Photo Credit: HutchinsPhoto.com

This week on The Young and the Restless Tristan Rogers returns to the role of Colin Atkinson, the criminal pop of Cane Ashby and makes quite the entrance!  The beloved soap star that has made his mark as Robert Scorpio on General Hospital, shocked the daytime world when news broke that he was reprising the role of the Aussie underworld charmer, and heading back to Genoa City!  But what brings Colin back into the fold is what is even more intriguing.  Jill Abbott is right in the thick of it all too, which is great news for fans who have been clamoring for more of Daytime Emmy winner, Jess Walton (Jill) since she had moved out of California to reside in Oregon.

When we last saw Jill in early January, she had been kidnapped and was tied somewhere to a motel room bed!  Viewers of the number-one soap opera saw the shocked look on her face when she recognized her captor.  However, on this Wednesday’s upcoming February 5th episode, Jill returns to the Chancellor Mansion where family and friends are working on the upcoming benefit for Delia’s Foundation!  And thus, sets the stage for the drama to unfold when Jill has a real zinger to share with everyone … especially since Colin is by her side!

On-Air On-Soaps sat down with the delightful trio of Daniel Goddard (Cane), Tristan Rogers and Jess Walton, who will all be part of a major storyline that brings in the elements from the past drama between their characters, and crosses it with the music box mystery that Katherine (Jeanne Cooper) left for Jill to figure out when she died.  This sets the stage for fireworks between father and son (Cane and Colin) and romantic sparks between Jill and Colin!  Can Cane forgive his father for his past transgressions perpetrated against his own family?  Can Jill fight her feelings for the man she knows has an unsavory past?  What is Colin truly up to and doing in Genoa City?   We dig for answers to this and much more in this candid, very entertaining, and insightful chat with three actors who understand their craft and the soap medium like none other.  Here now are Daniel, Tristan, and Jess!

MICHAEL:

Daniel, when you heard Tristan was returning to Y&R, what you was your reaction?

DANIEL:

Courtesy/CBS

I was ecstatic.  Jess and I had been talking for a while of how we could pull this off, and we were texting with Tristan to find out if this is something he would want to do.  I think Jess used all of her powers and the brilliance that she gained by moving to Oregon.  I think Jess came back from Oregon a different person! (Laughs)

JESS:

No, I didn’t (laughs) but Daniel and I talked to Jill Farren Phelps (EP, Y&R) all the time about how well this worked.  I was outraged when Tristan was let go from Y&R last time, because it worked like gangbusters.  He was such a natural with us that it fell right into place.  I mentioned several times to Jill, how much I would love it if he would come back, and family-wise for the show, it would bring Daniel into the story.  Not that I am taking responsibility for this, but I did promote it heavily!

DANIEL:

She should take credit for it!

MICHAEL:

And Jess, you said you would come back from Oregon if Tristan came back to Y&R? 

JESS:

Photo Credit: Kathy Hutchins

I didn’t use that as something to hold over Jill’s head. (Laughs)  I had already come back, but I just said, I thought it would be wonderful to have Tristan back, and it has been.

MICHAEL:

So Tristan, were you shocked that Y&R even asked you to come back and reprise the role of Colin Atkinson?

TRISTAN:

“Shocked” was not the word!  I discounted it as, “It just isn’t going to happen.”  So when it did happen, I was working at General Hospital at the time.  I got a call from my manager who said, “Remember that wistfulness you had whenever you talk about Y&R and the happy times it was, and the great year you had there?”  And I said, “Yeah”.   And my manager continued and said, “Well, what if that were to happen again?”  I said, “That would be just wonderful.”  Then, I spilled my vodka and tonic all over the place.  (Laughs)  She said, “It’s going to happen.  We are in the preliminary stages.  I am just clearing it with you, before we take the next step.”  I said, “Go!”  The whole deal was done in ten days.  Then of course, we had to tell General Hospital.

