Melody Thomas Scott is best known for her Emmy-nominated work in the iconic role of Nikki Reed, aka Nikki Newman, a character she’s played for forty years and counting on America’s number-one daytime television drama The Young and the Restless. She’s also appeared in feature films with the likes of Clint Eastwood and John Wayne, and worked with esteemed directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Don Siegel and Brian De Palma.
Her new memoir “Always Young and Restless,” from Diversion Books, and written with one of our favorite StoryBeat guests, Dana L. Davis, is now widely available at fine booksellers everywhere.
Melody is also known for her charitable efforts with the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Television Cares and the Save the Earth Foundation.
She lives with her husband, Producer Edward Scott, and beloved rescue terrier, Reilly, in Beverly Hills, California.
TRANSCRIPTION AVAILABLE BELOW
WEBSITES:
- Official Melody Thomas Scott Homepage
- Official “The Young and the Restless” on CBS Homepage
- Melody Thomas Scott on Wikipedia
- Melody Thomas Scott on the IMDB
MELODY THOMAS SCOTT BOOKS:
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STORYBEAT WITH STEVE CUDEN
STEVE CUDEN INTERVIEWS “THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS,” STAR, MELODY THOMAS SCOTT
ANNOUNCER:
This is StoryBeat with Steve Cuden, a podcast for the creative mind. StoryBeat explores how masters of creativity develop and produce brilliant works that people everywhere love and admire. So, join us as we discover how talented creators find success and the worlds of imagination and entertainment. Here now is your host, Steve Cuden.
Steve Cuden:
Thanks for joining us on StoryBeat. You can find StoryBeat episodes, widely available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, TuneIn and numerous other podcast apps and platforms. So please, take a moment to join the StoryBeat family, wherever you listen to podcasts. Well, we have an incredible show today, my guest Melody Thomas Scott is best known for her Emmy nominated work in the iconic role of Nikki Reed AKA Nikki Newman, a character she’s played for 40 years and counting on America’s number one daytime television drama, The Young and the Restless.
She’s also appeared in feature films with the likes of Clint Eastwood and John Wayne and worked with esteemed directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Don Siegel and Brian De Palma. Her new memoir, Always Young and Restless from Diversion Books and written with one of my favorite StoryBeat guests, Dana L. Davis is now widely available at Fine booksellers everywhere. I’ve had the opportunity to read Always Young and Restless and I can tell you, it’s wonderfully heartfelt and thoroughly entertaining, I highly recommend it.
Melody is also known for her charitable efforts with the Academy of Television Arts & Science’s Television Cares and the Save the Earth Foundation. So, this is an especially great honor and a real privilege for me, to have the one and only Melody Thomas Scott as my guest on StoryBeat today. Melody, welcome to the show.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Thank you, Steve. It’s so great to finally talk to you.
Steve Cuden:
Oh indeed, because we’ve been trying to get this together for a little while. So first, congratulations on publishing your memoir, that’s a really big accomplishment. You must be excited about it, yeah?
Melody Thomas Scott:
I am excited and also relieved that I finally finished it.
Steve Cuden:
Mm-hmm. I bet, because that’s a big deal. So, what for you was the most fun part about writing the book, what did you enjoy the most?
Melody Thomas Scott:
Ooh, the most fun? Probably being able to relive all the high points that I write about, all the great points because I have a rather freakish memory that I can remember way back to when I’m in the crib as a baby, as a toddler. And of course, there weren’t a lot of fun moments to remember from those years, but things on the set, things from years ago, I can just kind of put myself back there. I mean, I just close my eyes and I’m there again, so that was fun. My husband and I have taken different parts of the world, it’s like, bam, I’m there and then, I’m writing about it.
Steve Cuden:
Well, the book covers a wide range of your history, but in particular about what happened in show business. And obviously, you’ve been at this since you were a little girl, how old were you when you first started as an actor?
Melody Thomas Scott:
I was three years old.
Steve Cuden:
Three, is that all?
Melody Thomas Scott:
That’s all.
Steve Cuden:
So, you’ve been at this now for what, 32, 33 years?
Melody Thomas Scott:
I like the way you do math.
Steve Cuden:
That’s an extraordinary thing. And so, I’m curious, is there anything that you learned as a very young person that you’re still carrying with you today in terms of being an actor?
Melody Thomas Scott:
Well, interesting question. I would say, one of the positives of being a child actor is you learn very early on how to deal with rejection, because you go out on interviews even as a child and sometimes many interviews a week and sometimes you get it, sometimes you don’t. And you just learn to let that roll off your back if you don’t get it because it’s made clear to you by your agent, listen, it’s not you personally, maybe you were too tall or too short or had the wrong color of hair, wrong color eye.
