‘The Bold Type’ Star Melora Hardin Talks Playing Jacqueline Carlyle
On television, Melora Hardin plays the role of Jacqueline Carlyle, the brilliant and powerful editor-in-chief of Scarlet Magazine, and she’s offering an inside peek into her character, according to a report from MEA WorldWide.
The Bold Type follows three best friends, writer Jane Sloan (Katie Stevens), social media director Kat Edison (Aisha Dee), and fashion assistant Sutton Brady (Meghann Fahy), working at Scarlet. As the show continues, the three women each develop their own unique relationships with Jacqueline Carlyle (Hardin) and she becomes a sort of guiding light for them.
To the outside world, Jacqueline appears almost perfect and totally in command, but Season 4 has revealed a few cracks in her personal life.
On the Freeform series, Hardin’s character is married to Ian, played by Hardin’s off-screen husband, Gildart Jackson. In real life, the couple just celebrated their wedding anniversary and couldn’t be better, while on the show, they’ve been struggling to keep their marriage going.
While chatting with MEAWW, the actress said filming this arc was particularly difficult because of the stark differences between the two relationships, but she was determined to highlight the challenges often faced in long-term marriages.
“I was really attracted to playing a character who is amazing at her job, is a really powerful woman in the workplace, and is also in a longterm successful marriage,” she said.
“Television often portrays marriage as either all bliss and perfection or everyone’s falling apart. So I wanted [Ian and Jacqueline] to face some challenges but I wanted them to try to handle those things with grace, intelligence, friendship, and love.”
Hardin was in a unique position to bring this story to life, as she also had the opportunity to step behind the camera in the role of director.
The couple ended up taking some time apart but ultimately decided to give their marriage another shot. The pair started seeing a therapist together, but Ian is unaware that Jacqueline reconnected with a man from her past during their separation.
During this week’s episode, which Hardin directed, Ian noticed the man’s name while reading a magazine and asked Jacqueline about him. She quickly dismissed the question, but it won’t be the last time this name is mentioned, according to a report from TV Insider.
Hardin said viewers will see the couple navigate this new challenge, and try to figure out what it means for their marriage. She said the other man is definitely still on Jacqueline’s mind, but she didn’t offer any details about whether they would be seeing each other again.
This week’s episode also featured a recovering Jane, who finally returned to work after having a double mastectomy and getting breast implants. The healing process has been slow for the writer, and it seems it might continue that way, based on a recently released promotional clip for next week’s episode.
