Melrose Place star Grant Show was virtually unrecognizable as he sat down on the Still Here Hollywood Podcast with Steve Kmetko, almost thirty years after he left the hit TV series. The heartthrob looked suave during the interview, sporting a gray blazer over a black collared shirt, with hints of gray in his swooping brunette hair.
Grant portrayed bad boy Jake Hanson on the Beverly Hills, 90210 spinoff series, alongside stars like Heather Locklear and Andrew Shue. The show ran for seven seasons from 1992 to 1999 and followed a group of young adults living in a West Hollywood apartment complex.
The 63-year-old revealed on the podcast that while he loved being part of Melrose Place, the level of fame it brought him was difficult to deal with.
“I figured it was going to be successful, but I did not think it was going to be what it was or as hugely successful as it was,” he recalled, adding that it was “really fun” for a time.
“There are other things that happen that you don’t see happening. You start to lose your ability to be out in the public,” Grant continued. “There’s a thing that happens with fame that I saw happening not just with myself but with everybody. When it’s that kind of fame, you kind of lose your humanity. The way other people see you, they don’t see you as a human being anymore, they see you as the character you’re playing, and they have a relationship with you that is really one-sided. It’s very dehumanizing. I think that’s where all the bad behavior comes from [with] famous people.”
He added that while he was “a pretty decent human being,” fame had made him behave poorly in the past.
The father of one ultimately left the show after season five due to tensions between himself and the show’s producer, Aaron Spelling, who he felt was stifling his budding acting career.
“Aaron and I had had some run-ins. And there was some stuff about Aaron that I felt like he was kind of trying to keep me down. Maybe I was wrong about that, but that’s what it felt like to me at the time,” he explained.
“There wasn’t really any question that I had to go. You know, if I had been able to go and do other work outside of the show, then it would have been a tough call. But because I felt like I was being stifled, I just had to go.”
Despite leaving the series, Grant recognized the incredible impact that it had on his career going forward.
“Something can’t be that seminal in your life without it being a part of you. I have a great pride for the time that I worked on that show,” he declared. “I would not be who I am had I not spent those five years.”
https://www.hellomagazine.com/film/866223/melrose-place-star-is-unrecognizable-in-rare-appearance/
