Photo Credit: Russell Bear

Happy Valentine’s Day from On-Air On-Soaps!  And who better to celebrate this romantic of all holidays with then The Young and the Restless resident heartthrob, Daniel Goddard!  Today his alter-ego, Genoa City’s Cane Ashby, gets set to walk down the aisle in what the number one daytime drama is promising to be a beautiful heartfelt and stirring ceremony to his beloved Lily, played by Christel Khalil.

After so many twists and turns including: Cane being shot “dead” in front of the church steps, an evil twin, Lily thinking she is going bonkers, Cane’s bizarre family background being revealed, constant familial interference, a possible Danny Romalotti and Lily romantic re-teaming, (and that’s just for starters), the invincible couple known lovingly to its fans as LANE will finally have their special day.

To preview the wedding drama and what’s next for Cane, we had the opportunity to speak to one of our favorite gents in the business, Mr. Daniel Goddard.  So, what makes Cane and Lily the couple to root for?  How did Daniel feel about the road it took for these two lovers to find there way back to each other?  How does he feel about Cane’s relationship now with Genevieve and working with the legendary Genie Francis?  And how should men treat their wives on Valentine’s Day?  Find out when you read our very special interview with Daniel on this double occasion, Valentine’s Day, and the second wedding of Cane and Lily!

MICHAEL:

Are you excited about the pay-off for long time LANE fans?  Finally, they get to see their favorite duo get hitched … again!

DANIEL:

Photo Credit: Kathie Huchins

I am really excited about the whole wedding.  I am excited about the storyline and that it is a two episode arc.  Viewers found out on yesterday’s episode about the gift from Katherine that Cane and Lily will be heading off to France for their nuptials, and today’s air show is the first episode of the two-part wedding.  Today is actually a big day in general!  I am also doing The Price is Right for Valentine’s Day, and then Christel Khalil and I are doing The Talk live!

MICHAEL:

Cane and Lily have had everything but the kitchen sink thrown at them over the course of the last few years.  Do you like how the story has played out?  Do you think their relationship has finally come full-circle?

DANIEL:

I think it’s come full circle and I think this is being done well.  Certainly, Cane and Lily have had a lot of ups and downs.  I think through all of that, the fans have stayed true and they have expressed their desire for what they want to see.  I think a wedding of this caliber will make the fans very, very happy and that is what this is about.

MICHAEL:

Where did you film the wedding episodes?  I know you did not go to France!

DANIEL:

We shot the wedding at Greystone which is in Los Angeles. It’s a huge estate and mansion which was chosen to look like France.  And to be honest with you, it’s such a wonderful location that you would never know it isn’t France!  The full crew was there so we had a great lavish look to it and it was a great production.  It’s going to be wonderful.

MICHAEL:

So when you and Christel say the wedding vows as Cane and Lily, are they different this time out in their feeling and delivery?  Fans love great heartfelt wedding vows between two long suffering star-crossed lovers, you know?

DANIEL:

Courtesy/CBS

Yes.  The vows this time are different because the last wedding had more of the, “I will always love you” type of vows.  This one is our second wedding and so the vows are more about having fun and understanding where they have been and understanding what they have gone through.  Basically it has the sentiment of, “Let’s make sure we never have to go through that again, and let’s have fun.”  It has a great light-hearted feel to the whole thing.

MICHAEL:

Daniel, you had the beginnings of such meaty story when Cane’s mother, Genevieve was added to the mix. Then it seemed like all of a sudden that whole story got wiped out pretty quickly.  Will we finally see Cane and Genevieve dealing with their feelings for each other as mother and son?

DANIEL:

I think it’s come full circle between Cane and Genevieve now.  Genevieve coming to town and using Cane in sort of a puppet master kind of way to have her desires to get back at Colin fulfilled is over with,  and where does that leave Cane and Genevieve’s relationship?  The next stage is about to be delved into.  Cane has gotten this job offer from Ashley and Jabot, and of course, we will end up seeing the trials and tribulations on how that affects his relationship with his mother, while she works at “Beauty of Nature.”  So it’s good stuff.  It has some legs.

MICHAEL:

How has it been working with soap icon Genie Francis (Genevieve)?

DANIEL:

It’s great.  What is interesting about Y&R is that everybody has different relationships with each other on the show, and I think that comes across on camera.  So, my relationship with Jess Walton (Jill) is very different than my relationship with Genie.  And what is wonderful about that is that we all have a great working relationship and a great off-set working relationship, but because the dynamics are so different, you see it play out on screen.  I have a lot of respect for Genie Francis.  I love working with her.  It’s interesting that we have an opportunity to build this relationship on-screen, and that we don’t have the history off-screen.  Cane and Genevieve have this back-story.  I have always tried to maintain a certain level of ambiguity with my relationship with Genie Francis, because I know that carries over into the ambiguity and the history of Cane and Genevieve.