JESS:

Now, I remember when I found out.  I was told “Happy Birthday.  Tristan is coming back…”  I couldn’t tell Daniel yet, and I was dying too!  So, I texted Tristan and I said, “Soooo, anything new, Tristan?” (Laughs)  To which he replied, “We have black mold in our house!” (Laughs)  And then I texted back, “Anything else, new?” (Laughs)

TRISTAN:

Photo Credit: Kathy Hutchins

I had been told not to mention my return to anybody.  Y&R said they wanted to keep a lid on it.  They had their own promotional way they wanted to do it.

MICHAEL:

And how did that go?  It was all over the Internet within 20 seconds! (Laughs)

DANIEL:

It’s like Edward Snowden works here at Y&R!  How does this stuff leak half the time?

TRISTAN:

I can tell you exactly what happened.  So we were told, “Thou shalt not talk about that at any level.”  Finally, it got to the point about a week or two after I agreed to come back where my manager said, “Look, I have got to go to GH and tell them, you can’t have him after January 6th.”  And they are going to say, “Why not?” And my manager is going to say, “I can’t tell you.”  And they are going to say, “Well, that’s not good enough!”  They already had plans in place for Robert Scorpio to move ahead in the story.  But, I was to have been told back in October by GH what the plans were for me and Scorpio, and no one told me.  So now we are making plans to join Y&R, and GH is writing me in beyond February.  I said to my manager, “You are going to have to tell them what is going on.  They are not going to accept this any other way.”  She did tell them and I am not going to say who did it, but within five seconds of them being told, it was on Twitter.  And they were told specifically to keep it under cover and “BAM”, it went out there immediately.  After that, the genie was out of the bottle, and here I am.

MICHAEL:

So what does this mean for Cane and his relationship with his dad?  Last time Colin was in Genoa City, it did not go so well between them. (Laughs)  That’s putting it mildly!

DANIEL:

Photo Credit: HutchinsPhoto.com

Dad was on his way to the slammer.  But it was left with a great amount of dramatic tension for a return.  I was always trying to figure out when they do plan a return, how are they going to pick-up?  Because when you have a change of writers and a new regime, some things can be forgotten, or adapted, to the situation now than what it was.  We spoke about it to the writers.  They said, they are going to keep it strictly the way it played out before.  That made us, the actors, happy because we knew we could then pick up where we left off.   So, we already shot part of the storyline that finished a week or so ago, that technically allows Cane to question if his feelings for his father should be updated or re-addressed on how he feels about him.  It very quickly put the sense of doubt in Cane’s mind.  Then you put Lily into the mix, and where she is at with it is: “It doesn’t matter what he does now, what he did before was unforgiveable!”  So it allows that to spill into Cane’s relationship.  It allows that to spill into the relationship with Jill.  You see the way other father/son’s play their scenes on Y&R, which can sometimes be, “I don’t like you. You don’t like me.  But, we will try to make it work.”  Tristan and I try to play our scenes like, “I know you. You know me.  We are these two people who are in this town who should try and have a connection.”  We always try to play our stuff with a level of charm and humor.

TRISTAN:

I think the background of this is: Cane and Colin both come from a criminal background.  Cane is born into this criminal background, whether he wanted to, or not.  But he is there and he probably embraces it, even though we don’t talk about it at this point.  I think if it was presented to him in a certain way, he would go along with it.  However, as the story is at this moment, I think in my mind there is a huge question mark of: now these kids are around me, and perhaps I have to rethink a few things.  We picked up on this music box mystery.  That seems to be the focal point along with my trying to mend fences as I go along.  However, the writers can change that at any time.  Until I am told where we are going in the long term, I am just playing it episode by episode.

DANIEL:

Courtesy/TristanRogers.com

But you play it as a noble villain!

TRISTAN:

He has a heart, and a bit of style, and a sense of humor.  Colin doesn’t take things that seriously until he has to.

