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| Local spotlight: Soap opera gamble pays off for E.V. woman | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| By Kristi Eaton, Special to Get Out | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| January 31, 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Melvin, who plays Chelsea Benson on the long-running NBC soap opera “Days of Our Lives,” was 18 when she won $600 gambling at a local casino three years ago. It was days before the state’s gambling age limit was raised to 21, and the 2003 Mountain Pointe High School graduate knew the win was a sign she should follow her dreams. She decided to forgo her full scholarship to Arizona State University — where she was to study interior design — and move to Los Angeles to begin auditioning for acting roles. “I kind of look five or six years younger (than she really is), which is good for Hollywood,” Melvin says. Once in Los Angeles, she moved in with a cousin she had never met, began taking acting classes and auditioning for various roles. The gamble to move to Los Angeles paid off and within six months she booked a role in the horror film “Boo.” If at first... Melvin first auditioned for the role of Chelsea Benson on “Days of Our Lives” in 2004, but lost out to another actress who was better able to portray Chelsea’s devilish side, she says. “I was pretty green at that point,” she says. “I was used to playing sweet, innocent roles.” A year later, however, the original actress left the show and Melvin auditioned again. She says she waited several days and didn’t hear back from the show. She thought she had lost the role once again. “But right when you give up, you get the call,” she says. Since May 2005, Melvin has led a hectic pace playing one of the most troubled characters on the soap opera. The character of Chelsea drugged her best friend’s family friend in an effort to sleep with him; she’s had numerous driving infractions and killed her younger brother in a hit-and-run accident. Mental exercise On average, Melvin works four to six hours a day, filming three to four episodes every week. She says she typically memorizes 20 to 30 pages of dialogue every night. But if she has to film multiple episodes in one day, as she sometimes has to do after the show has been on hiatus, she could have 90 pages to memorize. It seems daunting, but Melvin has gotten used to it, she says. “Your mind is a muscle,” she says. “The longer you do it, the easier it is.” When she first started on the show, she says she would hope to get the small lines, but now finds it easier to memorize long monologues. Although her home is now in California, Melvin, whose family still lives in the East Valley, says she still tries to come back to Arizona often. “I miss the scenery,” she says. “I want to drive there for the sunsets.” >> “Days of Our Lives” airs 1 p.m. weekdays on NBC. Contact Kristi Eaton by email, or phone () - |
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