Soap Actress Is Restless to Save the Earth
Melody Thomas Scott enjoys two leading lady roles--Nikki Newman on “The Young and the Restless” and national spokeswoman for Save the Earth Foundation.
The actress recently celebrated her 20th year on the soap and has been nominated for a Daytime Emmy, but for more than 10 years she has championed environmental issues, including Save the Earth, which was founded by Neal Pargman, a lifelong friend of her husband’s.
“He started the whole thing,” Scott said of Pargman. “He was the one 30 years ago who was running around telling everybody, ‘Save the Earth. Save the Earth,’ and they looked at him like he was some kind of a nut. He’s been very grateful the last several years that people are now paying attention.”
Question: What made you pay attention to the environment, besides Neal?
Answer: When [my daughter] Elizabeth, who is 10 now, was a baby, I was getting into the whole thing with disposable diapers versus cloth diapers.
[Scott is married to Edward Scott, executive producer of “The Young and the Restless.” The Scott family also includes Melody’s daughter Alexandra, 16, Edward’s daughter Jennifer, 26, and his niece Christina, 15.]
Q: It hit home.
A: Exactly, because I was living it every day. I was proving to myself and to everybody else, “Hey, you know what? Cloth is better. Better for your child, better for your pocketbook, better for the environment.” So that was my introduction into going out there. And then we started doing benefits.
Q: I hear you’re very involved in those benefits.
A: Too involved. That’s probably why we haven’t had one for a while. I’m too much of a perfectionist, and I have to do everything myself.
Q: You have to delegate.
A: I know. I’m almost 43. I don’t think there’s any hope for me. . . . Everybody’s asking me when are we having another benefit. We have all kinds of soap stars who come, and we have a big lunch or dinner, and it’s a lot of fun--and we get a lot of donations just from my fans.
Save the Earth is also starting “Save the Earth” water. It’s out there--just little smatterings right now. “Save the Earth” is on the label--the planet and the rainbow going through it . . . a portion of the sales goes toward the foundation.
Q: How does the foundation gauge where to fund?
A: We have experts all over the country at different universities who are really in the trenches. We consult with them from time to time, and they tell us where to put the money next. All the money that’s donated to Save the Earth goes into environmental research--lots of money to UCLA and all over the place.
Q: Is your husband involved in the environment issue?
A: Oh, sure. He’s very involved. He and Neal sit up all night yackin’ about their next plan, who they need to tackle to try to get some donations, major worldwide support, and, hopefully, big companies with the really big money that can afford to make people pay attention. Because we’re really just mom ‘n’ pop right now. We’re trying to get bigger, and, God, we’ve struggled so hard just to get $10,000 donated. We would like that to be, you know, $10 million.
Q: What other ways have you raised money? Do you give speeches?
A: No, I haven’t. I did a couple of debates way back in the diaper days, but that was a long time ago. A lot of times I do game shows--”Wheel of Fortune,” “Jeopardy,” “Family Feud.” If you’re the celebrity, you get to choose your charity. You don’t get the money yourself. It goes to charity, so, of course, it always goes to Save the Earth.
Q: During the normal course of the day, when you look around, what environmental issue just drives you crazy?
A: This is a minor thing probably in the scope of the world, but because I do have children, I go to a lot of children’s parties and events. When they let those damned helium balloons float out into the sky, they go right into the ocean, the fish eat them and they die. I’m always trying to beg people, “Don’t. Don’t. Don’t. Please let me take them home with me.” You know, grab the scissors, pop ‘em. Don’t let them off in the air to fly into the ocean. But they think that’s a fun thing to do.
Q: Any other personal viewpoint about your philanthropy?
A: Man, I don’t even think of it that way. That word is kind of a bizarre word for me. See, I would do this even if I were not, you know, this actress. I’m just doing what I think is the right thing to do for any human being. If you see something that needs fixing, needs help, you do it.
Q: What frustrates or concerns you about the environmental problems we’ve created?
A: I never used to feel this way because I’m the obnoxious optimist all the time. But lately I have become more concerned about the future, truly the future of the Earth. I guess I naively thought that by this time we would be closer, and it seems that we’re still pretty far away from a lot of solutions, so that frustrates me. It’s like, how much money will be enough money? And when will we get it? I always thought my children and their children and their children were going to be just fine. But I’m concerned about that. I guess I felt that after we got enough research, we would find it wasn’t as bad as we thought. But perhaps that’s not true. I’m not trying to say, “Oh, the world is ending.” I don’t believe that at all. But I guess I just want things to happen a little faster.
Save the Earth: (818) 88-EARTH.