Speaker 1: Still the Place with Laura Layton, Courtney Thorne Smith.
Speaker 2: And Daphne's Aniga an iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1: Good Night Later, another Melrose minute. So you guys at
Speaker 1: home don't know this, but we have one of our writers,
Speaker 1: Chuck Pratt, coming up as a guest. And one of
Speaker 1: the things he mentioned when we talked to him is
Speaker 1: that when Heather started on the show, she didn't want
Speaker 1: to play a bit because she'd been doing that on Dynasty.
Speaker 1: So they had to sort of rewrite it to make
Speaker 1: a Manda nice obviously in the beginning.
Speaker 3: So what we know now just for a very brief
Speaker 3: time at least can be nice for a second.
Speaker 2: I think you called it a switch and bait or something. Yeah,
Speaker 2: They're like, okay, you're not a bitch, You're just switch.
Speaker 1: So she starts off really nice and as we know,
Speaker 1: So I wanted to ask you, guys, how you felt
Speaker 1: about your character in Melroe's Place and how you changed
Speaker 1: or other shows, Like did you start a show as
Speaker 1: something and then as the show went on you became
Speaker 1: a completely different character? I do.
Speaker 3: I think I have a lot to say on the
Speaker 3: subject because I came in, like, you know, kind of
Speaker 3: not knowing that it was a long term character anyway,
Speaker 3: but I also was super focused on like the youth
Speaker 3: of her whatever. And then there was a big long
Speaker 3: stretch of time that I wasn't on the show, like
Speaker 3: the well, the rest of season one, and then I
Speaker 3: came back in season two and had to like pick
Speaker 3: up there and and kind of you know, discover what
Speaker 3: these new storylines were. And it was she came in
Speaker 3: as the problem in her sister and Michael's marriage, right,
Speaker 3: Sydney came in as the affair and like just sort
Speaker 3: of mischievous, troublemaker person. But in the second season, in
Speaker 3: the second season, but over time, like there there it
Speaker 3: was hard for me to like maintain, wait a minute,
Speaker 3: how old is she? And like what how sophisticated is she?
Speaker 3: And is like then she started doing all these like
Speaker 3: the blackmailing and the d and the canniving and just
Speaker 3: the evolution of that and trying to trying to say,
Speaker 3: how do you find like that same person in there,
Speaker 3: like that consistent thread and that same person and figure, Okay,
Speaker 3: if she's what nineteen years old, eighteen nineteen, how does
Speaker 3: that kind of person like age and develop and like
Speaker 3: we're watching this on camera like over these three four seasons,
Speaker 3: and that was sort of always in my mind, like
Speaker 3: is this even making sense? Is this even tracking? And
Speaker 3: like I felt like I had to find just a
Speaker 3: couple things to latch onto to make it always make sense.
Speaker 3: And those things were like Sidney always felt not enough,
Speaker 3: not she felt less than her sister. That that was
Speaker 3: like her easiest competition to go, oh, I just want
Speaker 3: to be like her or better than her something, you know,
Speaker 3: like that jealousy thread was consistent, you know, sort of
Speaker 3: drove a lot of her actions. But even when it
Speaker 3: got to be like insanity, I'm like, wait, can I
Speaker 3: still justify this? Like is this still tracking?
Speaker 1: Yes? And it was still the same character.
Speaker 3: It was hard. It was hard to keep that thread.
Speaker 3: And then I do think that after a while, you
Speaker 3: just go, Okay, I'm just going to do.
Speaker 1: My best Hereio, I'm just going to do script by yeah,
Speaker 1: my own reality right now.
Speaker 3: This is just where we're at. And plus we're in
Speaker 3: double up, so I really have no idea.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they asked us. One of the fan questions was
Speaker 1: did we ever push back? We couldn't, right, No.
Speaker 2: There didn't There was never. Yeah, I was saying we
Speaker 2: didn't ever have time. I never, you know, thought I
Speaker 2: thought there were so many writers and so many people
Speaker 2: the studio and everyone that I didn't think I would
Speaker 2: have a say. Well, it wasn't welcomed at all. It
Speaker 2: wasn't like an invitation. No one ever says to you
Speaker 2: on a show an ensemble, hey, if you have any ideas,
Speaker 2: let us know with ten people never had.
Speaker 1: One of the things that Chuck will say when you
Speaker 1: guys hear that episode is that he's never had a
Speaker 1: show with faster turnaround. Yeah, like they were, Yeah.
Speaker 3: Thirty time scripts a year.
Speaker 1: It was so fast they didn't have time. So if
Speaker 1: we pull that thread and say I don't want this
Speaker 1: to happen, that might affect the next ten episodes, right, yeah, right.
Speaker 1: And it was also as the show goes on, like
Speaker 1: I started with Allison, Midwest kid trying to do well,
Speaker 1: and then I have an affair with the married man,
Speaker 1: and then I'm drunk, and then I'm on, then i'm
Speaker 1: and you know, I won't leave the apartment when it's
Speaker 1: blowing up.