MICHAEL:

Courtesy/CBS

From having spoken to you and many of your cast mates over the years, I know you have a very thoughtful process to your acting approach.  So I am wondering, what does Cane really think of this woman, Genevieve?  I know she is his mother, but she has done some horrendous things for god sakes!

DANIEL:

Exactly!  But I think at the same time Cane does genuinely feels like he wishes that his mother could step up, and be the mother she should be to him.  I think he is at that stage of his life where he will always give her the benefit of the doubt.  But when it becomes emotionally exhausting, he has to then step away for his sanity and his family’s sanity.

MICHAEL:

There is also such sweetness and pure love in scenes between Cane and Katherine played by Jeanne Cooper.  Katherine always seems to be there for Cane, no matter what he has done to her family in the past!  How is it having Jeanne back on the set after her medical leave?

DANIEL:

I love having Jeanne back.  She is doing great.  Jeanne Cooper is the glue that holds this show together.  I think that when she was not here, she was greatly missed, and you could feel that throughout the set.

MICHAEL:

There is a surprise visitor at the nuptials!  Will that cause a wedding day ripple? Or, is it a little blip in the road?

DANIEL:

Photo Credit: Getty Images

I think it sets up the impending drama that we understand that Genevieve truly does love Cane even though she is incapable of taking herself out of the equation.  She will still do things for her own purpose and cause, but by her showing up at the wedding, the audience knows her heart is in the right place. Now it’s about seeing if they can overcome their history and their inability to make it work.  It allows the show the ability to rectify things between them down the road.

MICHAEL:

Will Cane’s sister Samantha get brought up again?  It was dropped all of a sudden, too!

DANIEL:

I don’t know, but that would be interesting.  Who knows what they will do with that? She is a keystone part of the relationship between Cane and Genevieve.  I think her death led to the unfolding of everybody’s relationship…. Colin and Cane…Caleb and Cane …. Genevieve and Caleb and vice versa … and so I think Sam is very integral to their dysfunctional relationship.

MICHAEL:

I thought your scenes with Tristan Rogers (Ex-Colin, Y&R, now Robert, GH) were interesting.  Was it hard to see Tristan all of a sudden leaving the canvas?

DANIEL:

Whenever somebody leaves a show that you love working with, and you have a great rapport with, it’s always hard.

MICHAEL:

Christel and you are so beloved by the fans and the Y&R audience.  What is it about Christel that you enjoy working with, and why do you think it translates on screen for LANE?

DANIEL:

Photo Credit: Kathie Huchins

I think Christel and I have a frivolous sense of humor when it comes to things that most people take seriously.  We will be doing scenes where we know we have to say certain dialog, and while we run the words we want to change them, but we don’t.  So in the middle of a scene, when we get to that place, you will notice every now and then that we will stop and kind of smile and have a laugh and keep going.  That is because we bring the frivolity with regards to the way we perceive things through our scenes.  We have a very tongue and cheek way with certain things we find funny.  We have a very bawdy sense of humor about it.  Our sense of humor is very similar.  Christel is just great to work with.  I really enjoy the spontaneity of it!

MICHAEL:

It is Valentines Day, and you are married in real life.  So do you think Valentine’s Day is an important day for a couple or a big excuse for a commercial holiday?

DANIEL:

My feelings on Valentine’s Day are that you have to see if for what it is. It is a Hallmark sort of holiday created for that reason.  But, I am a big believer that everyday should be Valentine’s Day.  I don’t think you should cruise through the year and then say, “Oh, it’s February 14th.  I have to buy some flowers and be nice to my wife.” You know what I mean?

MICHAEL:

Of course I know what you mean.  But here is the million dollar question … will you be buying flowers and being nice to your wife today on Valentine’s Day? (Laughs)

DANIEL:

(Laughs)  The other thing I have learned is that every now and then when you have that inside voice saying, “You should buy your wife some flowers”…  buy the flowers.  If you are in the supermarket and you see the flowers … buy the flowers.  I am a detail guy.   So for me it’s all about the little things.  I always look for the details and how can we fix this or that.  I think you can have a great foundation and a great exterior, but when you do a photo shoot in a house and you don’t have the flowers on the table, and the little bits and pieces that make it looked lived in, it looks like a home that no one lives in.  Men, always buy the flowers when you think you should get them, not just on Valentine’s Day!

