January 31, 2025 • 18 mins
Get ready for your Melrose Place quickie!
Courtney, Laura, and Daphne are back with their final thoughts on Sydney's exit from season one, including hot takes on Syd's outfits, Laura's insecurity about what people back home would think of her character, their relationships with their siblings, and Laura's first job in a hair commercial and how it made her go red! Plus, Courtney shares the "fancy" hair technique she used when she was young . . . which you can get for five bucks!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Still the Place with Laura Layton, Courtney Thorne Smith.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
And daphnews Aniga and iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Hey everyone, welcome to the Melrose Minute.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
You know, there's always too much to talk about, Like
while we're doing a recab, it just feels like there's
all the stuff that we needed to put into a
Melrose Minute. So we've let's be honest, we could talk
all day every basis.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
So I mean an hour is a not pretty soon
it's gonna be.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
A Melrose half hour, especially because our.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Husbands don't want to hear us at home.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
So we have to come here and get it all out.
Speaker 5 (00:34):
So my dogs are getting so annoyed, they're like, already
talk to the.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
Girls, to the girl. So here we are. Put it
on the pod.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
We were just talking about before we got on about Sydney.
We just watched her second and last episode for this season,
but how her outfits were getting crazy and you had
some thoughts about what you were wearing.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
No, it's just like it occurred to me like the
character was so open to whatever, and the wardrobe department
was so amazing that they would put whatever on her,
and I just got this opportunity to try. But I
just remember feeling like while I was I've mentioned this before.
I was a brand new actress, right, I'm a midwestern
I'm a girl from Iowa.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Right, not the.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Most like edgy, you know place, And I just remembered,
like the idea that Sydney could wear all these colorful
things and try them on and whatever was just so
different than my own experience.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Was it crazy for you? Was it exciting?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
And I loved it?
Speaker 4 (01:27):
I loved it.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
I loved it.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
And there was a moment in my own like youth
and childhood where I was interested in like trying on
you know, eighties fashion.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I mean, who wouldn't write.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Day glow or like, like I was a junior high
and like I remember remember the movie Flash Dance, right,
and so I was And I was a dancer too,
So like I was so interested, Oh, I'll wear leg
warmers to school or whatever, like you know as part
of my outfit leg warmers, which I got mercilessly mocked for, right,
and so like not really a risk taking place fashion
(01:59):
wise Iowa. So it was such an interesting thing to
be given this character that could do anything and should
be you know.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Trying anything and whatever.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
But I just remember feeling also the actual voice inside
my head going, oh, what are people back home going
to think?
Speaker 6 (02:14):
Did you get reaction?
Speaker 4 (02:15):
I did get?
Speaker 6 (02:16):
I mean, in fact, do you remember there?
Speaker 4 (02:18):
I did.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
It's sort of hard to remember, but I just remember
feeling super insecure about it, like what is everyone going
to think? Not only that the scene that I had
to be in bed with my sister's husband, even though
it was a dream, was a nightmare sequence or whatever,
but like to have to have done that, I was
so insecure, like what are people going to think? And
I'm going to be judged for this? It was like
such a weird thing that I just watching it again,
(02:39):
I was reminded of that feeling just starting out in
my career, going what are people going so funny?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
My background is the absolute opposite of yours. I grew
up in the sixties in Berkeley, California, where there were
like free boxes on every corner for free clothes whatever
whoever wanted anything, and we shopped at thrift stores and
we had our dress up box at home.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
My sister and I didn't have a TV, but we
would go home and put.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
On things feather boas or whatever just to play after school.
So when I was doing this show with Denise. I
got so excited because because it like went with that,
you know what I mean. It wasn't crazy, she wasn't
crazy out of the top, but in Joe's own way,
we'd try things that kind of push the edge. And
I just loved going to work because it felt like
I was being paid to try stuff out of the
(03:24):
dress up.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Box, you know what I mean. Yeah, I just loved her.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
She had really cool, kind of ethnic, kind of esoteric stuff, really.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Chic, upscale, cool stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
I thought Allison was more conservative because she was a
Midwest girl, so I didn't have that sort of super
playing dress up. But that's a really fun thing about
being an actor, which is getting to play different characters.
I did a TV movie once where I played a
murdering dairy princess, and that was super fun because that
was like costumes, and I had work costume murdering. Yeah,
(03:54):
she was like a dairy princess, and that was super fun.
But I've often played to quote normal people, so my
clothes weren't that exciting.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
So it's fun to.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
Get play super fun dress up, like you were playing
super dress up and wearing these extreme things and getting
to it was also it was the time on the
show you could tell that they were experimenting with you.