It really has nothing to do with you, it has to do with the creator’s vision or the director’s vision. So, I didn’t realize until years later what a commodity that was because a lot of adults have problems dealing with rejection and for me it was like, oh, that’s nothing, that’s no big deal, don’t worry about that. But a lot of people do worry about that and take it very seriously.
Steve Cuden:
Oh, sure. Being someone who’s in front of the camera or if you were working on stage or wherever as an actor, one of the things that’s paramount is that, it’s about in a sense you, because you’re the tool, you’re the commodity. You’re not writing, you’re not singing, it’s just you, it’s the way you look, it’s the way you move, et cetera. So, that is a very difficult thing for a lot of people to overcome and I think it blows a lot of people out of the water frankly.
Melody Thomas Scott:
It really does.
Steve Cuden:
They can’t take it.
Melody Thomas Scott:
And it’s so sad for them because yeah, I was just toughened up as such a small child that I don’t have patience for people who don’t understand.
Steve Cuden:
So, is there anything that you wish you knew then that you know now? Obviously, you’ve had a career for a while, so is there something you wish that you knew back then that would have made life better for you as a performer?
Melody Thomas Scott:
As a performer? Oh, I’m sure there are. When you were a kid, you don’t talk back to the director, you do whatever that director says no matter what you have in mind. Because at that point, you just want to please production, you want to please the director and keep the job and when you’re a little kid you’re too afraid to go against them. I can’t think of anything personally, I would tell the small Melody about her home life, I would say, hang in there, be patient, it will improve.
Steve Cuden:
Sure.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Of course, I had to grow up to be 24 to improve but it seems forever that you’re never going to get out of that situation.
Steve Cuden:
The good news is that you did and you’ve had a thriving career for quite some time, so I think that that’s all to the positive. You worked in Marnie, for the director who’s my hero, which is Alfred Hitchcock. I think he’s maybe the greatest maker of movies that we’ve ever had, I just think he’s amazing. Was there anything that you learned from him? Because I know he was kind of quirky and a bit of a different guy himself, was there anything you learned from him that you’ve taken forward into your career?
Melody Thomas Scott:
Well, as you can imagine being a child actor and I understand that even to the adult actors, he can be very tough. I had no idea who he was, I was eight years old, he was just another director to me. So, I didn’t realize until years later that I had worked with the Alfred Hitchcock, he was very scary. I mean, all his kids were terrified of him.
Steve Cuden:
Why?
Melody Thomas Scott:
Well, he never smiled, he breathed very loudly and he would snap his instructions to you, and if you didn’t get it right away, he would be very impatient. He would physically push you onto your mark instead of just telling you, you’re blocking, he would come and push you into it.
Steve Cuden:
Really?
Melody Thomas Scott:
And then, walk back to his director’s chair by the camera and we would roll. And if you didn’t do it right, we were kids, sometimes we don’t it. Oh boy, he never called from the chair, he would get up and move into the set and reprimand you close by. And so, he was just that the scariest creature and certainly the scariest director I’ve ever worked with, so I just wanted to please him and go home. I mean, I loved set life, I would never have wanted to be anywhere else, even at my house, I wanted to live on a soundstage but he was scary yet I don’t feel that it was me, I think it was him.
Steve Cuden:
Well, I can understand that because he’s kind of an imposing figure and he’s stern and he-
Melody Thomas Scott:
Very.
Steve Cuden:
Of course, we now know he’s directed and made some of the greatest scary movies of all time. And so, it makes sense that he would be kind of a scary figure to a little person.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Absolutely.
Steve Cuden:
And the adults are probably intimidated by him as well.
Melody Thomas Scott:
They probably were. It would be hard not to be.
Steve Cuden:
Yeah, exactly right. So, all right. So, let’s talk about directors for a moment, you’ve had the privilege working with many directors over the years. Is there anything that you’ve learned that’s important for people who are trying to figure this business out that you’ve learned from directors, what to do and what not to do?
Melody Thomas Scott:
I think that as I got older and more into the teenage years, I think I became a bit cocky as an actress and looking back, I can see that I would resist certain director’s instructions and I don’t really know why I did that. I really should have been more respectful of their vision, although now that I’m way older than that, there’s a lot to be said for the actor’s vision and hopefully the actor and the director can blend their visions together. It can be a rocky road of just arguing back and forth about what it should be but as I grew older, I realized that it is, my talent as an actor includes my instincts of probably knowing how to do it better.
Unless now, some of the directors have also been actors and you can tell almost immediately when they are because they understand all of what I just tried to explain to you, so it makes it a lot easier. If it was a director who’s never acted, it can be a little difficult communicating.
