We caught up with and had a chat with actress and soap veteran, Tracy Melchior, about her role in BET’s new series Games People Play and her “throwing her hat” in the ring as a possible Nina Reeves (General Hospital) recast.
Tracy is a soap pro and has been around the soap block more than a couple of times. She played Veronica Landers (The Young and the Restless) in the late 90’s. Her first leading role in a soap was as Tess Marin in Sunset Beach, Aaron Spelling’s daytime soap opera. Sunset Beach was canceled right around the time Tracy became pregnant with her son. When her son was born, she got an audition and landed the role of Kristen Forrester (The Bold and the Beautiful). She was put on recurring at Bold which made Tracy free to be cast as Kelly Cramer (One Life to Live) when the role became available. “I was cast (as Kelly) through Mark Teschner and Frank Valentini who was the executive producer. I was commuting back and forth from LA to New York. Frank was so sweet and caring. He said one of the kindest things I’ve ever heard someone say when they are letting someone go. ‘I can tell the way your husband looks at you and your little kid when they come to visit you here. You guys should be together. I feel bad that you are commuting and I know eventually it’s going to wear on you. We have someone who can fill your shoes. I feel like I better take it now before you are like I can’t do this anymore.’ Frank was so nice.” The Bold and the Beautiful was gracious enough, even though I left, for One Life to Live to let me come back. I have been recurring there back and forth since then.
Tracy still loves soaps and is more than ready to return full time to daytime. So, she was also more than ready to “throw in her hat” in the Nina recast ring.”I was speaking to Kelly Larson from Soaps in Depth. We were just chatting. I have known her for a long time from all my years in soaps. She mentioned, ‘You would be perfect for Nina. Has anyone reached out to you?’ I responded, ‘No actually.’ Once she planted that seed in my mind, I started thinking. I would love to dig into the character and into some in depth storylines. Kristen Forrester is a fashion designer that aligns with Nina’s character. It’s not that big of a stretch, right? I reached out to Mark Teschner and told him, ‘This role just came to my attention that I might be a good fit for and I wanted to throw my hat in the ring. So, this is me throwing my hat in the ring.’ I asked him to keep me in mind. He said ‘you got it.’”
As we have previously reported, Tracy is also starring in the new BET nighttime drama, Games People Play, premiering Tuesday, April 23, 2019 9/8 c. “We just finished shooting last week. The show also stars Lauren London, Karen Obilom and Parker McKenna Posey. It’s a sexy, fun, nighttime soap opera. I’m used to playing a heroine type character. But in this show, I got to play the Hollywood Madam, Roxanne. My character is different than what I’m used to playing. I was in a cat fight and a suspect in a murder. One of the characters is married to Marcus King who is like the Lebron James of the show. And one of my girls is having an affair with him. It’s very close to the LA lifestyle. It’s kind of like the lies and the life in LA. It is so good and so much fun.”
It sounds like it. We will most definitely watch!
Thanks, Tracy. Good luck with Games People Play and with returning to daytime. We are rooting for you!
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