They were letting it get fun and funny and a
little more unexpected. Like every time we walked into a scene,
I was like, Oh, this is going to be fun.
I had that feeling about it. And part of it
(04:26):
was the costume. Like you'd walk in, I was like, Oh,
what's going to happen here?
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Yeah, it didn't seem at all like you were.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
You seemed very open to wearing whatever they wanted to
try you in.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
I loved it, but they just couldn't shake that little
voice in my head that was like.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
What are they going to think?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Didn't you think?
Speaker 5 (04:40):
Like we came of age in a time when most
people had no nudity in their contracts, right, Like, I
don't know about you, but since I turned fifty, people
say nudity required. I'm like, did you think I waited
till I was fifty to do nud Like what do
you think it's writing? But it used to be on
TV you were pretty well covered. Now it's so different.
But I always from the time I was seventeen, I
started professionally thought about my kid is going to see
(05:01):
this one day, right, I always had that thought. I
didn't want anything out there that would embarrass my kid.
I'm so grateful now that I have a seventeen year
old and he did that, like there are things that
would be embarrassing me, kind of an eye rolling thing,
like nothing that would be horrifying for him to watch. Right,
friends would try to show him.
Speaker 6 (05:17):
Yeah, I knew.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
I knew I'd never have.
Speaker 6 (05:20):
Kids, so I didn't.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Have that proble. You had to do whatever you wanted
to very compromising positions.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
I suppose it's free. It was like, but you have siblings, right.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Yeah, I have a sister. We're very close.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
We're only seventeen months apart. I have a half brother
who's twenty years younger than I am, so that's different.
We didn't grow up together. But you know, watching your
story with and us talking about the Jane and Sydney
of it all has brought up, you know, my own
thoughts with this sister.
Speaker 6 (05:53):
Now.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Of course, you don't really compare your real life to
Melrose situations. That would be I hope, although.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
You're still it was fast when you said what you
told us last episode, that your sister was actually.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Showed up and which is c started living with me, Yes,
and then ended up on Norral's plays as an extra.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
I love that and two other jobs I remembered too,
I got her.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
But at any rate that aside confusing, Yeah, No, I
just wanted to talk about like that kind of dynamic
and your relationship with siblings.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Why are they tough? Why are they so tough? Why
what would cause and.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Get to the point of not talking you know, or
I mean it has to do a set. I look
at you, and I think automatically, Courtney.
Speaker 6 (06:37):
I look at you and I think of boundaries.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Set boundaries.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
I'm sure that's part of your answer, and it should be,
But I don't know what do you think about?
Speaker 1 (06:46):
You know, like siblings are the longest relationship you have
in your life, right.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Yeah, we don't get to choose them, right, that's.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Interesting, But they really are the longest relationship you have
because you know your parents won't always be there, as
you know, and but your siblings are more aligned with
you know, how you'd move through the world and age
and stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
The kind of the roles you were given as a child,
you know, like one was given maybe like I was
the older one. I was I totally assumed I had
to protect my younger sister that you know, and she,
I'm sure felt in my shadow and resisted. I never
wanted her to copy me or follow me or go
get your own friends and that kind of thing.
Speaker 6 (07:25):
And I've you know, I.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Don't have that so much now, but it does kind
of rear its head in different ways, you know, even
as adults.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yeah, well you do hear people saying like those things,
those birth order things are really classic.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
You know.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
The oldest child often feels like they had to lead
the way and be good and whatever. The next or
youngest she's just kind of a different path and plays
a different role, not that they're assigned necessarily, but that
it just is natural. It's a natural birth order of relationship.
And I just hear it all the time that there's
these sort of classic relationships. And I have an older
(08:01):
sister as well, and so like for the Sydney and
Jane relationship, it was easy to imagine being the younger
sister because I am the younger sister and I always
looked up to my older sister. And I don't think
I ever did anything psycho, but you.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Could use that.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
We definitely is easy to draw from really real emotions
about feeling not as smart or not as good or
not as you know anything, and wanting to be like
your older sister either.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Have you ever had to deal with, like really having
a er where you've had to take time off or
really deal with difficult subjects with each other.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
I think it's hard not to.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
And what I was thinking is, you guys are talking,
is is you live your life in reference to this person? Right?
Like my son is an only child, so he's kind
of like he's he's forging his own path. But we
were in reference, and I was thinking about my parents
telling me that one of the teachers in kindergarten, my
sister is a beautiful visual artist, extraordinary. So's my dad
saying that in kindergarten, I wouldn't draw because I couldn't
(09:00):
draw as well as my sister. It's probably why I'm
an actor, right Like I'm an actor and a writer.