Steve Cuden:
They can relate to you as an actor, if they’ve been an actor. I mean, that makes sense.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Exactly. And they know what notes to give you. An actor needs specific notes that they can click into and understand emotionally.
Steve Cuden:
Sure. And I imagine on a soap opera, you’re working pretty quickly, it’s not a long drawn out process. So, those notes need to be somewhat incisive, I would assume.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Oh absolutely. They need to be very clear, so that we understand them instantly.
Steve Cuden:
Can you think of one or more great directions that you’ve had over the years that always stuck with you? Like this was a really good way to look at things.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Well, now see, I was really going along with that last question Steve, until you said, it’s a really good way to look at things. I don’t know if I have a director in mind that would illustrate that-
Steve Cuden:
Oh, that’s okay if you don’t.
Melody Thomas Scott:
When I did Fury, Brian De Palma directed that. I was just so impressed because he is such a visionary and knows exactly what he wants. And instead of being a horrible task masker, he adores his crew, the crew adores him. The same with the actors, so we are very willing to satisfy his vision because we want to work our best for him and that is not often seen.
Steve Cuden:
Well, I find that really fascinating because De Palma is notorious for having really emulated Hitchcock and the two approaches are entirely different.
Melody Thomas Scott:
You’re right, you’re absolutely right. Maybe it’s because I was an adult when I worked for De Palma but I was just so impressed with his direction and his way of working.
Steve Cuden:
We’re going to circle back around to Brian De Palma because I want to talk about John Cassavetes and we’ll get there at some point. So, being on a show like The Young and the Restless, means that you’re working a lot and you’ve been doing this for a long time, 40 years is a long time to be doing that kind of work. That means that you’ve got to be a fairly resilient person, you can’t be easily thrown off your game. So, what would you say is your secret for endurance? Is it diet, is it exercise? What do you do that allows you to go to work so frequently?
Melody Thomas Scott:
I love being there. Actors who love to act, a soap is the greatest gig going, because it gives us the opportunity to do what we love to do, our greatest passion, which is acting almost every day. So, we’re happy to wake up in the morning and sometimes it’s 4:00 AM, 5:00 AM. We have very early calls, but we’re happy to do it, we jump in our car and we just can’t wait to see our set family because most of us have been there decades. And we are a family, you can’t help but not become a family when you work closely together for so long.
Steve Cuden:
That makes a lot of sense. And obviously, if you’re a family, you’re going to be treated like a family, you’re going to treat one another like a family.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Yes. We look out for one another, it’s hug and kiss. Of course now with COVID, it’s so weird to be back, we’ve been back in production two weeks now and it’s like the Twilight Zone, Steve.
Steve Cuden:
Really?
Melody Thomas Scott:
Here we are in our sandbox, our playground and yet we can’t play. We have COVID experts on the set, watching us, making sure we’re safe with the mask, because if we’re not shooting, the six foot rule, all kinds of new rules. And somebody said the other day, the thing that made it so fun for us to come to work, we’re not allowed to do anymore because we’re not allowed to mingle. We’re not allowed to even touch each other or hug each other, so it’s very weird.
Steve Cuden:
So, there no craft services table anymore, I assume.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Oh well, we never had one to begin with, if you want to know the truth.
Steve Cuden:
Oh, is that right? You didn’t brown bag your way through 40 years, did you?
Melody Thomas Scott:
No. Well, we had a series of commissaries and now, of course, that’s closed but somebody else is coming in and reopening, but I don’t know how they’re going to do that because we’re not allowed to bring food onto the set. So, there are so many areas that have new rules and things we never even thought about have to be changed, so it’s a challenge.
Steve Cuden:
Obviously, your show is one that has many intimate moments in it. People are very close to one another, how are you handling that?
Melody Thomas Scott:
I think that’s more of the writer’s problem. In these two weeks that we’ve been back, there have been no love scenes, so it hasn’t really come up as to how we would handle that. And they have blocked every scene, so that we are all at least six feet apart, yet on the monitor that I look at on the stage, when we’re shooting, they’re using camera angles that make it seem like we are closer to each other. So, I’m hoping that there’ll be a lot of tricks like that, movie magic that will make it seem a little more real.
Steve Cuden:
They’re using what’s called forced perspective and they’re putting you in a way, so that it looks like you’re much closer together than you are and that is a trick of the lens.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Yes it is.
Steve Cuden:
Very cool. So, all right, let’s talk about process for a moment. You’ve received hundreds, if not thousands of scripts at this point in your career. When you receive a script, I assume obviously the first thing is you read it but once you’ve read it, how do you work on it, how do you break it down? Do you have a process on that, how do you figure it out?
