: We were on a little bit of a different show,
Speaker 1: Like yeahy.
Speaker 3: Now tune into this episode. But then how was it
Speaker 3: Laura to play the other parts? You did some very
Speaker 3: serious things.
Speaker 2: You were a stripper, you were a callgoer, you had
Speaker 2: men taken advantage of you.
Speaker 3: You had all that, which Joe.
Speaker 2: Had a biz tons of bazillion men taken advantage of her.
Speaker 3: And but did you prefer the doing the lighter.
Speaker 2: Comedic stuff as Sydney or the dramatic stuff for both?
Speaker 4: Well, I think it's obviously it's more fun to play
Speaker 4: the comedy, and I loved that I had the character
Speaker 4: that gave me the opportunity to do that.
Speaker 1: But I thought it was also really important that.
Speaker 4: Sydney had like a heart and like to see a
Speaker 4: fully rounded person in the context of the show as well,
Speaker 4: Like she was constantly in search of herself and trying
Speaker 4: to you know, compete with her sister. And we're about
Speaker 4: to finally have Sydney's first appearance on the show, and
Speaker 4: we lay the groundwork for seeing that really what drives
Speaker 4: her is her insecurity and her you know, trying to
Speaker 4: live up to her expectations of herself and trying to
Speaker 4: be like her sister or like at least figure out
Speaker 4: who she is as a person. So like, having that
Speaker 4: through line, I thought was, you know, always needed to
Speaker 4: be a consistent thread, and sometimes it's dramatic, but I
Speaker 4: also loved that she got to just be a little
Speaker 4: bit like well, her quirkiness gets to come out in
Speaker 4: this way, like in search of herself. She's always trying
Speaker 4: something new on. Yeah, so yeah, having both I thought
Speaker 4: was an important balance.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it was cool.
Speaker 2: It's cool to see you do both. I've told you
Speaker 2: that before. Cool to see do the wacky, funny stuff.
Speaker 2: But then also you were so real and heartbreaking and
Speaker 2: some of that other stuff as the vulnerable.
Speaker 4: Well thanks, And you of course know that the drama
Speaker 4: is exhausting, and it's exhausting too. I just you know,
Speaker 4: had had nothing but on camera, you know, emotion and drama.
Speaker 4: It's just as exhausting as an actor.
Speaker 3: So yeah, that's funny because you know I was.
Speaker 2: I was exhausted, and yet I also a lot of
Speaker 2: my training, well I did. I started out doing comedy,
Speaker 2: that's the irony, but I really did get into the
Speaker 2: drama of it. So, like my favorite stories were I
Speaker 2: loved falling in love, so I had a lot of
Speaker 2: love stories on there. You know, Joe was such a
Speaker 2: dummy to leave Jake and then go for his brother Jess,
Speaker 2: who you know, beat Joe up.
Speaker 3: That was all very difficult for me.
Speaker 1: But you needed the drama, so you had to leave him.
Speaker 3: But I needed the.
Speaker 2: Trauma and then you know, getting pregnant with Reed's baby
Speaker 2: and all of that.
Speaker 3: I mean, that was fun to do. The drama. So
Speaker 3: I had a fight with him.
Speaker 2: He hits me and you know, puts Gaffer's tape on
Speaker 2: me and throws me at the bottom of the boat
Speaker 2: in this hole, and then I fight my way out
Speaker 2: and I you know, blow him up on the boat.
Speaker 2: And so I loved having physical and emotional stuff to
Speaker 2: do on camera.
Speaker 3: I just am so comfortable with that. But yes, it's exhausting.
Speaker 2: I did enjoy that storyline, and then having to go
Speaker 2: to his parents and then Kimberly steals my baby and
Speaker 2: tries to breastfeed the damn baby.
Speaker 4: Give me, you're giving it all away for I keep
Speaker 4: finding people who are like, I'm listening to your podcast
Speaker 4: and I'm listening or I'm watching the episodes for the
Speaker 4: first time, and I just love that people are are
Speaker 4: good coming back to Melrose by discovering the podcast first
Speaker 4: and then going now I want to watch the show.