MICHAEL:

Photo Credit: PR Photo

Do you ever look back at all of Cane’s “power jobs” and go, “How the hell could this happen?”  I say that in light of Cane’s true and sometimes questionable background! (Laughs)

DANIEL:

I know!  If you do a Fortune 500 search for a lot of college dropouts in Fortune 500 companies, you will find that it’s something like 40%.  At the end of the day, you can go to school and just because you answer the questions right does not mean you have the wherewithal or the capacity to run a business.  I don’t think Cane has the book learning skills side of it, but I think he has the life lessons side of it, based on who he is and where he has come from.  The way he does business with people, he kind of understands who they are as people.  Cane at Jabot is very enthusiastic and cautious about falling into a family business which is an Abbott company.  I think he is sensitive about that.  However, that being said, he has no fears in doing business with anybody because if you can come from a family of gangsters than business people don’t really measure up.

MICHAEL:

So as the wedding of Cane and Lily unfolds, will members of the Winters, Abbotts, and Chancellor clans be supportive of their union? Or, should we expect much bickering and those snarky looks from various wedding guests throughout the ceremony?

DANIEL:

I think you get a very good feeling from the beginning of the wedding that it is going to have a happy ending.  I was talking to our executive producer and head writer, Maria Arena Bell while we were on location at Greystone and she said, “You know, this is really the first wedding we have had in a long long time that doesn’t end in a tragedy!” That is so true because recently Jack got shot at his wedding. Then remember, Victoria got arrested at her wedding, and at Cane and Lily’s first wedding after they leave, Cane looks up to the heavens and says, “Please forgive me for what I have to do.”  Maria said this wedding is something she wants the fans to get behind.  It’s going to be just a beautiful occasion between two very loved characters who have gone through so much, in the form of Cane and Lily, and they deserve to be happy together.

MICHAEL:

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Do you like the opportunity to get to dress up in character, and do the GQ look in tuxedos and suits, etc?

DANIEL:

I am a jeans and t-shirt type of a guy.  However, at the end of a day I enjoy shooting on location because we shoot in doors so much.  So I am a big believer in that any type of change from the norm is fun.

MICHAEL:

You have an amazing fan base that you consistently stay in touch with on your Twitter page.  Often, I find you chatting with them and engaging with them in conversation.  Do you think that is important for an actor to do in 2012 as a key ingredient to their success and staying power with a continuing series like Y&R?

DANIEL:

I think it’s important.  I think if you nurture something I think it grows on its own and then you find a way to allow it to be the best it can be.   Cane and Lily had a grass root fan base.  I remember back in 2007 when we started. The CBS Soaps in Depth polls were there and we were in the polls as couple number five, and we weren’t yet ranking in the individual actor polls.  I remember going to our former EP, Josh Griffith’s office going, “Dude, Dude, Dude, look at this!”  We next went from number five, then to number four, then to number three, and then to the individual actor polls. Then, TV Guide did this feature on the top people in daytime for both men and women.  I think I came in at number one for the men, and Christel came in at one of the top two spots for the women. I think for me I feel an obligation to allow the fans to get what they give to you. I think it’s selfish of an actor if he has a fan base, not to give the fans something really special because you touch so many lives. To bring so much joy and so much happiness to people, I mean, why not?  The fans have been amazing!

MICHAEL:

Can you comment on what you think some of Cane and Lily best and worst moments in story have been through the years?  

DANIEL:

Photo Credit: Kathie Huchins

I love the scenes where you have an honest conversation between Cane and Lily, and you turn to the person and you go, “This is happening. How do I do this? How do I fix this?” The reason I like that is because that is what happens in real life!  I think as long as scenes have a truth to them, they are always well done.  I think that is what Christel and I always look for … that honesty.  You can look back at the history of the scenes we have had together and you can see the ones where there is a genuine love that the characters have for each other.  It does come from the writing, and there have been a lot of scenes like that.

MICHAEL:

Didn’t you think it might have been a tad tricky when viewers didn’t know if it was Cane or Caleb crawling into bed with poor Lily?

DANIEL:

Yeah, it was interesting.  I did not know when Caleb was Caleb and Cane was Cane until a certain point through it.  I had to play it ambiguously.  And for me it was difficult because I did not want it to look like Cane was ever manipulating Lily.  That is the sort of the thing whether you have to fake your death or whatever it is, you would deliberately not want to hurt the person you love in the process.  But it allowed for great drama that the fans could get behind, and then they were led out of that portion of the story to where we are now.  So I think it inadvertently allowed the audience to unify with a common voice which is now being repaid to them.