And she said I still can't draw, and I think
it's just I just said, well, she's got that, that's hers,
So I could there have been something there. I don't know,
but I ended up like acting from a very young
age because that was mine. She sort of claimed it,
and that happens with siblings, right, they claim this. So
(09:21):
you look over here.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
And it's fascinating.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Yeah, yeah, she's older.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
She's older too and half, so she got it first,
like she Yeah, And I may not, honestly, I may
not have that talent, right but I don't. I will
never know because I'm so early lane And of course
I couldn't do it as well as her, she was
two and a half years older. But also maybe I
don't have that gift. She's gifted, as is her daughter,
and as was my dad.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
You know, my sister and I when I was in
seventh grade, so she was a couple of years younger.
We both auditioned for a play, my first play at
the school, and I got a part.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
I was cast as a part.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
It was HMS Pinafore again another it was a musical
that I shouldn't have done.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
I got because I was a good young actress.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
And my sister was up.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
For the lead, another lead in it, but they had
to draw straws and the other blonde girl got it,
and so Jennifer didn't, and she got the rule of
Dick dead Eye.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
My boss name is Jennifer too, is your name Jennifer.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Sister's name is Lisa.
Speaker 6 (10:30):
So I've always.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Wondered, like, oh, that poor thing, that poor my poor sister,
Like she drew the wrong straw.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Did that change her destiny by the trajectory?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
But you know, the thing is like, even if you
have a talent, let's say my sister had a talent,
she doesn't have the obsession or tenacity because as we
all know, she came out and she took acting classes
and I gave her jobs and she after a couple
of years, was like, I don't like sitting around waiting,
So it takes more than the talent.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Like your sister does something with her drawing?
Speaker 6 (10:59):
Does she do something with her drawing?
Speaker 5 (11:00):
She's still an extraordinary artist.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Yeah, it's not her business though.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
No, it's interesting.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
I like that I can remember both of your sister's
names now from now on, I won't forget Yours is Lisa, Lisa.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
My sister told me once that artists people have a
visual talent for visual arts shadows, and I asked my
niece about it too, like I see things kind of
in two dimensions. If I draw flower, it's a two
dimensional flower. I'm not doing shadows. And she was trying
to explain it to me, and I was like, I
don't see what you see or doesn't translate in my
brain the same way now writing does, right, Like I
(11:35):
write scenes, so it's all tied up together. I don't know,
but I don't think of drawing it. I think of
writing it, right, Yeah, right.
Speaker 6 (11:41):
That's interesting.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I do things very I think it's called kinetically or
viscerally emotionally, like this is my language, this is how
I process things. This is how and that's very useful
for acting. My sister doesn't. She's very logical. Well, so
we'll have these conversations and they're a little bit like
we kind of miss kind of miscommunicate a little. I'm
(12:02):
very proud of how my sister and I have had
dealt with some difficult We're very different in some big ways,
and we literally just choose to not talk about things
that we shouldn't that we know will cause friction because
we value our love, We value the connection. Because of
what you said, it's the longest relationship, it's my earliest relationship,
she's my earliest ally where your little little babies trying
(12:25):
to figure out this world together, and I don't want
that to be destroyed by opinions that exist.
Speaker 6 (12:34):
Now, yeah, that's great.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
So I think it's.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Very important for if you can skillfully kind of navigate that.
Speaker 6 (12:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
Yeah, for sisters, I can't wait till you come back
on the show. I'm very sad we have to take
these episodes off, but.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
We have so many fun Sydney soon. Yeah, there's lots.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
There's lots of times coming on soon, guys, which is soaking.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Her entry, such fun coming, so excited.
Speaker 6 (13:00):
All right, So here's our fan question.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Watching a nineteen ninety two episode of The Young and
the Restless, there was a depth styling gel commercial and
the woman.
Speaker 6 (13:10):
Looked like Laura Layton. Does she remember this?