Speaker 1: So I love that. And so there are some people
Speaker 1: out there who some of these stories might be.
Speaker 3: I don't care, Laura. I want them to see me.
Speaker 2: I want them to go get a paramount plus subscription
Speaker 2: and see me throw a chair through the sliding glass,
Speaker 2: mashing the window.
Speaker 3: As I go after Kimberly, who as my baby. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's all coming. I love that storyline too. You know,
Speaker 3: we had such drama.
Speaker 2: But I have to say, having said all that, when
Speaker 2: we would get our scripts that didn't come very far
Speaker 2: in advance. I remember being in the makeup trailer or
Speaker 2: or you're exhausted shooting your day and then you go
Speaker 2: back to your own trailer and there was that Manila
Speaker 2: envelope and that was next week's script and it was.
Speaker 3: A few days away. You know, I was very excited.
Speaker 2: I always would like, say, what's my exciting dramatic stuff,
Speaker 2: And yet towards the end, to be I'm gonna be
Speaker 2: very honest here, towards the end, you know, things started
Speaker 2: to really repeat. I mean, just scene after seeing it
Speaker 2: was like I had another guy come in, a bad guy,
Speaker 2: taken advantage and threatening me. And I don't know how
Speaker 2: you felt, but there were times when I thought, oh god,
Speaker 2: it just feels too familiar.
Speaker 4: Do you have a recollection of your would you say
Speaker 4: your least favorite storyline?
Speaker 3: Then I don't have any story on specific enjoy doing.
Speaker 2: I have to tell you it's true, but but I do.
Speaker 2: The least favorite part of it is later in season three.
Speaker 2: I did four years, so in season four, for sure,
Speaker 2: Season three was wild and crazy and wonderful for all
Speaker 2: of us. I think that was our big year. And
Speaker 2: then season four for me is when it got kind
Speaker 2: of repetitive and I'm like.
Speaker 3: Oh, can't you know?
Speaker 2: And I think I was thinking, can't they give me
Speaker 2: some humor too? And every job since I've done, like
Speaker 2: on Lantree Hill, I'd be like, can you please make
Speaker 2: me drunk in the middle of the afternoon, as I say,
Speaker 2: can I please be a little tipsy here and.
Speaker 3: Have some humor, have some fun.
Speaker 2: I always want to add a little humor now, you know,
Speaker 2: even if it's dramatic.
Speaker 4: Well, and like you know, we had chippeys On and
Speaker 4: he commented that it's really kind of a universal theme
Speaker 4: that years two and three are the best for the
Speaker 4: writers as well. But like once you get into the
Speaker 4: season four show, it becomes hard for everyone to come
Speaker 4: up with new and creative stories.
Speaker 1: And it's hard.
Speaker 4: It's a wonderful thing that we all went for so
Speaker 4: many years on the show, but it does the evolution
Speaker 4: of the seasons will have an ebb and flow to them,
Speaker 4: and certainly after that, you know, initial explosion of wonderful scenes.
Speaker 4: It's it is hard to come up with stuff that's
Speaker 4: fresh for every single character, and you know.
Speaker 2: And also for the because it's an ensemble, certain characters
Speaker 2: have to be storyline heavy and then other ones have
Speaker 2: to be like lighter, and then they switch around and
Speaker 2: then you won't see so much of this couple over
Speaker 2: here or this, and then you'll see a lot of
Speaker 2: you know, the Joe and the baby, and then you
Speaker 2: see a lot of they.
Speaker 3: Can't keep it all up high.
Speaker 2: They have to, which I which it gave us a
Speaker 2: little break, you know, when you in between.
Speaker 1: And what else we've got.
Speaker 4: We've got some other fan questions here. We just appreciate
Speaker 4: you guys sending these questions in and we sometimes we
Speaker 4: just sort of accidentally answer what you're asking, but we
Speaker 4: want you to know that we're hearing you when you're
Speaker 4: reaching out, and we do love it when you ask questions.