DANIEL:

I read the scripts now with the scenes between Jill and Colin, and it’s very well done.  It’s almost done in a very dysfunctional way that you know there is this great chemistry between these two people.  I see it when Tristan and Jess work together.  And, they don’t have to try to make the scenes work.  I think that someone had been sitting in the writer’s room going, “Geez, I wish I got to write these scenes,” and they finally got the chance!   Tristan gets to play Colin as so rogue-ishly charming.  And Jess gets to play with it as, “Finally, I have met someone who can fill in the blanks that have been sitting there for so long, but I know it’s not good for me, but I can’t help myself, because he completes me in ways, I wish he didn’t complete me.”  So they have so much going on that it’s fun to watch.

MICHAEL:

Do you think it’s well-written, Jess?

JESS:

Courtesy/CBS

I think it’s a good framework.  I think it’s the chemistry that shows through.  Jill loves this man, in my opinion, more than she loved any other man.  Until the moment that she found out he had hired a hit man to kill people, she was willing to go along with it.  But then she turned him in after that.  She is kind of destroyed that the man she loved and trusted so much did that.  However, she still finds herself so very attracted to him, yet she doesn’t trust him as far as she can throw him!  I think it’s also interesting that Jill loves Cane like a son.  She never stopped loving Cane from the time she thought he was her real son.   She has a closer bond with him than the other children.  You know how you say, “you can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your family,” it’s kind of a natural fit with Jill and Cane.  Cane is Colin’s son, and Cane is Jill’s heart son, so it makes it all very interesting!

DANIEL:

Very true!  And, that is the bizarreness of the whole thing where Cane is not really Jill’s son.  And, he at the core of who he is, actually is not really the healthiest person to have in your life, yet Jill is involved with both Cane and Colin in ways that say a lot about Jill and her character.  At the same time I can say, “Well, he wanted to put a hit out on Genevieve (Genie Francis),” which is his way of proving his love for Jill, because while she was in the picture, Jill and Colin can’t be together.  So he can always justify killing Genevieve with, “Well, I did it for you!”

MICHAEL:

Speaking of mom Genevieve and Cane’s sister Samantha, will that be mentioned … and be part of this whole new ‘revisiting’ of the storyline?

DANIEL:

It hasn’t been brought up, but it’s gospel.  It won’t go out the door.  Technically for Colin, Cane is his last child.  He lost his daughter and he lost his other son.

TRISTAN:

Photo Credit: HutchinsPhoto.com

There is no other child … that we know of.   The thing of it is, in Colin’s life he has a family.  He has grandkids and the rest of it he screwed up.  He looks at what happened in the past and he carries that with him.  So, to be around Cane and Lily and the two kids is really important to Colin.  I believe he truly does have a strong sense of family.  I think you will see that manifest itself story-wise.

MICHAEL:

What can Cane and Lily (Christel Khalil) fans expect now that Colin is back in town?  Will he pose a threat to their happiness?

DANIEL:

Colin is definitely a threat to not only Cane and Lily’s happiness, but also the safety of their children and family.  Before Colin was arrested and deported he made it very clear that his intentions were to take Mattie and Charlie back to Australia with him, and raise them there. Lily will never forgive Colin for this… nor should she.  How can Cane ever trust his father again?  It would take a massive display of self-sacrifice on Colin’s behalf in order to convince Cane and Lily that this time around his intentions are noble… maybe that is what he plans to do?  But if that is his plan… are his intentions honorable?  Or is he up to something… until Cane and Lily know for sure they must be on alert too, and put their family first.

MICHAEL:

Daniel, do you wish they, the powers-that-be, would not have changed it up and that Cane was still truly Jill’s bio-son?  Because then he wasn’t the son, but he is now kind of her son, anyway!

DANIEL:

… I think it gave us something more to play, really.

JESS:

Photo Credit: HuchinsPhoto.com

It adds to it.  It’s like when people would say they hated that Jill became Katherine’s (Jeanne Cooper) daughter.  It’s adding another layer.

DANIEL:

In the end, if things had stayed as they originally were written, my on-screen father would have been Phillip Chancellor Sr., and so then Tristan wouldn’t have been here, and so the answer to that is: I am glad that they changed it; otherwise we wouldn’t have this opportunity now to have Tristan on this show!

MICHAEL:

Jess, speaking of bio-son’s, what do you think of having David Tom back on Y&R as Billy Abbott and the departure of Billy Miller in the role?