Speaker 1 (13:13):
There's a reason she may have looked like me. It
was me actually in nineteen ninety two, so I have said,
you know, Melrose was my first job. It was like
my first acting job, but this depth commercial was my
first actual job on camera. And I was hired for
this hair gel and I got to the set for
(13:35):
my very first job, my very first commercial, and and
I remember like I showed up and like there was
all this like conversation around me, and everybody's just sort
of looking at me, and they're like kind of like
getting me set up, like maybe go to wardrobe, or
maybe you go to the hair trailer and maybe you
get started whatever.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
But there was this conversation and.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
I realized that they were discussing my hair color and
that it didn't look the color that they were expecting
as it had in my audition. And apparently they had
hired a blonde, a redhead, and a brunette for all
different like parts of this commercial or maybe different versions
of the commercial, and I'd been hired as the redhead,
(14:13):
but showing up on the set that morning, they didn't
think my hair looked red and it had in the commercial.
They'd hired me as the redhead.
Speaker 6 (14:22):
And changed your hair at all.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
I had not changed my hair, And so there's all
this like sort of conversation, you know, behind whatever was
going on, and then they finally just decided to proceed.
And once they put me on the set with the
lights and everything, I was like, oh, looks red. So
it was lightly like a lighting thing or whatever. But
after that commercial, I was like, I didn't lose the job,
(14:45):
you know, like for not being redhead enough, but I
did right after that decide Okay, I actually need to
commit to being a redhead.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I'd never really identified as a redhead.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
And I kind of I just yeah, I just kind
of had like I felt maybe sort of like eh hair,
Like I have a lot of red head in my family,
but my own hair I just felt was kind of
like eh, like kind of a little bit of this,
a little bit of that, and kind of nothing or whatever.
But after that commercial experience where I almost lost a
job for not being red enough, I was like, well
that's it. I'm going to be a redhead. And I
like started, you know, coloring my hair And wait.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
A second, were you as red as you were when
you showed up on Melrose?
Speaker 1 (15:21):
So Melrose was after the depth commercial, So by then
I was like fully redhead person admitted more, I'm going
to make sure like that's you know, clear, Like I
don't want to be like you were something or other
and not really one thing or another.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
It's so perfect with your skin tone. I can't imagine
you with another color.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Well, and kind of neither can I. Like, it's not
like it was definitely in my family, like my sister
had beautiful auburn hair, and my grandfather's nickname honestly was red.
Like you know, he was the guy that, oh, hey
red you know. So it was like yeah, so it wasn't.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Like not a thing.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
I just felt like mine was very meh, you know great.
Speaker 5 (15:58):
Remember deep like the they probably still have it. Remember
how heavy it was.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
I don't know if they still have it.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Used to be so heavy, didn't they like the like
just all the products, the sprays, AquaNet, everything.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
Was so hilly around.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
I think, yeah, that's still around.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
I remember when I really committed when my hairstar when
I was young, it was super blonde and then it
started to get darker. And when I was first working,
I would just use sun in and I would just
put the sun down and then blowed dryer. And that
was my fancy hair coloring technique. I that.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Orange yeah, or like mammone juice, just sitting on the summer, never.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Knew what you were going to get.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Yeah, it's kind of apricot color.
Speaker 6 (16:42):
You know. It reminds me of.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Like Junior high is sun in banda so let and
Baby Johnson's baby oil.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Yes, we'd lie.
Speaker 6 (16:51):
Out all summer and get.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Like, you know, just trying to fry ourselves in oil. Yeah,
so god so dumb.
Speaker 6 (16:58):
All right, we'll do more questions on our next Melrose.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Minute and at some point.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
We don't have time now, but I want to know
if you guys remember when the cast did a Pantine commercial.
Speaker 6 (17:07):
Laurie Real, Yeah, I remember, Lauria. We all did it.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
That was when they could hire the whole cast an
a campaign.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
I remember you and Billy, you and Andrew doing a campaign.
Speaker 6 (17:16):
I don't know if Grant and I did one. I
think we all did it. Did we?
Speaker 1 (17:20):
I didn't do the real because I first season, I
did it Tito's commercial later with the Dorito's I think.
Speaker 6 (17:29):
As a part of Melrose Place, like a cross brand, like.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
A tie in, Yeah, for a super Bowl, I think
a super Bowl like.
Speaker 6 (17:34):
Oh oh that's cool. I don't know, it's yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Remember that was kind of the I think the beginning
of like product placement.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, well, they give the show the product and they
put it in the actor's hand to promote it.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Yeah, we'll keep sending in the questions.
Speaker 6 (17:47):
We'll do more than one next time. How's that?