Melody Thomas Scott:
I don’t really have to break it down and maybe it’s because I’ve been playing Nikki for so long that I automatically know exactly how she will respond to anything. So, I don’t have to work on my responses, I don’t have to work on my dialogue, how I’m going to say them, I know how Nikki will say them. She doesn’t say it like I do, she’s nothing like me and a lot of fans think that she is of course but God helped me put… Steve, if I ever start acting like her, will you please shake me? We’re nothing alike but I do know her very well, so it’s easy, I don’t even think about it.
Steve Cuden:
Just talking to you today, you’re clearly not Nikki.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Oh, thank you.
Steve Cuden:
That’s so completely obvious just in chatting with you, which is a great tribute to you as an actress, that you are able to be so not who you play.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Well, thank you. That is a great compliment.
Steve Cuden:
Do you shake her off at the end of the day?
Melody Thomas Scott:
Oh God, yes. Oh yeah. I mean, she’s gone the minute that red light goes off the camera.
Steve Cuden:
Really? Wow.
Melody Thomas Scott:
That’s the thrill.
Steve Cuden:
Do you know performers who have a problem with that? Where they’re so deeply into the character that they can’t shake it off for a while and I’m not asking you to name names, I’m just curious if you’ve seen it.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Yeah. No names every now and then, I cannot think of a female actor, it’s usually the guys if they have particularly emotional scenes or if they have to cry and they’re not used to doing that. They will get all method on us and walk around not speaking and their eyes brimming with tears and I’m thinking, man, come on, don’t waste that, you got hours to go before you’re going to shoot this, what are you doing walking around with brimming tears? But that’s really the only time I think the guys kind of get freaked out, although we have some actors, I mean, certainly Eric Braeden, Joshua Maura, who plays Victor and Nicholas.
I mean, they’re called upon to cry all the time and they’re so good at it that it’s no big deal to them. A lot of our actors are very good at that, every now and then we’ll find another.
Steve Cuden:
I just saw the episode this week in reruns of Eric Braeden with George Kennedy.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Oh yeah.
Steve Cuden:
It’s an amazing scene, it’s just a fabulous scene.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Fabulous. And then, Joshua was there watching the whole thing.
Steve Cuden:
Right. Exactly. And Eric Braeden, has a fixed stare that’s just unbelievable.
Melody Thomas Scott:
He can, yes.
Steve Cuden:
It’s actually awesome to watch, it’s like, wow, he’s really lasered in on George Kennedy, which is really fantastic.
Melody Thomas Scott:
He is one cool actor.
Steve Cuden:
And you’re known as someone who can cry pretty much at will, yeah?
Melody Thomas Scott:
Yeah.
Steve Cuden:
Is there a trick to it or is it just something you just do?
Melody Thomas Scott:
It’s something that I learned starting at age three, four. I remember sitting with my acting coaches and we would go over feelings and emotions and I can’t really tell you what they told me on how to cry, but it was introduced slowly but surely because I was a child actress and they knew that I would be called upon to cry and indeed, I did. In the sixties in Hollywood, if they needed a girl that could cry, they hired me. And I think, it’s learning how to keep your emotions close by, so that if you need them, they’re right there and you don’t have to work for them, you don’t have to struggle for them. I can’t really explain it any better than that.
Steve Cuden:
So, it’s something that you do naturally at this point, it’s not a big intellectual or emotional process you go through, you just kind of do it.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Right. And then, I don’t know about other actors, I need to believe whatever I’m supposed to be crying about in the scene, I have to believe that that’s real. If there’s any kind of phoniness to it, my emotions will recognize that and not let me cry.
Steve Cuden:
I see.
Melody Thomas Scott:
So, I need to totally believe why I’m crying. And sometimes, not often, but sometimes, the writers will write a scene that says, and then Nikki cries. And, and I’ll tell the director, there is no reason written in the scene why I would be crying. So therefore, don’t hold your breath, I will not be crying and they’ll usually agree with me. But if they say, no, we really need the tears, I say, well, then we need to write the scene, so that there would be tears. Otherwise, I can’t do it.
Steve Cuden:
Do they do that? Do they turn and write the scene for you, so it’ll work?
Melody Thomas Scott:
Yeah. They’ll alter things, the directors can… They can make magic happen very quickly.
Steve Cuden:
So, you’ve got a very vivid imagination, is what that partly boils down to.
Melody Thomas Scott:
I guess I do.
Steve Cuden:
I would think you would have to, otherwise you’d never get there. You’d have to a really good imagination because it is make believe.