Speaker 2: All this stuff.
Speaker 1: But it was also fun, right, you don't want to
Speaker 1: play nice girl from the Midwest for five seasons. Like
Speaker 1: part of it was oh no, I have to do that.
Speaker 1: And it was like, all right, let's try it. Like
Speaker 1: it was. It was great. It was almost like an
Speaker 1: acting class because you just had to do it. There
Speaker 1: was no time. You didn't have to debate and think,
Speaker 1: and it's not like you're reading a play and you're like,
Speaker 1: this is my characters through line. It's like, all right,
Speaker 1: I had to do so many things that terrified me
Speaker 1: on that show.
Speaker 2: Did you have to do that as in TV? Because
Speaker 2: there's no end to it. You don't know if it's
Speaker 2: going to end in a couple episodes at the end
Speaker 2: of the season or keep going. So the writers, you know,
Speaker 2: when you say like a Midwest girl or how we
Speaker 2: all came into something, that's who you were when it started,
Speaker 2: and then adventure happens, and then life happens, and then
Speaker 2: Mal's this crazy apartment building that you're in and then
Speaker 2: it just happens and you have to, you know, make
Speaker 2: it work. It doesn't all have to make sense. Especially
Speaker 2: on Malos's place. You heard chah it around bottles of wine,
Speaker 2: coming up with whatever we could come up with they're
Speaker 2: not going well.
Speaker 1: Or Midwest Girl.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but like you're trying as an actor to say
Speaker 3: you just wanted to stay on some sort of rail.
Speaker 1: You want to ground it for yourself. You want because
Speaker 1: because here's the thing, as crazy as it was, you're
Speaker 1: trying to find some element of truth. Otherwise it doesn't
Speaker 1: make any sense. So you're trying, especially if it's a
Speaker 1: serious like I had a couple of serious storylines and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, like I was trying to and
Speaker 1: it was you can't. If it's something that's a serious storyline,
Speaker 1: you can't laugh at it, right. So it's not like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is light. It's like this is real and I
Speaker 1: have to bring this some gravitas even though it's so
Speaker 1: we did hold in such a ridiculous way.
Speaker 2: I mean, I always played for the drama. That's the
Speaker 2: thing is. I kept hearing back then, you know how
Speaker 2: Chuck said they didn't like the word soap, And I
Speaker 2: remember I never thought it was a soap. I didn't
Speaker 2: know what people were talking about.
Speaker 1: I would do.
Speaker 2: Interviews for magazine and go, this is not so Not
Speaker 2: that I thought I was too good to do so,
Speaker 2: but I'm just saying I had never thought about it
Speaker 2: as that, and I always played it for the drama.
Speaker 2: And I think as I look back, and I see
Speaker 2: how Joe really had so much drama put upon her
Speaker 2: and put upon her. I think, you know when a
Speaker 2: writer and actor that's a symbiotic relationship. They pick up on
Speaker 2: what they're seeing when you play the scenes, right, and
Speaker 2: so they're writing to that, and then you're picking up
Speaker 2: on what you're reading and you're going, oh, I can
Speaker 2: bring this, and I think it kind of like morphs
Speaker 2: into a thing together.
Speaker 1: Well, but you started, so Joe starts she was married
Speaker 1: to this wealthy man in an abusive relationship. She comes
Speaker 1: here to start over. She starts relationship with Jake. So
Speaker 1: that's sort of what we know about her coming in.
Speaker 1: And then what's the craziest leap you had to make
Speaker 1: as an actor for Joe? Do you remember the craziest leap?
Speaker 2: I mean, I'll answer the first question that you actually
Speaker 2: initiated the beginning of this, which was she was strong
Speaker 2: when she started, right, and then she became so weak.
Speaker 2: I got so tired of all of the victimization that
Speaker 2: they did of Joe, and I remember fans saying this
Speaker 2: during it, and since you know, like God, she was
Speaker 2: so tough, she was this tough girl. What happened and
Speaker 2: I'm like, that's a good question. Maybe I should have
Speaker 2: said something, because I did get tired of that. You know,
Speaker 2: they're literally I know you guys didn't watch a lot.
Speaker 2: You know, we're all working on twelve hour days. But
Speaker 2: I had like so many different men take advantage and
Speaker 2: put her in a bad situation and you know, all
Speaker 2: this stuff. What was the worst one, Well, the most
Speaker 2: extreme was, you know, she falls into this thing with
Speaker 2: Reid who's like a drug running a drug runner with
Speaker 2: that boat, and I ended up like blowing him away
Speaker 2: after he like kidnaps me and kicks me down.
Speaker 3: And super violent.
Speaker 2: It was so violent. Yeah, but I just Daphne as
Speaker 2: an actor, like love the direction, you know, like bunding
Speaker 2: him and trying to get out and looking like wow.