MICHAEL:

Do you love, hate, or were you on the fence, about playing twins?

DANIEL:

I loved it.  I really enjoyed it because when you play a twin they should not be diametrically opposed to one another. I think a lot of the time in life it should be, “Well, which one is it?” because a lot of twins grew up like that.  I enjoyed getting away from Cane and playing Caleb, and then coming back to Cane.  I love my character and my job.  I am very fortunate.

MICHAEL:

Photo Credit: PR Photo

Now, after the wedding will Cane will remain a good guy?  I assume he might be tinkering with some things for the greater good for whatever business he is involved with and to protect his family.

DANIEL:

I don’t think at this point you will see Cane being played any other way than how he deals with different obstacles to overcome and having different missions to accomplish.  I think we have established everything he has gone through from faking that he is Phillip Chancellor III …

MICHAEL:

Geez Daniel! You have had so many, “interesting” stories, to say the least!

DANIEL:

Yeah, I know. (Laughs)  Someone the other day said, “So tell me about your character?” And I was like, “Hmmm. Well….”  I think where we go now is giving the fans what they want which is a strong home based relationship and trials and tribulations occurring outside of that.

MICHAEL:

Do you have any problem at this point in your career in providing what you do for the daytime audience, and that is being the strong romantic leading man that can act?

DANIEL:

Well first, thank you.  No, I have no problem with that label.  I went the other route earlier in my career where I wanted to be the character actor.  I wanted to be the Viggo Mortensen and Sean Penn characters.  I have always come across this hurdle which is: if you look like the character, then you get to play the character guy type of roles.  So I think this is a niche that I have arrived at because I think this is where everything has led me towards.

MICHAEL:

You know when a soap couple ties the knot it often times spells disaster for their characters.  They can end up stalled in story, back-burnered, or they become incredibly boring because often times writers can’t seem to figure out what to do with a couple once they are happy.  Have you and Christel had a conversation about that?

DANIEL:

Photo Credit: Steven Bergman

No, no, no.  I think she and I could read the phone books together and make them fun.  I am not concerned at all.  But to be honest with you, every single fan I meet – whether at a personal appearance or walking down street – the first thing they say to me is, “God, we love Cane and Lily.   We love Cane and Lily together.  When are they going to be together?”  So, if you are talking about a couple where they don’t have the history and they don’t have the chemistry, then it’s doomed, because then the show has them get married and then they sit there looking at each other and go, “Well, what do we do now?” You could put Christel and me in a scene together about stuffing pillows with polystyrene, and we would find a way to make that funny and interesting because that is where she and I are at with our lives now.

MICHAEL:

Maria Arena Bell once told me that she would never have Michael and Lauren knowingly cheat on each other. (Of course, Lauren’s doppelganger was another story!)  So do you think with Cane and Lily in the future, and to protect the integrity of their characters and their marriage, the problems will come from an outside source?  I hope Cane won’t end up by accident in some women’s bed!

DANIEL:

Well, I did that already with Chloe when I woke up drunk in the car!  I think that you will find that you give the fans what they want, they stay watching the show, and then you give the fans something extra and then they tell new people who then start to watch the show.  That is a true tested historical fact and formula with any television show that has ever been on the air.

MICHAEL:

Daniel, you had some pretty heavy ups and downs with Y&R.  You were off the show at one point then brought back on.  Are there any hard feelings leftover from that whole set of circumstances?

DANIEL:

I have no hard feelings. I am just so happy to be a part of the show.  I love everything about the show, and to be honest with you, every single time I get a script, the first thing I do is read it.  I read the entire script, not just my part.  I am just so honored and pleased to be part of the Y&R family.

MICHAEL:

So, should we bring our hankies when we sit-down to watch the wedding of Cane and Lily today and tomorrow?

DANIEL:

Always bring your hankies … and your hanky-panky and some cake!  And make sure to watch the Price is Right, we are giving away a good trip, and The Talk  because whenever Christel and I do a talk show it is a lot of fun.

Photo Credit: Kathie Huchins

MICHAEL:

Wow!  This is good.  They are pimping you guys out! (Laughs)

DANIEL:

Yeah! But Christel and I on a talk show is fun.  We have a very interesting relationship and I think our dynamic plays well.

MICHAEL:

Finally, what do you think your on-screen partner-in-crime Christel Khalil, would say about you if I asked her what it is like to work with you?

DANIEL:

She would smile and shake her head (laughs) and say we have a great time together.