Melody Thomas Scott:
It is make believe and yet, a lot of times fans will ask me, do you think about when your dog got run over, do you think about when your friend died? They think that you’re thinking about a real life event and that would never work for me. And it takes you out of the moment, it’s not organic. So, for me, I just need to believe why Nikki is crying.
Steve Cuden:
But in acting, as I understand it and I’ve done a tiny amount of it in my life, but it’s not a regular thing for me. But it’s the magic as if, which you use in rehearsal but you don’t use in performance, that’s how I understand it. And so, that’s building that imagination, so you can get there when you’re in performance.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Right. You don’t want to blow it, you don’t want to waste it before performance.
Steve Cuden:
Sure. That makes total sense. All right. So now, we spoke earlier about the fact that you have a great memory from youth and so on, is that memory helped you as a line memorizer, have you been able to memorize lines easily through your career because you have this good memory?
Melody Thomas Scott:
Absolutely. Of course, it doesn’t hurt the amount of soap every day that shoots between 80 and a 100 pages.
Steve Cuden:
Yeah, no kidding.
Melody Thomas Scott:
It’s like a muscle, you learn how. It becomes very easy for you to learn lines and then, the hard part almost is forgetting them because the next day you’ll probably have very similar lines and you don’t want to get mixed up with yesterday’s lines with today’s lines. So, you try to forget them as quickly as you can but now that you asked me about my early memory, this is something interesting and I never tell people about this. In fact, I don’t even think it’s in the book and it should be, there you go, here comes the sequel.
Steve Cuden:
Part two.
Melody Thomas Scott:
When I was about seven or eight, my grandmother who got me into this business, enrolled me in a memory school. And it actually is still in existence today in Los Angeles, the Bornstein School of Memory.
Steve Cuden:
Wow.
Melody Thomas Scott:
And I went every Saturday for… I don’t remember how long. I was the only child there, all the other students in the class were business people and they were there because they wanted to learn how to remember their clients’ names or information for business and then, there was me. But what I learned in that course is, memory is simply a matter of association.
Steve Cuden:
What does that mean?
Melody Thomas Scott:
I’ll give an example, by the end of the course, in order to pass the course, the teacher would put a 25, 30 digit number on the blackboard and you had maybe 30 seconds to look at that number. And then, you had to turn away from the board and recite that number back. To my little eight year old brain, I remember like you decide what you can associate, whatever you have to remember. So, if you need to remember numbers, like the number one is tall and straight in my mind, maybe thought it was a snake. Then, the number two could have been like, the side of a dog house, so okay.
In my head, the snake goes into the dog house, comes out with a bottle of milk… However, and it’s different for everybody and that basically is the beginnings of associative memory.
Steve Cuden:
That’s amazing. I’ve never heard that before and I think that’s really interesting. I have heard of using imagery but not quite in the way that you just described it. I think that’s really useful for people that are trying to figure out how to be a better memorizer because I think that’s one of the stumbling points for some actors is they can’t memorize lines well.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Right. Well, and a lot of us, even on our show, if we have a large chunk of dialogue on the page, we’ll take our pencil and we’ll either draw pictures of things that will trigger up the rest of the speech or words or any kind of a visual cue is helpful.
Steve Cuden:
That’s fascinating. You’re actually working that onset, yes?
Melody Thomas Scott:
Yes we do.
Steve Cuden:
That’s fascinating. All right.
Melody Thomas Scott:
And then, we’ll grab each other’s script and say, wait, I want to see how you drew that and then, we get competitive about our artistry.
Steve Cuden:
Do you actually have contests?
Melody Thomas Scott:
Oh no, just laughing at it on the set.
Steve Cuden:
All right. So, in the book you have a wonderful story about working on The Shootist, John Wayne’s last movie and I think that, that’s something to say that you work with the Duke.
Melody Thomas Scott:
It really is. And I look back upon all these wonderful legends that I have worked with and I’m so grateful.
Steve Cuden:
You have, you’ve really worked with some amazing legends. So, I’m wondering, because you were still a young person then, was there anything that he did on set that you picked up on and you have used that you thought, wow, that’s really great, the way that he does X, Y, or Z or how he treats people or whatever that might be?
Well, I was 19 and we had a very short scene together but I still remember how, not just charming but helpful and easy going and I’m sure he had no idea that I’d been working since I was three, for 16 years. He wanted to make me feel very comfortable on that street car and-
Steve Cuden:
How did he do that? How did he make you comfortable?
Melody Thomas Scott:
A lot of young actors, they’ll rush their scene, they’ll rush their performance and half of that reason is because they’re nervous. Because when you’re nervous, you talk and do everything faster. So, he probably was just being kind to me, not knowing if it was my first job or not, just really made it very comfortable and lovely.
