The TV Watercooler had the opportunity to speak with The Young and the Restless star Joshua Morrow as he celebrates his 30th anniversary on the series.
Joshua reflects on the milestone, calling it a “job of a lifetime,” and looks back fondly at the Crimson Lights set – the coffee house where Nick and Sharon (Sharon Case) fell in love and faced off with Matt Clark (Eddie Cibrian). We also discuss how Cassie’s (Camryn Grimes) death continues to be mined for storylines today and how his character’s affair with Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) saved Nick’s life… And yes, I did ask him about a potential 3 Deep reunion!
Congratulations on your 30th anniversary!
Thank you! It’s an awesome achievement. I’m thrilled, but also bewildered that I’ve been fooling them this long! It’s awesome, man. It’s been a job of a lifetime!
What can you preview for us about the special episode?
It’s sort of a walk down memory lane if you will. [It touches on] the beginning and the problems that Nick and Sharon [Sharon Case] had, and their love story – with the issues they had with Nick’s family not being super accepting, as well as the Sharon/Nick/Phyllis triangle – just sort of the ups and downs of all of it.
And it happens because Faith [Reylynn Caster] comes home and is having some relationship issues of her own. Nick and Sharon are just trying to help her understand how love works and that it’s not always easy and that there is going to be ups and downs.
So, it’ll touch upon the milestones of [their own] relationship.
Will we get to see some flashbacks to 30 years ago?
[Laughs] You’re going to get some incredible flashbacks! I think the fans really like those! For nothing else but to see the awesome hairstyles of old! They picked some really, really, awesome flashbacks and I think the fans will really enjoy it.
They really threw you into it when you first started. There was the rivalry with Matt (Eddie Cibrian), Amy (Julianne Morris), and then the romance with Sharon. You had your work cut for you!
It was amazing! I didn’t know what to expect. I hadn’t seen a soap opera before. You quickly realize that it was a very big deal aging Nick and creating this life around him with Amy, Sharon, Matt, and the coffee house. It really sort of launched the younger storylines for our younger fans, if you will.
It was cool! It was about as impacting as you can imagine. I, obviously, never had a job of this magnitude. I think when I first started, we were working five days a week. All day long! We were really pushing these characters and the fans really took to them. The show invested a lot of time and effort into it. It was a very cool experience!
Do you have any favourite memories from that era? Or hairstyle?
Yeah, the hairstyle! Honestly, the coffee house, Crimson Lights. They made this set for the younger group. There was this sort of “core four,” of me, Sharon Case, Julianne Morris, and Eddie Cibrian. We were in the coffee house every single day. It’s where everybody fell in love. It was where fights happened. The drama, the intrigue, and this younger group.
The coffee house, for me, will always hold a very special place in my heart because it’s really where my career started. So, you know, a lot of the scenes at the coffee house – the good ones, and the sad ones — that to me was probably the most impactful of my career, for sure!
Any other possible guest appearances?
No, it’s just Faith. That’ll be what launches us into telling the love story that Nick and Sharon had. The whole show is about Nick, Sharon, Faith, Mariah [Camryn Grimes] and Tessa [Cait Fairbanks]. Just the five of them, sitting in the living room and remembering everything that happened – how they met, how they broke up, how they fell in love, how they hurt each other, how they fell back in love repeatedly! It was a cool way for the show to really reach those older fans, and those die-hard SHICK fans who are really pulling fan!
Growing up watching Nick and Sharon, I really felt that Bill Bell was positioning them to be the next Victor (Eric Braeden) and Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott). Is there any hope for the SHICK fans?
There’s always hope! I mean, Nick and Sharon will always be in each other’s lives.
There will never be another Victor and Nikki. Their love story is one in a million! Nick and Sharon do have an incredible journey that they’ve been on but I don’t think that anyone could ever hold a candle to what Nikki and Victor have. They’re icons and soap legends! What they’ve been through is sort of unmatched!
While Nick and Sharon are amazing, Nick also has Phyllis [Michelle Stafford], which is a massive relationship in his life. I don’t know if Victor and Nikki have that other than themselves.
I think that the Nick and Sharon component requires the triangle portion with Phyllis in order to build its story, whereas Nikki and Victor are just them and this incredible force. The way the show told their story is very different that the one for Nick and Sharon. I just don’t think anybody will ever, ever, come close to matching what Victor and Nikki have!
