Daphne Zuniga bemoans her ‘Melrose Place’ character falling victim to so many men

Daphne Zuniga thinks differently about her Melrose Place character now that the beloved primetime soap has been off the air for 25 years.

Her kindhearted and empathetic photographer Jo Reynolds was continually put through the ringer across her four seasons on the show, from 1992 to 1996. Reflecting on how often Jo found herself at the hands of an abusive man, Zuniga recently told The Hollywood Reporter that “it was easy to make her a victim of bad relationships.” Perhaps too easy.

“I wish she’d had more independence and career growth,” Zuniga continued. “Toward the end, it all felt repetitive — not just for my character, but for everyone…. That’s what happens when a show runs a long time.”

Zuniga currently cohosts the Melrose Place rewatch podcast Still the Place with her former costars Laura Leighton and Courtney Thorne-Smith. While Leighton got to cycle through a range of narrative arcs as the free-spirited Syndey Andrews, from victim to scheming seductress to blackmailer to innocent ingenue, and Thorne-Smith’s Alison Parker had a rich professional life despite her hardships, Zuniga seemed to get stuck with the most traumatic storylines.

Jo moved into the titular apartment complex in season 1 fresh off a divorce from the dashing businessman Charles Reynolds (Linden Ashby). While other residents seem perplexed that Jo would leave such a catch without even a note, Charles’ drunken and abusive tendencies are revealed in a frightening early episode when he comes seeking reconciliation with Jo.

The following season, Jo rekindles things with old flame Reed Carter (James Wilder), an ex-con who has begun to lapse back into his old ways, despite telling Jo he’s gone straight. Jo becomes the center of one of Melrose Place‘s most terrifying sequences when she discovers drugs on Reed’s boat, causing him to knock her unconscious in a violent rage, sexually assault her after she wakes up, and lock her below deck. Jo is only able to escape after shooting Reed, but her troubles don’t end there.

The child she bears from her relationship with Reed becomes the subject of a kidnapping plot, she eventually enters into another abusive relationship with Jess Hanson (Dan Cortese), and experiences further romantic tribulations with Richard Hart (Patrick Muldoon). Ultimately, Jo finds love and marriage with the one man who never hurt her — Grant Show‘s Jake Hanson — but it took a lot of trouble in just five years to get there.

When asked who she would have liked to swap characters with if she had the chance, Zuniga offered three answers: She first pointed to Heather Locklear‘s Amanda Woodward, because she “had some great zingers,” then Thomas Calabro‘s Michael Mancini, “if he were a woman.” Finally, she picked the only other character on the show who went through as much, if not more, grief than Jo, Marcia Cross‘ Kimberly Shaw.

“She was so bold and unapologetically in your face. That would’ve been a blast to play,” Zuniga said.

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Now with her own platform to discuss the Beverly Hills, 90210 spinoff on her own terms, Zuniga has been publicly coming to terms with the ups and downs of playing Jo Reynolds. In response to a fan question on a January episode about the show’s most “over the top” storylines, Zuniga called out “the thing about Jo’s baby.”

“Jo has a baby, then it’s kidnapped. I mean, I was on David Letterman once,” Zuniga joked. “I couldn’t keep up with where the baby went. It was kidnapped. Then I got him back. Then he was stolen again. Then finally I gave him up in the end. It’s like, that was over the top, you know?”