Speaker 4: The Daphne, i think, even addressed another fan question when
Speaker 4: she said that we don't get our scripts very far
Speaker 4: in advance. Someone wanted to know how much notice we
Speaker 4: got with our scripts how far in advance, and like
Speaker 4: like she said, we'd get our script in an envelope
Speaker 4: only a few days before we had to start shooting it.
Speaker 4: But that still gave the editors and everything plenty of
Speaker 4: time to do post production before it needed to hit
Speaker 4: the air. But in terms of our turnaround, we were
Speaker 4: kind of just going right in a row and we
Speaker 4: were wrapping.
Speaker 1: Up one episode.
Speaker 4: We had to read the envelope and they didn't come
Speaker 4: in an email at that time. But then we were
Speaker 4: right into the next one, and it was I think
Speaker 4: it was the same for all of us. We couldn't
Speaker 4: wait to open that envelope and see how it's gonna happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then it's funny because you start to learn
Speaker 2: your lines.
Speaker 3: You have to start to learn and run away.
Speaker 2: But then they have, you know, new pages, and every
Speaker 2: time there's a new as a rewrite, there's like a
Speaker 2: new color set of pages, and sometimes your your lines
Speaker 2: would change, so you're like, you know, you have to
Speaker 2: learn those changes. And sometimes I mean by the end
Speaker 2: we'd have rainbow of our script would be tied together
Speaker 2: with those brass you know, those little tab brads. It's
Speaker 2: up they're called brads, and different colors, like six different
Speaker 2: colors in there. Sometimes visions revisions, like when the revision
Speaker 2: was made, they changed the color of the pages, so
Speaker 2: you know, like he was more recent than pink and stuff.
Speaker 3: Golden Rod, Remember Golden Rod, Golden Rod.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a very colorful script.
Speaker 3: Here's one question. What was it like shooting the Rolling
Speaker 3: Stone photo shoot cover? We shot a lot that day.
Speaker 2: Do you remember across from Paramount in that little I
Speaker 2: forget the name of the bar sidebar?
Speaker 4: Maybe yeah, And we should answer this one when we
Speaker 4: have more of our cast to weigh in, because we
Speaker 4: were all there for that. It was like, I think
Speaker 4: it was one of our major magazine covers that were
Speaker 4: all really proud to have been a part of bute
Speaker 4: like no small feet, to have all those minim in
Speaker 4: the height of our and this says the cover here.
Speaker 2: We also did five others setups, so all get on
Speaker 2: the inside. Well, they can cut this, our editor can
Speaker 2: cut this out, or they can leave it on and
Speaker 2: maybe we'll do a tease for next Melrose minute.
Speaker 1: They'll be pieces of it that will.
Speaker 3: Trust me.
Speaker 2: There's many Melrose minutes to talk about to come.
Speaker 1: But also There's another fan question.
Speaker 4: Someone asked, what is the storyline your character was involved
Speaker 4: in that Your first thought was, wow, this is over
Speaker 4: the top, even for Melrose, which.
Speaker 1: I will say we all thought of at some point.
Speaker 4: You're right, it wasn't just the audience going wow, this
Speaker 4: is over the top, even for Malurs.
Speaker 1: I think there were Honestly, I thought that.
Speaker 4: Sydney often had the oh, you want to do something like,
Speaker 4: let's give it to Sydney, and so I would read
Speaker 4: the script and go, really, I was being a stripper
Speaker 4: first to a cult and like being a madam. I
Speaker 4: went from being a call girl out of desperation and
Speaker 4: then not just that she tries to, you know, take
Speaker 4: over being a madam whatever souper fun. But a lot
Speaker 4: of the times I would ask myself, oh, my gosh,
Speaker 4: really is this I mean, is this over the top?
Speaker 4: And then somehow it managed to be exactly what the
Speaker 4: audience wanted and it was super fun, and it was
Speaker 4: just kind of a challenge to go, all right, how
Speaker 4: do we take this over the top, And even the
Speaker 4: building blowing up, we were oh, yeah, this is going
Speaker 4: to be spectacular, but it felt like a bit of
Speaker 4: a shark and so We just jumped it.