Steve Cuden:
He was gentlemanly to you then?
Melody Thomas Scott:
He was a gentleman through and through. And when I met him, we were on location in Virginia City, Nevada for that movie and like first day, the AD brought me over and he said, “Would you like to meet Mr. Wayne?” I said, “Of course,” and he walked me over to the motor home and next thing you know, the door flies open and John Wayne’s boots start stepping down those stairs. And I looked up at him and he, he just seemed like a giant, he was so tall and so, like almost a grizzly bear but a gentle bear and he put his hand out to me, it was just this huge bear paw and was so sweet and kind and we all knew at the time that he was very sick with cancer and it did turn out to be his last film.
But I remember in that instant of him grabbing my hand, he had one of those copper bracelets on his arm, where, back then, a lot of people wore those believing it would help them. So, that was my first moments of meeting him and he was just very, so John Wayne, just exactly how you would think John Wayne would be.
Steve Cuden:
He was bigger than life.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Very much so.
Steve Cuden:
Somehow in my mind’s eye picture that he actually was radiant, that he actually had his own sort of inner light is the way I think of it.
Melody Thomas Scott:
I don’t know that I knew him well enough to say that but he sure knew how to be a movie star.
Steve Cuden:
Oh sure.
Melody Thomas Scott:
In the sense of the kind of movie stars were used to have.
Steve Cuden:
We’ve lost most of that today though. Though there are still a couple of hanging around but the idea of movie stardom, that sort of that day and age has gone away, hasn’t it?
Melody Thomas Scott:
Yes.
Steve Cuden:
So, speaking of stars, do you want to go back? As I said, I wanted to talk about the Fury, Brian De Palma.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Ah yes.
Steve Cuden:
But more importantly, you don’t know this but I spent six months working with John Cassavetes.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Did you?
Steve Cuden:
I did. I spent six months working on three plays that he did in Hollywood. One with John Voight, one with Peter Falk and his wife and two with Gena Rowlands. So, that was a great experience and I was a very young person at the time-
Melody Thomas Scott:
Well, that was his little social group right there, those names you said, right?
Steve Cuden:
It was. That was his social group, for sure. So, you tell a wonderful story in the book about John, arranging a special trip to see the King Tut exhibit in Chicago, correct?
Melody Thomas Scott:
Unbelievable. Had I not been there myself and seeing it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe it because it sounds ridiculous but yes, that happened. We were shooting in Chicago summer of ’77 and the King Tut exhibit was at the Field Museum in Chicago. It may have been the first American city, I’m saying that because it was such a very huge deal, the whole town was talking about it and we had such a busy shooting schedule that it would have been impossible for us to say, oh, we’re going to go to the museum today.
Melody Thomas Scott:
And Cassavetes seemed to just… I wish I had gotten to know him better but I’m 21 years old, he has all of his buddies and so, I was always included of course, when he would treat the cast to some amazing Italian restaurant, it seemed like he knew Chicago like the back of his hand and he knew all these great restaurants and it was not unusual for a studio van to pull up in front of the Continental Plaza or Hotel in Chicago and we would pile in and we’d end up at one of Cassavetes’ other restaurants that he loved.
So, he was always doing things like that and he must’ve been a very effervescent, wonderful guy. And the next thing you know, we are told, all right, now, tonight after dinner, you’re going to get back in the van but we’re not going to the hotel, you’re not to talk about it, they wouldn’t even tell you. I guess, the drivers and one designated person in the van knew where we were going and what we were doing but they didn’t want us to know about it ahead of time. Basically, what happened was, about midnight, 11:30 midnight, our driver, who obviously somehow was in cahoots with somebody via Cassavetes.
We pull up to a back entrance, like a service entrance of the Field Museum and we all get out and we are told, no talking, no questions, no laughing, no nothing, keep your mouth shot and just follow us. And so, certain security guards who obviously were in on it as well, they would open doors for us, we would walk in and we were told which way to go. The most precarious part of that was, there was one room where we were told how to step over the security beam or under the security beams.
Steve Cuden:
Really?
Melody Thomas Scott:
If you remember that way back then, museums had these like invisible beams and that was how they would catch the cat burglars, the art burglars. Anyway, it seems impossible now and that would not happen again now. Riley, knock it off. But indeed we did see the King Tut exhibit that night and then, we just retraced our tracks, we were accompanied of course, we went back through the maze of all the rooms, got back outside in the van, back to our hotel as if it had never happened.