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Well, we're really super in there, and yeah, we'll have
time for more next week time.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Well, on that note, we I think we were pretty
good at maybe keeping this to a Melrose Minute instead
of the Melrose half hour today, which I think.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
I think that's will more than a minute.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Look at us trying to follow the rule rule, but
you know we'll figure it out. But as always, thanks
for tuning in to Still the Place. Don't forget to
subscribe so you don't ever miss a Melrose Minute. We
love you all and we'll see you next time.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
Bye everyone, Bye bye bye
Still the Place with Laura Layton, Courtney Thorne Smith.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
And daphnews Aniga and iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Hey everyone, welcome to the Melrose Minute.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
You know, there's always too much to talk about, Like
while we're doing a recab, it just feels like there's
all the stuff that we needed to put into a
Melrose Minute. So we've let's be honest, we could talk
all day every basis.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
So I mean an hour is a not pretty soon
it's gonna be.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
A Melrose half hour, especially because our.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Husbands don't want to hear us at home.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
So we have to come here and get it all out.
Speaker 5 (00:34):
So my dogs are getting so annoyed, they're like, already
talk to the.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
Girls, to the girl. So here we are. Put it
on the pod.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
We were just talking about before we got on about Sydney.
We just watched her second and last episode for this season,
but how her outfits were getting crazy and you had
some thoughts about what you were wearing.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
No, it's just like it occurred to me like the
character was so open to whatever, and the wardrobe department
was so amazing that they would put whatever on her,
and I just got this opportunity to try. But I
just remember feeling like while I was I've mentioned this before.
I was a brand new actress, right, I'm a midwestern
I'm a girl from Iowa.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Right, not the.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Most like edgy, you know place, And I just remembered,
like the idea that Sydney could wear all these colorful
things and try them on and whatever was just so
different than my own experience.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Was it crazy for you? Was it exciting?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
And I loved it?
Speaker 4 (01:27):
I loved it.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
I loved it.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
And there was a moment in my own like youth
and childhood where I was interested in like trying on
you know, eighties fashion.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I mean, who wouldn't write.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Day glow or like, like I was a junior high
and like I remember remember the movie Flash Dance, right,
and so I was And I was a dancer too,
So like I was so interested, Oh, I'll wear leg
warmers to school or whatever, like you know as part
of my outfit leg warmers, which I got mercilessly mocked for, right,
and so like not really a risk taking place fashion
(01:59):
wise Iowa. So it was such an interesting thing to
be given this character that could do anything and should
be you know.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Trying anything and whatever.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
But I just remember feeling also the actual voice inside
my head going, oh, what are people back home going
to think?
Speaker 6 (02:14):
Did you get reaction?
Speaker 4 (02:15):
I did get?
Speaker 6 (02:16):
I mean, in fact, do you remember there?
Speaker 4 (02:18):
I did.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
It's sort of hard to remember, but I just remember
feeling super insecure about it, like what is everyone going
to think? Not only that the scene that I had
to be in bed with my sister's husband, even though
it was a dream, was a nightmare sequence or whatever,
but like to have to have done that, I was
so insecure, like what are people going to think? And
I'm going to be judged for this? It was like
such a weird thing that I just watching it again,
(02:39):
I was reminded of that feeling just starting out in
my career, going what are people going so funny?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
My background is the absolute opposite of yours. I grew
up in the sixties in Berkeley, California, where there were
like free boxes on every corner for free clothes whatever
whoever wanted anything, and we shopped at thrift stores and
we had our dress up box at home.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
My sister and I didn't have a TV, but we
would go home and put.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
On things feather boas or whatever just to play after school.
So when I was doing this show with Denise. I
got so excited because because it like went with that,
you know what I mean. It wasn't crazy, she wasn't
crazy out of the top, but in Joe's own way,
we'd try things that kind of push the edge. And
I just loved going to work because it felt like
I was being paid to try stuff out of the
(03:24):
dress up.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Box, you know what I mean. Yeah, I just loved her.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
She had really cool, kind of ethnic, kind of esoteric stuff, really.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Chic, upscale, cool stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
I thought Allison was more conservative because she was a
Midwest girl, so I didn't have that sort of super
playing dress up. But that's a really fun thing about
being an actor, which is getting to play different characters.
I did a TV movie once where I played a
murdering dairy princess, and that was super fun because that
was like costumes, and I had work costume murdering. Yeah,
(03:54):
she was like a dairy princess, and that was super fun.
But I've often played to quote normal people, so my
clothes weren't that exciting.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
So it's fun to.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
Get play super fun dress up, like you were playing
super dress up and wearing these extreme things and getting
to it was also it was the time on the
show you could tell that they were experimenting with you.
They were letting it get fun and funny and a
little more unexpected. Like every time we walked into a scene,
I was like, Oh, this is going to be fun.