Speaker 2: But it doesn't mean I want to just be like
Speaker 2: beat up all the time or like you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. And I love the payoff of blowing him
Speaker 2: away off that boat and he goes flying over and
Speaker 2: but so that was very far fetched. But I guess
Speaker 2: what I'm saying is that is a way that I
Speaker 2: wish that my character hadn't gone so far in that
Speaker 2: directed to be such a victim. I wish that she
Speaker 2: would have been stronger. I would look at you guys
Speaker 2: and say like, well, not so much Sydney. But I
Speaker 2: would look at like Alison and and Amanda.
Speaker 1: They have these.
Speaker 2: Strong scenes back and forth. You know, she's running a company,
Speaker 2: she's like standing up to her and I would just
Speaker 2: go like that would be so cool.
Speaker 3: Oh that's so funny. But you loved like the the
Speaker 3: gun toting version of Joe of like being able to
Speaker 3: stand up for yourself and doing that. It's like, I
Speaker 3: hate that stuff. I would like the comedy like I
Speaker 3: want to and they wrote it to me and I
Speaker 3: but I also like, like what you say, like when
Speaker 3: you have to have a scene that's real, like when
Speaker 3: you have to have a scene like like no, she's
Speaker 3: got real feelings under there, Like she like that Sidney
Speaker 3: tended towards the like goofy or like you know, the
Speaker 3: all the goofy stuff that she did, but also like
Speaker 3: there were those opportunities to tell like a heartfelt story
Speaker 3: that you had to have her actually be a real
Speaker 3: person and be real. I liked those things, but he
Speaker 3: did not like the things like you're talking about like
Speaker 3: actiony stuff and I hate it's so interesting how people
Speaker 3: like just sort of are drawn towards other you know,
Speaker 3: different things. And and but like you said you had
Speaker 3: to take Alison to the place you said things were scary.
Speaker 3: Was it the times when you were really being vulnerable?
Speaker 1: And it was a mixed bag, Like I keep thinking
Speaker 1: about when Alison was an alcoholic, and it was so
Speaker 1: much fun for me to play because Alison finally got
Speaker 1: to do all the stuff she'd never done because she
Speaker 1: was so so she was like that sort of out there, angry,
Speaker 1: ballsy saying I remember, I remember one time she pulled
Speaker 1: the tablecloth out from the dinner, right. That was really fun.
Speaker 1: But I was a sober alcoholic at the time, right,
Speaker 1: Like we've tried. I turned a year sober my first
Speaker 1: Dan Melrose play. So for me, it's like I wanted
Speaker 1: to treat it with with how it would be authentically
Speaker 1: and I'm doing this soaproper version of it. So it
Speaker 1: was fun to play, but I also had this awareness
Speaker 1: of oh, it's like I wanted to get into the
Speaker 1: truth of it. And there was some of that too,
Speaker 1: like they remember do you remember like she hit the
Speaker 1: kid on the bike? Oh, I mean that was like
Speaker 1: that was a moment of this is the stuff that
Speaker 1: can happen, Right, that was the real gravitas, but so fun,
Speaker 1: but I wanted to treat it with seriousness, so I
Speaker 1: was kind of a it's it's interesting, like you were saying,
Speaker 1: like you love the punching, hitting, but you didn't like
Speaker 1: her being a victim. So it's interesting as we're going
Speaker 1: through it, Like some of the most fun things to
Speaker 1: play are the hardest to play, like when when Alison
Speaker 1: is high and you lose custody of your child, like
Speaker 1: that was an exciting scene to play, and how awful
Speaker 1: and how challenging and how difficult. So sometimes it's both, right,
Speaker 1: like the hardest end up being the most most challenging. Right,
Speaker 1: it's interesting, and most challenging are also usually the hardest.
Speaker 2: It's so so as we wrap this up, it's gonna
Speaker 2: be so fun to have Chuck in here. I mean,
Speaker 2: he was the longest writer and executive producer on the show,
Speaker 2: and he did come from a decade of writing soap operas.
Speaker 3: He's written so.
Speaker 2: Great so he thinks like that and like how the
Speaker 2: what's that thing? How the soup is made? He was
Speaker 2: in the room, you know, like I can't maybe there's
Speaker 2: you never know, it's coming up next.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he will have him back to you because
Speaker 1: a man to see him.
Speaker 2: He has a lot of many stories.
Speaker 1: I have a feeling it was like a ten percent
Speaker 1: of his stories you told today.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's so many more I.
Speaker 3: Know, and that's that's going to come up soon. But yeah,
Speaker 3: we've we've been having so much fun lately. It was
Speaker 3: so great to have Heather in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so great to have Heather.
Speaker 3: More to come.
Speaker 2: We're going to do recap next.
Speaker 3: We got to keep our recaps.
Speaker 2: Watching this with us. It's so fun.
Speaker 1: It's so much fun to watch.
Speaker 3: Melrose is getting juicy, all right, thanks for turning into
Speaker 3: another Melrose minute soon. That kids still the place. Thank