Steve Cuden:
John Cassavetes, because I’ve worked with a lot of people in my life and he is to this day, the singular, most genius genius I’ve ever worked with. He was directing, he wrote one of the three plays, he directed all three in rep and all at the same time and he was still the singular experience of my life, is working with John Cassavetes. Because he was doing things that no one else has ever done that I’ve ever witnessed and so, I was fascinated when I read that you had worked with him and had that experience with him, I think that’s quite incredible.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Unfortunately, I didn’t share any scenes with him, so I just knew him as part of the company but I now I wish that I had.
Steve Cuden:
Well, that movie is actually sort of fallen away in the public’s eye and I think it’s time, it has to come back because I think it’s a very fun movie.
It is. I don’t think that the special effects have really stood up to time very well and in fact, some would say even then. But it’s a horror flick and I think a lot of people who went to see it didn’t quite understand that, that wasn’t really conveyed in the advertising.
Steve Cuden:
So, I’m going to ask you a question that I ask many guests, some have trouble figuring out and some are real good with it, we’ll see how you do. You clearly in soap operas, you’re dealing with two major things, characters and stories and it’s usually characters. And we’ll talk about Bill Bell in a moment and conflict as well, but it’s really two things, characters and story. When you’re looking at work that’s coming your way, what for you makes a good story good?
Melody Thomas Scott:
Oh golly, I think it needs to involve characters who are historically important to the show. If you have a story that requires a lot of new commerce, brand new people, well, they can be the greatest actor in the world but the fans don’t know them. The fans, they’re most interested in seeing drama and conflict between their friends that have been in their living rooms for decades. Some of us, we’re their friends, we’re their family and it means so much more to them if it’s with people that they know rather than to bring in new actors.
Steve Cuden:
Sure. You have to get to know the new characters as they come in, once they do.
Melody Thomas Scott:
You do. But I think, a head writer should always introduce new characters, one at a time and take time with them, orient them, orient the fans with their presence and because, if you just force a brand new actor down the audience’s throat, they’re not going to like that actor and then, it’s a waste.
Steve Cuden:
Interesting. So, let’s talk about Bill Bell for a moment because legendarily, he created both The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful, which is… I mean, those are two gigantic soap operas. He stated the conflict is the essence of drama, you write that in the book and I’ve been a writer for a long time and I’ve taught writing for quite some time and I completely subscribe to that exact notion. It’s all about conflict and clearly, in a show like yours, there’s nothing but nonstop conflict, right?
Melody Thomas Scott:
Exactly.
Steve Cuden:
And that’s what makes it work really, that’s why the audience keeps coming back for more.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Yeah. There has to be conflict. If there are no conflicts, they’re not interested in coming back, so you must always keep that going.
Steve Cuden:
I mean, you’ve already said that you shake Nikki off once the red light turns off, does it impact your psyche in any way as a human being that you’re dealing with all this conflict and part of your work essentially?
Melody Thomas Scott:
Oh, no. And maybe, I’m a weirdo but I enjoy the high conflict. To me, that’s great fun. Even something horrific, like a bomb blows off in Genoa City or somebody is in the hospital close to death or extreme drama, I find very exciting to play.
Steve Cuden:
So, it’s just fun for you.
Melody Thomas Scott:
It’s play acting, it’s all fun.
Steve Cuden:
You said the magic word in there and that’s play, it’s all play. So, for it to be fun, it’s just playful to you, it’s just something you do that you have a lot of fun doing.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Exactly. And I mean, really isn’t that what acting is? Another word is play acting and it is essentially, play for us, we’re just like children.
Steve Cuden:
Well, if we could all retain that? We’d have a better world, I think, if we could all still be big children. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of the world that grows up.
Melody Thomas Scott:
True.
Steve Cuden:
And sometimes not so great.
Melody Thomas Scott:
And I get paid for still being a kid.
Steve Cuden:
Well, you’re one of the lucky ones, truthfully. And I still get paid to act like a kid on paper, so-
Melody Thomas Scott:
Is it great?
Steve Cuden:
Same kind of thing. I want to talk to you for a moment about fans and celebrity a little bit, and you are known as being a very gracious person with your fans. How are you able to deal with all the attention when you’re out and about?
Melody Thomas Scott:
You get used to it. Although, I had a very unfortunate encounter when I had only been on the show maybe a year and it taught me such a lesson. I often would stop at this newsstand on the way home, I have to read my trash and this particular day, it had been a long day in the studio, I was exhausted, I was cranky, I just wanted to get my magazines and go home. And I had noticed this woman, maybe 20 feet away also at the newsstand and I had already learned, when you’re on a soap, you do kind of start to learn the look in other people’s eyes of recognition and say, oh okay, that’s a fan, that’s not a fan and that’s it then.