I had that feeling about it. And part of it
(04:26):
was the costume. Like you'd walk in, I was like, Oh,
what's going to happen here?
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Yeah, it didn't seem at all like you were.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
You seemed very open to wearing whatever they wanted to
try you in.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
I loved it, but they just couldn't shake that little
voice in my head that was like.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
What are they going to think?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Didn't you think?
Speaker 5 (04:40):
Like we came of age in a time when most
people had no nudity in their contracts, right, Like, I
don't know about you, but since I turned fifty, people
say nudity required. I'm like, did you think I waited
till I was fifty to do nud Like what do
you think it's writing? But it used to be on
TV you were pretty well covered. Now it's so different.
But I always from the time I was seventeen, I
started professionally thought about my kid is going to see
(05:01):
this one day, right, I always had that thought. I
didn't want anything out there that would embarrass my kid.
I'm so grateful now that I have a seventeen year
old and he did that, like there are things that
would be embarrassing me, kind of an eye rolling thing,
like nothing that would be horrifying for him to watch. Right,
friends would try to show him.
Speaker 6 (05:17):
Yeah, I knew.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
I knew I'd never have.
Speaker 6 (05:20):
Kids, so I didn't.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Have that proble. You had to do whatever you wanted
to very compromising positions.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
I suppose it's free. It was like, but you have siblings, right.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Yeah, I have a sister. We're very close.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
We're only seventeen months apart. I have a half brother
who's twenty years younger than I am, so that's different.
We didn't grow up together. But you know, watching your
story with and us talking about the Jane and Sydney
of it all has brought up, you know, my own
thoughts with this sister.
Speaker 6 (05:53):
Now.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Of course, you don't really compare your real life to
Melrose situations. That would be I hope, although.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
You're still it was fast when you said what you
told us last episode, that your sister was actually.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Showed up and which is c started living with me, Yes,
and then ended up on Norral's plays as an extra.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
I love that and two other jobs I remembered too,
I got her.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
But at any rate that aside confusing, Yeah, No, I
just wanted to talk about like that kind of dynamic
and your relationship with siblings.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Why are they tough? Why are they so tough? Why
what would cause and.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Get to the point of not talking you know, or
I mean it has to do a set. I look
at you, and I think automatically, Courtney.
Speaker 6 (06:37):
I look at you and I think of boundaries.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Set boundaries.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
I'm sure that's part of your answer, and it should be,
But I don't know what do you think about?
Speaker 1 (06:46):
You know, like siblings are the longest relationship you have
in your life, right.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Yeah, we don't get to choose them, right, that's.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Interesting, But they really are the longest relationship you have
because you know your parents won't always be there, as
you know, and but your siblings are more aligned with
you know, how you'd move through the world and age
and stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
The kind of the roles you were given as a child,
you know, like one was given maybe like I was
the older one. I was I totally assumed I had
to protect my younger sister that you know, and she,
I'm sure felt in my shadow and resisted. I never
wanted her to copy me or follow me or go
get your own friends and that kind of thing.
Speaker 6 (07:25):
And I've you know, I.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Don't have that so much now, but it does kind
of rear its head in different ways, you know, even
as adults.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yeah, well you do hear people saying like those things,
those birth order things are really classic.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
You know.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
The oldest child often feels like they had to lead
the way and be good and whatever. The next or
youngest she's just kind of a different path and plays
a different role, not that they're assigned necessarily, but that
it just is natural. It's a natural birth order of relationship.
And I just hear it all the time that there's
these sort of classic relationships. And I have an older
(08:01):
sister as well, and so like for the Sydney and
Jane relationship, it was easy to imagine being the younger
sister because I am the younger sister and I always
looked up to my older sister. And I don't think
I ever did anything psycho, but you.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Could use that.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
We definitely is easy to draw from really real emotions
about feeling not as smart or not as good or
not as you know anything, and wanting to be like
your older sister either.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Have you ever had to deal with, like really having
a er where you've had to take time off or
really deal with difficult subjects with each other.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
I think it's hard not to.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
And what I was thinking is, you guys are talking,
is is you live your life in reference to this person? Right?
Like my son is an only child, so he's kind
of like he's he's forging his own path. But we
were in reference, and I was thinking about my parents
telling me that one of the teachers in kindergarten, my
sister is a beautiful visual artist, extraordinary. So's my dad
saying that in kindergarten, I wouldn't draw because I couldn't
(09:00):
draw as well as my sister. It's probably why I'm
an actor, right Like I'm an actor and a writer.