JESS:

Although I am very very sorry to see Billy Miller leave the show, as he was a brilliant actor and made the part his own, as well as capturing my heart, I am thrilled for David Tom, that he has an opportunity to reprise the role of Billy that he created. Working with him has been as seamless as silk, even after so long an absence … they are both terrific actors and I’m proud to call them my sons!

MICHAEL:

When Jill and Colin first come back to Genoa City on this Wednesday’s February 5th episode of Y&R, what can you tell us will happen when everyone sees them again?

JESS:

I can say, they were really fun and very complicated scenes, because we kept flashing back to what happened during her kidnapping.  I have to try to explain to these people what happened and why Colin is with me!

DANIEL:

But Jess took my notes, and all of a sudden it was very easy for her to play! (Laughs)

JESS:

Photo Credit: HutchinsPhoto.com

Yes, because everything I know I owe to Daniel! (Laughs)  You know, I remember I called up Lynn Latham, who was our executive producer at the time and said, “How about this story?  This is why Katherine and Jill can inflame their feud again if Katherine switched Jill’s baby.”  And Lynn said, “Oh, my God. I’m driving.  Let me call the network!”  She called me back and said, “They love it. We are going with it.”

MICHAEL:

So clearly, we owe the success of The Young and the Restless to Jess Walton?

JESS:

All of it! (Laughs)

TRISTAN:

I was wondering who was to blame.  Oh, my God!  (Laughs)

JESS:

Photo Credit: HutchinsPhoto.com

Oregon had never been the same since! (Laughs)  But I just want to add, that the thing that Jill loves about Colin is that she didn’t play games with the man, and he softened her.  Colin was so kind to her when she thought Cane was dead.  But he comes back now playing games and joking around.  There are these layers of him lying to her, and so she doesn’t know what to think of Colin at this point.

DANIEL:

I gave her a note on this! (Laughs)  The reason that you fell in love with him the first time was because of Genevieve.  Therefore, he knows if he doesn’t come back and make it complicated for you, you might not fall in love with him again, because it’s too simple. (Laughs)

TRISTAN:

I have a hard time wrapping my head around that one, too! (Laughs)

MICHAEL:

Since Jess Walton is truly the showrunner and writer at Y&R (laughs), why do you think it works so well with you and her on-screen, Tristan?

TRISTAN:

It just came out of nowhere!  I was only employed for ten shows originally on Y&R.  I was employed to bring Daniel off the show.  Then, they put a blimp up in the air and he stayed! (Laughs)

DANIEL:

Photo Credit: HutchinsPhoto.com

Did you hear that?  Tristan was originally brought on the show to take me off the show! And here I am walking around going, “This is awesome. I’ve got a father!” (Laughs)

TRISTAN:

And through all the build up of that, there was nothing written, and nothing defining about what he was supposed to be.  Whether he was supposed to be this atypical died-in- the-wool criminal … or … what he was?

MICHAEL:

Did they tell you that you were coming on the show … to take Daniel off the show?

TRISTAN:

Not in so many words, but it became apparent as it went along that this is what was going to happen.  I just started making it up in the scenes we had together, and things started to happen between Jess, Daniel and myself.  And, the late Paul Rauch (ex-co executive producer, Y&R) at the time was smart enough not to mess with it.  He thought, “This is interesting and this is good.  I am just going to let them do their own thing.”  And he did, and it kept on growing, but I came to the end of my ten shows and went to Australia with my son.  When we came back, I am sitting there waiting for my luggage at the airport.  I am waiting for this call from my manager.  She said, “You are now on a 12 month contract.”  There is a tremendously similarity between what happened here and what happened at General Hospital.  The circumstances were similar, only over there it was for 3 shows.  So, I had less time to do more.

Courtesy/CBS

MICHAEL:

Tristan, what does it make you feel like when you are seemingly in demand on two television network soap operas and other projects you have been in recently, including the web series, The Bay?

