The Wedding Belle: Molly Burnett on the Loves of Melanie
Melanie has gone through a lot lately. Her tumultuous relationship with Nathan and her continued attraction to him. Her even more tumultuous relationship with Philip, whom she really does love, has led to an engagement and an upcoming wedding ceremony. Whether or not she makes it to the altar remains to be seen. "Melanie loves Philip," Molly told us, "but it’s probably a little fast. Part of it might be because Melanie is so mature. She has such an old soul that she probably thinks that getting married is the next thing to do, even though in reality she should probably just chill out and live her life a little bit." Of course, Molly continued, "she’ll go back to Philip until the day she dies, probably, if it weren’t to work out. There’s just something that doesn’t quite fit."
What, we wondered, is that thing that "doesn’t quite fit"? Part of it, as she said, comes from the fact that he did choose Stephanie. After all, what girl wants to see the man she is desperately in love with go for another girl? "There’s just that part of her that was really hurt by him," Molly told us. "I don’t know how to totally explain it. When Philip absolutely would not have anything to do with her, she found Nathan. She fell for Nathan. And Nathan wanted her to be something that she couldn’t quite be. Kind of like Stephanie wanted Philip to be something that he couldn’t quite be? So he went with Melanie and they love each other for who they are but there’s just something that’s just not quite right. Unfortunately." Which is, as she explained, why "the wedding can’t just be a done deal." Will Melanie make it to the altar, or is Molly more worried about what might happen when (and if) the ceremony takes place?
One person who can hardly wait for the wedding â€" even more than either the bride or groom â€" is Vivian, who has made big plans around the ceremony, and has been another sort of thorn in Melanie’s side of late. "Melanie is torn because she likes Vivian but she doesn’t really trust her," Molly said, "so she tries to find the middle ground between how far she can trust Vivian and how much of her is just kind of loony! Is that just who she is or is there an ulterior motive?" Smart girl, that Melanie, to have figured out that, yes, in fact, Vivian does have an ulterior motive. After all, when does Vivian not have an ulterior motive?
"The cool thing," Molly continued, "is Louise played it â€" Louise is so talented and so amazing â€" in such a fun way that you can see it hurting her to hurt Melanie. Because Vivian and Melanie do get along and we have some really sweet moments and you get to see that. That comes across on the screen. So that makes all the things she has to do to get back at Carly even more heartbreaking."
Speaking of Carly … How is Melanie feeling about her? "Melanie is still on her toes about Carly," Molly told us, "but she gets a motherly vibe from her and that’s one of the big reasons she hasn’t let herself like her. Because Melanie has grown up without a mother, assuming that she does not need one, even though she does just as everyone needs a mom. I think she finally lets that feeling that she has go."
That sounds like things could get ugly when â€" as is bound to happen - Melanie learns the truth. "Oh, my God, yeah!" Molly exclaimed. "Not only did she have this weird feeling about this woman, but you have to remember, Melanie’s childhood and all the things that happened. Melanie isn’t going to understand for a long time why Carly did what she did. That it was to save her. Because she’s young and because she’s immature and because she’s impulsive and a bit of a drama queen she’s just going to remember ‘this is what I had to grow up with because of you.’ Crystal’s done a phenomenal job. These are going to be some seriously cool scenes."
We have those scenes to look forward to, when Melanie learns the truth about Carly. But what about the earlier scenes in which Melanie was already treating her mother so poorly? Melanie told us how Executive Producer Gary Tomlin revealed the truth to her. "I remember there was one scene where I was with Carly and I’m yelling at her," Molly told us. "And I said ‘I’m sorry, but why am I being so mean to her?’ And he comes up to me and he whispers in my ear, ‘you’re mean to her because she’s your mom.’ And I’m like, what?! So he’s really good at being secretive. Because had I known she was my mom filming some of the scenes beforehand, it might have shown. I might have anticipated the plot or whatever. He’s just so particular in when he tells you the information and how he tells you the information and makes sure not to tell you too much information so that it hurts your choices as an actor. He’s just phenomenal."
We all know who Melanie’s mother is, but what about her father? Molly teased us with a little â€" a very little â€" information. "It’s kind of unexpected," Molly teased. "The father has done a phenomenal job. And it’s super-unexpected and what’s cool is that the writers have done such a good job of making it come out of nowhere and be really kind of interesting to watch. You genuinely want to see what happens. I know that because as an actor, every time I would have a script downstairs I would be so excited to read it because I wanted to know what was going to happen!"
We can’t wait to see what happens, either, as this story continues with its unexpected twists and turns. 
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