And she said I still can't draw, and I think
it's just I just said, well, she's got that, that's hers,
So I could there have been something there. I don't know,
but I ended up like acting from a very young
age because that was mine. She sort of claimed it,
and that happens with siblings, right, they claim this. So
(09:21):
you look over here.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
And it's fascinating.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Yeah, yeah, she's older.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
She's older too and half, so she got it first,
like she Yeah, And I may not, honestly, I may
not have that talent, right but I don't. I will
never know because I'm so early lane And of course
I couldn't do it as well as her, she was
two and a half years older. But also maybe I
don't have that gift. She's gifted, as is her daughter,
and as was my dad.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
You know, my sister and I when I was in
seventh grade, so she was a couple of years younger.
We both auditioned for a play, my first play at
the school, and I got a part.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
I was cast as a part.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
It was HMS Pinafore again another it was a musical
that I shouldn't have done.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
I got because I was a good young actress.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
And my sister was up.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
For the lead, another lead in it, but they had
to draw straws and the other blonde girl got it,
and so Jennifer didn't, and she got the rule of
Dick dead Eye.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
My boss name is Jennifer too, is your name Jennifer.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Sister's name is Lisa.
Speaker 6 (10:30):
So I've always.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Wondered, like, oh, that poor thing, that poor my poor sister,
Like she drew the wrong straw.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Did that change her destiny by the trajectory?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
But you know, the thing is like, even if you
have a talent, let's say my sister had a talent,
she doesn't have the obsession or tenacity because as we
all know, she came out and she took acting classes
and I gave her jobs and she after a couple
of years, was like, I don't like sitting around waiting,
So it takes more than the talent.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Like your sister does something with her drawing?
Speaker 6 (10:59):
Does she do something with her drawing?
Speaker 5 (11:00):
She's still an extraordinary artist.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Yeah, it's not her business though.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
No, it's interesting.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
I like that I can remember both of your sister's
names now from now on, I won't forget Yours is Lisa, Lisa.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
My sister told me once that artists people have a
visual talent for visual arts shadows, and I asked my
niece about it too, like I see things kind of
in two dimensions. If I draw flower, it's a two
dimensional flower. I'm not doing shadows. And she was trying
to explain it to me, and I was like, I
don't see what you see or doesn't translate in my
brain the same way now writing does, right, Like I
(11:35):
write scenes, so it's all tied up together. I don't know,
but I don't think of drawing it. I think of
writing it, right, Yeah, right.
Speaker 6 (11:41):
That's interesting.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I do things very I think it's called kinetically or
viscerally emotionally, like this is my language, this is how
I process things. This is how and that's very useful
for acting. My sister doesn't. She's very logical. Well, so
we'll have these conversations and they're a little bit like
we kind of miss kind of miscommunicate a little. I'm
(12:02):
very proud of how my sister and I have had
dealt with some difficult We're very different in some big ways,
and we literally just choose to not talk about things
that we shouldn't that we know will cause friction because
we value our love, We value the connection. Because of
what you said, it's the longest relationship, it's my earliest relationship,
she's my earliest ally where your little little babies trying
(12:25):
to figure out this world together, and I don't want
that to be destroyed by opinions that exist.
Speaker 6 (12:34):
Now, yeah, that's great.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
So I think it's.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Very important for if you can skillfully kind of navigate that.
Speaker 6 (12:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
Yeah, for sisters, I can't wait till you come back
on the show. I'm very sad we have to take
these episodes off, but.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
We have so many fun Sydney soon. Yeah, there's lots.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
There's lots of times coming on soon, guys, which is soaking.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Her entry, such fun coming, so excited.
Speaker 6 (13:00):
All right, So here's our fan question.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Watching a nineteen ninety two episode of The Young and
the Restless, there was a depth styling gel commercial and
the woman.
Speaker 6 (13:10):
Looked like Laura Layton. Does she remember this?
Speaker 1 (13:13):
There's a reason she may have looked like me. It
was me actually in nineteen ninety two, so I have said,
you know, Melrose was my first job. It was like
my first acting job, but this depth commercial was my
first actual job on camera. And I was hired for
this hair gel and I got to the set for
(13:35):
my very first job, my very first commercial, and and
I remember like I showed up and like there was
all this like conversation around me, and everybody's just sort
of looking at me, and they're like kind of like
getting me set up, like maybe go to wardrobe, or
maybe you go to the hair trailer and maybe you
get started whatever.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
But there was this conversation and.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
I realized that they were discussing my hair color and
that it didn't look the color that they were expecting
as it had in my audition. And apparently they had
hired a blonde, a redhead, and a brunette for all
different like parts of this commercial or maybe different versions
of the commercial, and I'd been hired as the redhead,
(14:13):
but showing up on the set that morning, they didn't
think my hair looked red and it had in the commercial.