Sharon, Nick and Phyllis are all single now…
[Laughs] Yeah, I mean it’s the greatest triangle that the show has ever told and invested in. I love the completely different dynamic that Nick and Sharon have, and Nick and Phyllis have. The show can never go wrong by telling a story with either of them. It’s been awesome to be a part of and I couldn’t be more proud that the show trusted me to be part of this very important triangle in this show’s history.
What do you think the reaction on social media would have been when Nick and Phyllis got together after Michael (Christian LeBlanc) and Lauren’s (Tracey E. Bregman)’s wedding?
Yeah! The thing that was amazing about it was that no one really expected it! That romance to me is every as bit as important as Nick and Sharon’s. It came out of this very horrible thing that came out of Nick and Sharon. Phyllis – and it’s not an exaggeration – saved Nick’s life! He was careening down a dark path and was having a lot of problems. There was something about Phyllis that really pulled him out of this dark place that he was in. I think she will always hold a very special place in his heart although the reason they got together was due to this horrible thing that happened [Cassie dying].
But just because it came from a dark place, doesn’t make it any less beautiful. I think that Nick and Phyllis have an incredible relationship and it’s very different than what Nick and Sharon have.
Nick and Sharon are like “Rome and Juliet” – this young love that everyone is rooting for and that nobody wanted to have except for these two people. Whereas Nick and Phyllis… I don’t know…They get each other. They make each other laugh. They have an incredibly hot relationship but they love each other.
They’re two different things and love having both of them! It gives me as an actor, which is all you want in life, a lot of things to play! So, it’s fun!
Looking back are there any fight scenes or stunts that stand out for you?
The very first fight that Nick and Matt had in the coffee house is, without a question and the risk of sounding self-indulgent is the best fight we’ve ever had and ever seen! [Smirks]
You had two alpha males who were highly athletic go in there and we literally tore that place apart! There was no real regard for our bodies because we just decided, “Listen, this is going to look as good as it possible can,” so neither one of us left there unscathed. We beat the hell out of each other. It was fun! So, that was a cool one!
I also loved the fights I had with Shark [David Fralick who played Larry Warton] in the prison where he beat the shit out of me! It was cool, man! I mean, other than the triangle and Cassie [also Camryn Grimes] death, the prison stuff was probably the most rewarding that I’ve ever told.
David Fralick who played in it was freaking scary as hell!
Yeah!
He couldn’t be a bigger sweetheart off-camera! But, man, when it was on, dude, he was terrifying! So to be able to play in prison and be afraid every day, like you had to break down any sort of macho things that you had. This was a young kid who was always thrown in prison and was terrified. I enjoyed playing that. He had to keep his head on a swivel, and he never knew what was coming. There’s no way this person should have been in prison. I liked playing that. It was so much fun! Those are a couple of my favourites!
You got slashed by Crazy Aunt Jordan (Colleen Zenk) this past November! What was that like? There was SO MUCH BLOOD! Did you know there’d be so much blood?
I didn’t! But it made a lot of sense! She literally just filleted me!
I have more respect for her than I think I’ve ever had [for anyone]. This is a 70-year-old woman and I’m six feet, 200 pounds! I’ll never forget them saying, “You have to be fighting her even though you are heavily affected by this poison that she gave you!”
Initially, I was sort of gingerly trying to move around and looked at me and she’s like, “Listen, I can handle it.” I’m like, “Okay…” So, I mean, I was putting all my weight on her and she’s fighting me! She’s a hyper-athletic woman! She made a 70-year-old menacing and scary!
I was like, “Wow, does this woman have a lot of heart?” She is tough and amazing. She was incredible. Colleen’s a powerhouse, man!
Let’s go back to Cassie’s death. That has stayed with the fans as much as it has stayed with the show. It’s something they always go back to. Camryn got to come back as Mariah! What was that like for you? You watched this young girl grow up and become a woman, and have a kid of her own.
Camryn Grimes, to this day, is still the cutest human being that ever walked the planet. She was the little freckled-face freak with no teeth who came on and I instantly fell in love with her! I was like a second dad to her and I still am.
It was a story that I really could not believe they were planning on telling. I had been very fortunate in my life up to that point to have never really lost anyone who was super-important to me… Other than, maybe Kurt Cobain. I wasn’t quite prepared to tell this story because it scared me – I had never been to a place like that on-screen – and I didn’t want to let her go! She was so important to me! I loved being a part of her life and seeing her growing up, and messing around with her at work.
I still think that it’s the best story that we’ve ever told because we mine it all the time. We touch it all the time. There are stories that are impacted and that we still tell to this day – I don’t know how many years ago it was – but we always can go back to that and it means something to the fans. It affected every character on the show and it’s been just an incredible story that we can always go back.