Speaker 1: And like all right, let's go and let's do it
Speaker 1: as well as well.
Speaker 2: We didn't have to say, you know, we just had
Speaker 2: to read it and make it work.
Speaker 3: That was our job.
Speaker 2: So it was like, okay, and it's like I again,
Speaker 2: season three, you start to go season two and three,
Speaker 2: you were like, oh, this is going to be over
Speaker 2: the top, more and more and more and more. But
Speaker 2: it's you know, and well working or not, you have
Speaker 2: to make it work. We had no say, we couldn't
Speaker 2: change any lines, you guys. So you know the thing
Speaker 2: about Joe's baby, Joe's has a baby, then it's kidnapped.
Speaker 2: I mean I was on David Letterman once and I
Speaker 2: couldn't keep up with where the baby went. It was
Speaker 2: like then it was kidnapp then I got him back,
Speaker 2: then he was stolen again, then it was you know,
Speaker 2: and then finally gave him up in the end, and
Speaker 2: it was like that was over the top, you know,
Speaker 2: But again, I enjoy the drama. But this is when
Speaker 2: the world loved the show, when it was so over
Speaker 2: the top, you know, they loved it. They talk about all.
Speaker 4: Of that, and I think I'd be remiss if I
Speaker 4: didn't mention the fact that Jane and Sydney buried Richard alive.
Speaker 4: So that was a big spoiler people, for those of
Speaker 4: you who haven't watched Melrose yet, that's coming.
Speaker 1: Yeah, to bury a guy alive.
Speaker 4: But and then what happened, and then what happened when
Speaker 4: more over the top thing happens.
Speaker 3: Alive being the key word, right, Laura alive.
Speaker 1: It was fun to take the audience along for the
Speaker 1: ride before we go.
Speaker 2: I just want to mention we all talked about how
Speaker 2: popular Chips episode was, and we loved talking to Chip
Speaker 2: and he We all agree it was too short and
Speaker 2: all the fans were saying it was too short. So
Speaker 2: we definitely will have Chip Hays on again. We are
Speaker 2: starts with Darren and we're going to reach out to
Speaker 2: the other writers. You know, we've talked to our other castmates,
Speaker 2: but we're going to have him on again and other people.
Speaker 2: And don't you worry, it's all coming.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: There's so many stories that we don't even know about
Speaker 3: behind the scenes.
Speaker 4: So I think that's that's about all we can manage
Speaker 4: for this time, a little mini episode for today, but
Speaker 4: just know that we really appreciate everybody and your continued
Speaker 4: support and your continued thoughts about where we are in
Speaker 4: the world and in the city of La which you know,
Speaker 4: all three of you are Still the Place.
Speaker 3: You know, there's there's drama La Laura.
Speaker 2: It's just making me think there's drama in fiction and
Speaker 2: then real life drama, you know, and uh, it's I mean,
Speaker 2: it's just really intense.
Speaker 3: Because we're layering the two.
Speaker 2: I just want to remind everyone to please write us
Speaker 2: reviews on our our actual podcast, you know, give us
Speaker 2: a rating and follow that and download those. That's really important.
Speaker 2: And of course you can find Still the Place on Instagram,
Speaker 2: TikTok and Facebook at Still the Place. I'm on social
Speaker 2: media on Instagram and Red's and Laura, you're on Instagram
Speaker 2: that you Laura Layton for real.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Laura Layton for real and yeah, just most of all,
Speaker 4: like we just appreciate you subscribing to the podcast and
Speaker 4: continuing to listen. We do have an extra special episode
Speaker 4: coming up this week.
Speaker 1: We're gonna drop it on Wednesday.
Speaker 4: We do a pod swap with pod meets World and
Speaker 4: that will be coming up on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: That was pre recorded.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Fun. We're continuing to be here for.
Speaker 3: Us and we want to love you guys, here for you.
Speaker 1: So thanks for coming to still the place and we
Speaker 1: are still in La. It is still the place.
Speaker 3: Love you, Bye bye bye