And so, I had kind of started to glean at that this woman that down the way, is a fan and I thought, oh dear of all times, because I’m just not in the mood. And I kind of turned my back, just looking at my magazines and sure enough, she taps me on the shoulder and I kind of spun around because I was just cranky and she was very polite. She says, “Excuse me, do you play Nikki on The Young and the Restless?” And I said, “Yes, yes, yes, something like that.” Just not nice and she held her hand out to me and said, “Aretha Franklin, my pleasure.”
So, I just want it to fall in a hole and I said, “Oh Ms. Franklin, no, it’s my pleasure. I’m so sorry, I’m tired and cranky,” and she was having none of that. She was just, if you mess up with her once, I have learned over the years, it’s over for you. She walked away from me that night, I went home feeling terrible. Decades later, we’re in New York city, we’re both appearing on the Daytime Emmys and outside the theater on the red carpet, the press noticed Aretha and me and they said, “Hey, let’s get those two together, so we can do some photos of them.”
So, of course, we said, okay and so, we’re smiling at the photographers but through our teeth, Aretha starts it, and she says, “I remember you from that newsstand all those years ago,” letting me know that she sure has not forgotten any. And I said, “Oh yes, I know where Aretha. I am so, so sorry again,” after that she says, “Mm-hmm”. And she was able to do that mm-hmm with her mouth open but teeth closed because we’re still smiling at the camera. And she just was not warm and fuzzy at all and she said, “Where’s Victor? I want my picture made with him.”
And off she flounced and it taught me such a lesson of, no matter how tired you are, be kind to your fans. And I normally am 98% of the time, I like talking to them but that was the one night, my first night of being not so nice.
Steve Cuden:
Well, your career is built on fans, isn’t it?
Melody Thomas Scott:
Absolutely. Without them we would be nowhere, there would be no show.
Steve Cuden:
They actually are the pedestal on which you all stand and I think that that’s an important lesson and that’s in the book. That story’s in the book along with many other really fun, great Hollywood stories. So, last question Melody is, do you have a solid piece of advice or a tip for those who may be trying to break into the business or maybe someone who’s in a little bit and trying to get to the next level?
Melody Thomas Scott:
Over the years, I have kind of resorted to the same questioning when I am approached by somebody who wants to get in the business. The first question I ask them is, why do you want to be an actor? And unfortunately, most of the time their answer is essentially, they want to be rich and famous. Bad, bad, bad answer.
Steve Cuden:
Sure. Bad idea.
Melody Thomas Scott:
So, when they say that, I have to explain to them, listen, it’s hard enough to succeed in this business, if this is your passion, it’s the only thing you want to do in your life and you love it. But if somebody goes into this business only with the motivation of money and fame and they do happen to make it, they’re still going to be absolutely miserable. So, I always ask them to please examine their reasons internally and they’re probably not happy that they asked me this question, because then I say, where do you live?
And then, maybe it’s some small town in Kansas or somewhere. I’ll say, well, I’m sure that you have local theater there and I believe, if people truly want to act, they will find their way to their local community theater and start learning and start doing and it’s not about being paid and it’s not about becoming famous in your small town, it’s about learning the craft. And if you really love it, you’re going to find that anyway, you’re not going to have to fly to Los Angeles and ask a celebrity how to do it. It’s all about the passion and I feel if they don’t have the passion, they’re not going to be happy.
Steve Cuden:
Well, that’s such wise advice because that’s true. We’re in a business, if you can’t stomach it and you can’t find your way to just wanting to do the work, then you’re in big trouble. I mean, you hear many successful people say that they would do it for free, shh, don’t tell anybody.
Melody Thomas Scott:
I always say that and I say, shh, don’t tell Sony.
Steve Cuden:
Well, Melody Thomas Scott, this has just been a real joy. I’m so thrilled to have had you on StoryBeat today, I can’t tell you.
Melody Thomas Scott:
It was not much fun and the time flew. I mean, let’s do this again sometime.
Steve Cuden:
Oh, I would love to. And hopefully, someday I get a chance to meet you in person and not ask you how I just get into the business.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Well, you know what I’d say if you did, but I’d love to see you sometime.
Steve Cuden:
Well, I thank you kindly for being on the show.
Melody Thomas Scott:
Thank you, Steve so much.
Steve Cuden:
And so, we’ve come to the end of today’s StoryBeat. If you like this podcast, please take a moment to give us a rating or review on whatever app or platform you’re listening to. Your support helps us bring more great StoryBeat episodes to you. Until next time, I’m Steve Cuden and may all your stories be unforgettable.
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