It was heartbreaking but extremely rewarding.
Obviously when they brought her back as Mariah, it was a win, win! We got to tell the story, but we still got Camryn Grimes to come back to our show! She’s one of the best human beings that I met in my life!
You say all that and yet the show still wanted to pair your characters together! She told me that you guys nixed it!
[Laughs] Well, it’s still one of my favourite pranks of all time! Yeah, they told me they were telling me the story and I was like, “Wow.” And I never, ever put my foot down, but I continued, “I’m never putting my mouth on that young woman’s mouth! I’m just letting you know. She’s like my daughter. I cannot do that!”
They were like, “We get it! No problem. Not a problem.”
Now, I never told Camryn that I had that conversation with them but I loved teasing her and telling her that it was coming and that she better be ready! Just really messing with her. She would literally turn green.
She wanted to be professional but the joy that I got watching her so uncomfortable from it! It was definitely one of my favourite [pranks] I ever did at work. But yeah, it was never going to happen but I liked that it was something that was teased because it really got the fans in an uproar and that’s what you want. You want them talking. Whether it’s good or bad. You want an exchange. You want them to feel stuff, so that was something that was very concerning to a lot of people… But that what you want to do. You want to shock people sometimes!
Do you hope that the show re-invests in some of the younger characters? Nick’s great and he’s supportive of Mariah, Summer (Allison Lanier), and Faith comes in and out – but a lot of people wonder where Noah (last played by Rory Gibson) is. How come Nick’s getting a story with Sally (Courtney Hope) who is in the demographic, but Noah’s off in London.
I can’t speak to what the Noah thing is. I still believe that he should be part of our everyday show. It’s not something that they consult with me about, but of course, you have to keep the show going with that next generation. You have to reach every audience possible. I do believe that we have a good young core that is being put on screen right now, but there are other ways that we can do it. The character Noah should be front and centre, but I stay in my lane. That’s not something they consult with me about! [Laughs]
After playing Nick Newman for 30 years, which other character would you like to play for a day?
Who doesn’t want to be Victor? Good grief, he’s like God! [Laughs] He can do no wrong! You can’t tell if he’s a good or bad guy, which is always interesting. Victor would be interesting!
I actually think that the best-written character on our show is Adam [currently played by Mark Grossman]. I love how they portray him – he’s wounded, he can be menacing, he can be fragile – he really touches a lot of areas on the spectrum, creatively. They ask the character of Adam to do a lot on the show and I’d look at him with envy sometimes… I play the hero and I feel like I always win, but it’s not as much fun to play. I guarantee you that Grossman, who is doing a wonderful job by the way – he’s an awesome actor – he gets a lot of really cool stuff to play. He does a great job! I doubt I’d be able to do it the way that he does because we’re different people, but I think that Victor and Adam would be some very interesting characters [to play] for sure!
As a Canadian, I feel that I owe it to that Nation to ask this again, what are your thoughts on a 3Deep reunion now?
Brother! That whole thing was about me dancing around young girls with my shirt off. Those days are behind me. [Laughs]
That’s never going to happen but I can tell you that it was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done in my life. I wish I could write a book about some of our stories, highlights, and lowlights!
It was a time that I will always fondly on. Who didn’t want to be a pop star for a little bit?! It was fun, man! The people of Canada are so kind, generous, and supportive. I will always look back on those times with a tremendous smile on my face and deep gratitude! The Canadians really welcomed us. It was super fun, man.
It was an awesome experience. Unfortunately [a reunion] will never happen.
I had to ask!
I feel ya! It would have been irresponsible if you hadn’t!
Are you, Eddie Cibrian and CJ Huyer still in touch?
We’ll exchange a text every once in a while to sort of keep up. Everybody’s lives have gotten so crazy. It was a window in time when we were young and had a lot of free time. And now, everybody’s got kids and lives.
What are you watching these days? Is there something you’ve binged recently and would recommend?
I am watching The Boys right now. My teenage sons had recommended it to me. I’m into it but I cannot wait for House of the Dragon season two. Those kinds of stories and worlds really speak to me. I think that Game of Thrones is the best show ever made and House of the Dragon is just as good for me! I’m really looking forward to when that one comes back on. I think I’m going to give up on The Boys. I like it but I’m not obsessed with it. I think Shogun is the next thing I’m going to get into!
The Young and the Restless airs weekdays on Global and CBS. Canadians can catch up with episodes on demand, the Global TV app, STACKTV, and at GlobalTV.com.