TRISTAN:

It is encouraging, especially with ageism being what it is in Hollywood that a person of my age can continue to get work and stir up interest.  I speak to so many of my friends, who are the same age and older.  They ask me, “How did you do it?”  And I say, to start with, “I never quit the business.”  I may have downsized a bit in terms of my visibility, but I always stayed in, and active.  The minute you quit, you’re done.  It’s very difficult to come back. That is the one thing I point to.

MICHAEL:

Jess, where do you want to see this all go between Jill and Colin, especially since you’re the writer’s secret weapon! (Laughs)

JESS:

That’s the one thing; I could never be a writer.  I could never do that!  I am an actor.  I don’t know where I really want to go, and that is really up to the writers.  I like the idea of Jill having a family.  It’s something I never really have done on the show.  I have always been a single unit on the show.  I mean, I have been part of the Chancellors, and part of the Abbotts.

DANIEL:

That is why I think Cane and Jill get along so well, because Cane and Jill were very hungry for a family, and after they broke us apart, I never crossed over to the Abbott/Newman side of the island.  Billy (Billy Miller, now David Tom) moved through us and moved over there. Tyler (Redaric Williams) moved through us and moved over there, but Cane has always been on his side of the island.

JESS:

Courtesy/CBS

Cane and Jill just have a very special bond.

MICHAEL:

What does Cane think about the possibility of Colin and Jill having a relationship again?  It must not sit well with him … at all!

DANIEL:

He is horrified by it, because he fears for Jill, but at the same time it allows for massive possibilities.  I think she is aware of what she is dealing with.

TRISTAN:

I think the ingredients are all here for an interesting family. Dysfunctional, and yet interesting, and I would like to see that explored more.

JESS:

I would like to see Jill’s touch of larceny explored, which this touches upon.  One of the more shocking things was a few months ago, Jill offered to sleep with the judge for Lauren to help get Michael out of jail!  I thought that is making a kind of statement.  I do like that part of her, that unexpected side of her, that practical “Do what needs to be done” realism side of her.  I like the idea, to a point; she has no problem with Colin.  But, I think the hit man element kind of threw her for a loop.

MICHAEL:

Do you think the writers now would ever have Cane do something bad, now that Colin is back in the picture? 

DANIEL:

Courtesy/CBS

I think they would have to be very careful with it.  It would have to be completely justifiable.  I think that what would be interesting is if Colin presents Cane with an offer he can’t refuse.  Whether it be for the well-being of somebody, or for the greater good, which would leave Cane with a dilemma that he has to try to figure out.

TRISTAN:

My background in daytime has always been around the adventure/romance dynamic.  I guess I would like to see a little more of that play out here at Y&R, and that makes it so easy to bring in the more larcenous ways of people when you bury it in the middle of an adventure/romance.  I see this as an opportunity.

MICHAEL:

Speaking of romance, Jill’s romantic life has been for the most part a dismal failure in the past.   Would you agree, Jess?

JESS:

She has always had such a tough-go at it.  Jill was always coming at from her lowly upbringing and her soul.  It started out where Jill was thinking that Colin was pulling the wool over her eyes.  But he changed, and maybe because he was so moved by the death of his son.  At that time, Colin was so sweet and caring to Jill, and she never had that before.  That was what is so special about this love for me.  In all the years I played Jill, she never truly loved someone from the good part of her to the good part of him. That was what was so precious to me.  That is why, again, she is so thrown right now.

TRISTAN:

Courtesy/CBS

When Colin was hauled off to jail, he never disliked her.  He never said anything else other than good stuff.   I believe he feels that way still.  However, he has a reason now for what he is doing.  He has a reason for everything he is doing, and the way he is going about it.

MICHAEL:

Tristan, did you know Jess and Daniel before Y&R?

TRISTAN:

No, I didn’t.  You know, none of my representation wanted me to do the original ten episodes on Y&R.  They said, “If you go on and do these shows that will take you out of the mix if they decide to bring somebody else on, and they decide to issue a contract.”  I said, “It’s Christmas. I will take the money and forget about it!” (Laughs)  That was exactly my motivation. (Laughs)  Right from day one though, we were all having fun together and then it snowballed, and then the public caught on to it.