They'd hired me as the redhead.
Speaker 6 (14:22):
And changed your hair at all.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
I had not changed my hair, And so there's all
this like sort of conversation, you know, behind whatever was
going on, and then they finally just decided to proceed.
And once they put me on the set with the
lights and everything, I was like, oh, looks red. So
it was lightly like a lighting thing or whatever. But
after that commercial, I was like, I didn't lose the job,
(14:45):
you know, like for not being redhead enough, but I
did right after that decide Okay, I actually need to
commit to being a redhead.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I'd never really identified as a redhead.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
And I kind of I just yeah, I just kind
of had like I felt maybe sort of like eh hair,
Like I have a lot of red head in my family,
but my own hair I just felt was kind of
like eh, like kind of a little bit of this,
a little bit of that, and kind of nothing or whatever.
But after that commercial experience where I almost lost a
job for not being red enough, I was like, well
that's it. I'm going to be a redhead. And I
like started, you know, coloring my hair And wait.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
A second, were you as red as you were when
you showed up on Melrose?
Speaker 1 (15:21):
So Melrose was after the depth commercial, So by then
I was like fully redhead person admitted more, I'm going
to make sure like that's you know, clear, Like I
don't want to be like you were something or other
and not really one thing or another.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
It's so perfect with your skin tone. I can't imagine
you with another color.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Well, and kind of neither can I. Like, it's not
like it was definitely in my family, like my sister
had beautiful auburn hair, and my grandfather's nickname honestly was red.
Like you know, he was the guy that, oh, hey
red you know. So it was like yeah, so it wasn't.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Like not a thing.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
I just felt like mine was very meh, you know great.
Speaker 5 (15:58):
Remember deep like the they probably still have it. Remember
how heavy it was.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
I don't know if they still have it.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Used to be so heavy, didn't they like the like
just all the products, the sprays, AquaNet, everything.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
Was so hilly around.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
I think, yeah, that's still around.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
I remember when I really committed when my hairstar when
I was young, it was super blonde and then it
started to get darker. And when I was first working,
I would just use sun in and I would just
put the sun down and then blowed dryer. And that
was my fancy hair coloring technique. I that.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Orange yeah, or like mammone juice, just sitting on the summer, never.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Knew what you were going to get.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Yeah, it's kind of apricot color.
Speaker 6 (16:42):
You know. It reminds me of.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Like Junior high is sun in banda so let and
Baby Johnson's baby oil.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Yes, we'd lie.
Speaker 6 (16:51):
Out all summer and get.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Like, you know, just trying to fry ourselves in oil. Yeah,
so god so dumb.
Speaker 6 (16:58):
All right, we'll do more questions on our next Melrose.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Minute and at some point.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
We don't have time now, but I want to know
if you guys remember when the cast did a Pantine commercial.
Speaker 6 (17:07):
Laurie Real, Yeah, I remember, Lauria. We all did it.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
That was when they could hire the whole cast an
a campaign.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
I remember you and Billy, you and Andrew doing a campaign.
Speaker 6 (17:16):
I don't know if Grant and I did one. I
think we all did it. Did we?
Speaker 1 (17:20):
I didn't do the real because I first season, I
did it Tito's commercial later with the Dorito's I think.
Speaker 6 (17:29):
As a part of Melrose Place, like a cross brand, like.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
A tie in, Yeah, for a super Bowl, I think
a super Bowl like.
Speaker 6 (17:34):
Oh oh that's cool. I don't know, it's yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Remember that was kind of the I think the beginning
of like product placement.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, well, they give the show the product and they
put it in the actor's hand to promote it.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Yeah, we'll keep sending in the questions.
Speaker 6 (17:47):
We'll do more than one next time. How's that?
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Well, we're really super in there, and yeah, we'll have
time for more next week time.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Well, on that note, we I think we were pretty
good at maybe keeping this to a Melrose Minute instead
of the Melrose half hour today, which I think.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
I think that's will more than a minute.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Look at us trying to follow the rule rule, but
you know we'll figure it out. But as always, thanks
for tuning in to Still the Place. Don't forget to
subscribe so you don't ever miss a Melrose Minute. We
love you all and we'll see you next time.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
Bye everyone, Bye bye bye
Hosts And Creators
Laura Leighton
Daphne Zuniga
Courtney Thorne-Smith
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