Melody Thomas Scott - Always Young and Restless: My Life On and Off Americas #1 Daytime Drama

Copyright 2020 by Melody Thomas Scott

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

Some names have been changed to protect the privacy of certain individuals.

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Diversion Books

A division of Diversion Publishing Corp.

443 Park Avenue South, suite 1004

New York, NY 10016

www.diversionbooks.com

First Diversion Books edition, August 2020

Hardcover ISBN: 9781635766943

eBook ISBN: 9781635766899

Printed in The United States of America

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Library of Congress cataloging-in-publication data is available on file.

To Edward, Jennifer, Alex and Elizabeth

With all the love my heart holds

XO

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

In this vividly engaging memoir, Melody Thomas Scott describes her adventures and triumphs as a child actor, as well as her horrifying experience of routine sexual abuse in ruthlessly careerist Hollywood. Fans of The Young and the Restless , where she has played Nikki Reed Newman for more than forty years, will find this turbulent backstory disturbing and fascinating.

For me, Nikkis struggles symbolize perseverance and resilience, writes Melody. This tenacity is on striking display in Melodys account of her guerrilla warfare with her harshly dictatorial grandmother amid a chaotic home environment of unspeakable squalor. In these harrowing scenes of defiant resistance, we instantly recognize the early origin of Nikki Newmans valiant and indomitable spirit. Melody, with her Swedish immigrant ancestry, gave Nikki her own Viking hardiness and stoicism.

Daytime drama, which has alarmingly lost ground to talk shows and reality TV, descends from the great womens pictures of studio-era Hollywood, whose extravagant flights of heightened emotion paralleled those of Japanese kabuki and Italian grand opera. This baroque style has received new respect through the revival on Turner Classic Movies of director Douglas Sirks 1950s films, such as Magnificent Obsession and Imitation of Life. TCM has also highlighted Elizabeth Taylors films from the same period, leading to long overdue tributes to her stunning power.

The classic soap opera style of deep emotion and dynamic theatricality is still flourishing in hit telenovelas throughout Central and South America. But on current US television, only four major soaps remain. Acting has also changed, with newer soap actors sometimes applying a cerebral methodology descending from the Group Theatres progressive social realism of the 1930s. But ironically, despite their overt commercial framing, it is soaps that are more genuinely populist, as resoundingly demonstrated by their international mass appeal.

Melody Thomas Scott may be the last great practitioner of the soap genreunless and until a new generation of young actors picks up the torch. Melody accepts and celebrates the unique protocols of her artistic process: as she frankly admits, soaps exaggerate: Our medium is often not based in reality. Soaps exist in their own universe of tangled relationships, simmering passions, and bruising conflicts. There are no final resolutions: the lead characters marry a dozen times, and even the dead can return from the grave!

In the glory days of Hollywood, the superstars did not disappear into their roles. On screen, they maintained a subtle channel of communication between their real selves and the audience, for whom they acted as proxies and surrogates in film after film. When Melody writes of craving a life in front of the camera, she is defining the magic territory she inherited from her primary precursors, Elizabeth Taylor and Lana Turner, whose emotional purity, clarity, and simplicity were gifts that cannot be taught. As a bonus, Melody is also a deft comedienne, a master of priceless double takes.

With Eric Braedens broodingly magnetic Victor Newman, Melody belongs to one of the most glamorous and charismatic super
couples in television history. Yet on camera, with her luminous, watchful gaze, she retains a heroic solitude, a legacy of her painful past. This book movingly chronicles a dual metamorphosis: the transformation of both a hard-working actor and her impish TV persona into the gracious, genial grande dame of today.

Camille Paglia

IM NOT ACTUALLY
STARTING AT THE BEGINNING

W ell begin with my fortieth anniversary party. (Because who doesnt love a good party?) Id spent forty years playing Nikki Newman and a grand celebration was being planned. I should probably mention that no one on the show had ever officially celebrated forty years before I did. Doug Davidson, who plays Paul Williams, has been around for longer than I have; but, choosing to celebrate the milestone privately, his anniversary passed quietly.

Not mine. Ill always jump at a chance to celebrate something special. Spending forty years as a part of CBSs The Young and the Restless was indeed very special. And so I wanted this to be quite an eventwhich is exactly what it turned out to be.

I have heard, in roundabout ways, that some people who dont know me very well will come to one of my parties (I do like to throw them) and expect to see a scene out of the Lifestyles of The Rich and Famous . A glamorous event with only the upper echelonactors, celebrities, that sortin attendance. Perhaps they might find glamour, but theyll also find something quite normal. Regular people, my personal, non-show biz friends. Which makes me smile. Because normal is something Ive been searching for my whole life.

The anniversary party was attended by so many of the people I love and adore. Sure, the actors and celebrities were there, too. But there were also former crew and cast members, make-up artists, hair stylists, old friends, people I hadnt seen in years. Each and every person in attendance had a connection both to The Young and the Restless and to me.

Like Diane Davis. You might not know who she is, but Diane was my longtime agent who sent me on the audition for Nikki back in 1979. And Bob Olive. Bob was my very first personal publicist, back before I even knew what a publicist did. Without him, it wouldve been a very different storyyou probably wouldnt be holding this book right now and I certainly wouldnt be celebrating, at last, finding my normal.

Now dont think for a second that normal means boring. I believe in his speech that day, my beloved co-star Eric Braeden called me obstreperous. (Confession: I had to look it up in the dictionary. It means noisy and difficult to control. But I would have to respectfully disagree on both counts!) I think what my dear, cherished friend Eric was trying to call me, at least I hope, is unpredictable. Guilty as charged... I am, after all, the girl who stabbed Clint Eastwood with a needlebut Ill get more into that later.