MICHAEL:

Jess and Daniel, did you ever watch Tristan as the iconic Robert Scorpio on General Hospital, especially on his recent return to the show?

JESS:

I know that the fans love him in both roles, and they love him so much, and that’s really extraordinary.

DANIEL:

Courtesy/ABC

The reason I never saw Tristan on GH is the same reason when I met Jess.  I avoided her for a couple of weeks until we met on-screen.  Jeanne Cooper found out and thought, “Who is this rude person who has come on the show … and who won’t introduce himself?”  And when I found that out, I was upset because that was not my intention.  I wanted the first time Jess and I met to play out on-screen.  So I did not want to watch Tristan on GH, because to me he is Colin on Y&R.

TRISTAN:

The dynamic is actually different.  GH’s Scorpio is actually more swashbuckling.  He is much more comfortable in killing people.  This time around I shot three people!  They wrote for him this time on GH the way he was written back in the 80’s.  Prior to that, I was written as this dysfunctional parent, which was something out of left field, which today many people can’t reconcile, because there was no lead in to it.  The evidence that they brought up just didn’t weigh.  And at the end of the day, I never played it.  You can dictate it, because you as the actor are in front of the camera.  So, I never played a lot of that stuff.  Here at Y&R, he has something quite different.  It’s not Scorpio the spy.  It’s Colin the criminal, whose background we don’t entirely know.  The problem I have had with Scorpio ever since I picked him up in 2006 is that I am in competition with myself. It’s a very difficult character for me to play now, because of all the baggage he has and that the public expects so much from the character.  So when it’s not in the words, the public goes, “Wait a minute.  He was never written like this.”  You are then placed in the position of having to defend that.

MICHAEL:

Jess, over the years you have had some story points which haven’t always seemed in line with your character.  Because you’re beloved by the fans and respected by the industry, everyone always wants you to have great material.  Was there an instance that to you was so implausible to play?

JESS:

Courtesy/CBS

When they wrote that Jill was going to have to go into the Witness Protection Program, with Bobby (John Enos) and Brittany (Lauren Woodland), because I loved her babies, and it reminded me of my boys, and I was going to leave Genoa City with Jill being the CEO of one of the biggest corporations in the world, to become a nanny for Brittany, you think that was not hard to play?  Oh, my God, that was horrible!  There is a perfect example.  How am I going to do that?   It belies everything I knew of the character.

DANIEL:

You should have called me up. I would have told you your motivation! (Laughs)

JESS:

I know.  You would have known the answer! (Laughs)

TRISTAN:

You should have called up, “Beastie”! (Laughs)

MICHAEL:

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What can the three of you say that fans should look forward to with this storyline?

JESS:

I can’t see anything but excitement.  The thing that fans like the most, I truly believe in soap operas are: family, human relationships, and romance.  We are adding this little bit of criminal element to it.  So that’s a win, win, win all over the place.  And at long last, Jill being in love, and that’s wonderful.  Also, when Tristan brought up ageism in Hollywood, that’s another wonderful thing.  I think Jill and Colin were kind of a hot couple for our age, and we made it believable without being yucky, I hope.

DANIEL:

I think what the three of us bring to the show is a different dynamic than you would see with the Newmans or the Abbotts.  I will say that Tristan makes me more Australian than I have been in a while!

MICHAEL:

Wait, do you start talking more Australian?

DANIEL:

I kind of do!  I start, “G’daying” (Laughs)

MICHAEL:

Now last thing … this music box that Katherine left Jill.   Are they finally, truly going to come full circle and tell the story of this?

TRISTAN:

Courtesy/DanielGoddardTwitter

I look upon the music box as the base of this … walking into this new adventure … and what can come out of it and where it leads.

JESS:

Jill kept trying to get rid of it, but Colin has some new information about it, and that’s the bond.  It hasn’t resolved yet.  The link is the music box to everything!

TRISTAN:

It’s going to be great.  As Jess said, it’s a win, win situation.  It’s going to be exciting.   I am certainly looking forward to playing out the story, and being here at Y&R.