2023-07-29 12:31:00
A half-century. That’s how long the incredible stories of the Newmans, the Abbotts, their friends and their enemies have been on the small screen in The Young and the Restless. Intrigues each crazier than the next taking place in Genoa City, an imaginary city in Wisconsin in the United States.
Guests at the 62nd Monte-Carlo Television Festival last June, Melody Thomas Scott (Nikki Newman), Amelia Heinle (Victoria Newman), Christel Khalil (Lily Winters) and Bryton James (Devon Hamilton), leading actors in the American soap opera, have celebrated these 50 years of existence with great fanfare during an evening dedicated to them at the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort. The opportunity for the actors and for the other guests to taste a cake with the effigy of the Fires of love arrived in spectacular fashion on the soundtrack of the soap opera. A few hours earlier, the stars of the small screen, who have become full members of the family of many viewers, confided in the press. Together, they evoke their memories, their anecdotes and their hopes.
The Fires of Love are celebrating their 50th anniversary. It’s incredible. How do you explain this durability?
Christel Khalil: “As you say, it’s incredible. I am very happy and proud to be part of this great adventure that is the Fires of Love.”
Bryton James: “50 years and still here…I think that means we’re doing a good job. The soap opera has a quality cast. We hope it continues like this.”
Do you remember your first day of filming in the soap opera?
Melody Thomas Scott: “That was 44 years ago! I confess that it takes a while. (laughs) I don’t really remember, but I do remember the test I was given. I was very impressed by all the people who were around me, actors as well as members of the production. They were all adorable. It was a very nice experience.”
Amelia Heinle: “A lot happened on my first day. I met there Melody (Thomas Scott, Ed.) Eric (Braeden, Ed.) and Peter (Bergman, Ed.), emblematic actors of the series. I was very stressed, I admit. Then, one of the people present on the set applauded me saying: “It was very good!”. At that moment I knew I was in the right place.”
Ch.K. : “I was filming with Victoria Rowell, interpreter of Drucilla, my mother in the soap opera. I played a teenager who came back from Paris and who lived adventures of her age.
BJ: “I was 17 when I started shooting in the series. I was a somewhat lost teenager who worked in the recreation center opened by Victor Newman. It was not easy to give the reply to Eric Braeden. He imposed and improvised a lot. You had to know his dialogue and his role inside out to respond well.”
Melody, Amelia, how is it to be part of the Newman family?
AH: “We are known in the city and around the world obviously! Victoria’s father is the most incredible powerful man in the universe. (laughs)”
MTS: “There is a feeling of power. (laughs) We’re lucky and proud to be Newmans. We have a fabulous life where nothing is impossible or too expensive. They care about things that no one would normally care about. These are people viewers can fantasize about. But their wealth is not everything. Rich or poor, anyone can cry for romance.”
In front of the camera, you are mother and daughter. Are you also close in real life?
Together: “Very!”
MTS: “When she texts me, for whatever reason, she calls me ‘Mom’ and I always say, ‘Hello sweetie, how are you?’ We talk like that every day. She’s kind of like my real daughter.”
AH: “We are inseparable, really… I think I see her more than my own mother. She probably knows more about me than she does.”
Christel and Bryton, you embody, on your side, a sister and a brother. Is your relationship as strong off screen?
BJ: “Of course! The proof, Christel’s son is my godson!”
If you had to name a plot that you have enjoyed playing since your debut in the Young and the Restless, which one would it be?
MTS: “It’s very difficult to name just one as we’ve played so many. I would, however, say the very early plot where Nikki was a stripper. It wasn’t my favorite plot because I’m not a good dancer but if she hadn’t been, she probably would never have met Victor who totally changed her life. I remember that I was not very comfortable in the clothes I wore to dance. Other than that, I would say my relationship with Victor is my favorite overall storyline.”
AH: “I would say that the plots that I like are those where we find ourselves as a family.”
Ch.K. : “I would say Lily’s relationship with Cane (Daniel Goddard, Editor’s note) but also the storyline about the cancer of the uterus that Lily contracted. A lot of people could relate to what she went through.”
BJ: “My story of departure, my meeting with Victor Newman but also the loss of Hilary. For me, this last storyline was a big challenge.”
What do you think of the evolution of your characters?
MTS: “My character has evolved probably more than any other. Nikki was a teenager when we first saw her. She was on the wrong side, she had a disastrous attitude and no ambition. Victor taught her to become a woman and to rise in society.
AH: “I think, on her side, Victoria has always been the same. Whatever she’s been through, she’s always been a strong woman who knows what she wants even though sometimes she makes the wrong decisions.”
When you play in a soap opera like The Young and the Restless, is it easy to play other roles on the side?
BJ: “It would be nice but it’s true that we’ve been playing in the Young and the Restless for so long that we’re like in slippers.”
Ch.K. : “We’ve already had other experiences but it’s hard to be able to fit that into the filming schedule for Les Feux de l’amour. The soap opera is our priority so we always have to ask permission to film something else.
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