Laura Leighton talks to The Advocate about playing bad girl Syndey on “Melrose Place” then and now

A second Melrose Place item today? No, I’m not on the payroll of CW!

Super Melrose fan Brandon Voss talked to actress Laura Leighton for Advocate.com in an article with a great title: The Bitch is Back!

Laura, married in real-life to Melrose alum Doug Savant (he played gay character Matt)  talked about reprising her role of bad girl Sydney on the new show. Sydney was thought to have been dead on the old show but, it appears, she was not.

Here are some highlughts:

Until the day she was struck down by a car on her wedding day, Sydney never could catch a break. Did she not deserve happiness?
I think she deserved it, but she was constantly sabotaging it. Just when things were looking up for her, she managed to mess it all up. For the most part, she was always driven by her desire to be like her sister, Jane, which was never going to be. She idolized Jane and wanted everything she had, but she couldn’t figure out a way to get it that wouldn’t screw her up.

Were you aware of your gay following back in the day?
Yeah, and I’m so flattered by it. I had a terrific character that was so fun to watch and talk about, so I was thrilled to have a following — gay, straight, anybody who appreciated the character. I remember back in ’90s people saying they were going to parties dressed as Sydney. It was awesome.

Your husband Doug’s character, Matt Fielding, technically died during the original series as well, but we never saw his corpse either. Though he currently stars on Desperate Housewives, would Doug do a Melrose cameo if Marc Cherry and ABC allowed it?
Doug’s a great sport and always up for anything, but when I introduced Doug to our producers at our premiere party, they said, “Well, we don’t think we can have more than one character return from the dead.” Doug kind of went, “Oh, OK. So I guess I won’t be coming back.”

Doug’s portrayal of Matt, a gay social worker, gave a lot of positive mainstream exposure to gay people, but his love life was painfully neutered. I still remember the camera panning away from Matt about to kiss someone in the courtyard.
Yeah, it was ridiculous and annoying, and “neutered” is a great way to put it. I remember Doug being really frustrated by it and saying, “Why are we even doing this if we can’t really tell this story?” But things have come a long way since then, and I know Doug feels quite proud that he was a part of that.