Photo Credit: Kathy Hutchins

Oh, what a tangled web we weave Sharon Newman, and look where it has gotten you this week on The Young and the Restless … in jail!  Fans of the number-one soap have witnessed a change in the character of the beloved heroine, Sharon Newman, over recent months!  She has turned into an over-the-top vengeful woman tired of being kicked around by the Newman clan.  So what’s a gal to do?  Well, she decided to fight back and try to claim the family biz!  Only Sharon doesn’t execute that too well, and it seems like all of her plans go up in smoke!

On-Air On-Soaps caught up with Daytime Emmy-winning actress, Sharon Case (Sharon Newman) to get her take on the direction the last Y&R writing regime took her character, and where the new regime plans to take her.  Plus, are Nick and Sharon still the end game?  Will Shick fans be jumping over the moon soon?  Or, is another man going to enter or re-enter Sharon’s orbit?   Having just been a key component to Y&R’s 10,000th episode milestone, Case looks at the storyline, and all of Sharon’s machinations in it, where once again, everyone believed Victor Newman was “dead” … but in true Y&R fashion, he was indeed alive!  And speaking of Ole Vic, Sharon Case expresses her thoughts on the attempt at the Shicktor pairing that clearly went south in the hearts and minds of fans everywhere … and that is putting it mildly.

And while much can be said, and all ready has, about the recent Twitter controversy involving Case and her co-star, Eric Braeden (Victor Newman), Sharon points out the good side of the social media platform that enables her to reach out and talk to fans worldwide, and more importantly, to get to know them.  And, with so many changes now behind-the-scenes of Y&R, including the casting of her on-screen son with yet another actor, and the show getting a huge push from the network and Sony, Sharon reveals that she believes the future is brighter, now more than ever, for the residents of Genoa City.

MICHAEL:

What do you think about where they have taken your character of Sharon?  She is so off the rails and at times such a bitch.  I call this whole thing the “Sharon debacle!” (Laughs) Or better put, perhaps a character assassination?  But in a way, you could justify her recent behavior and say Sharon deserves to try to get payback from the Newmans for how they have all mistreated her over the years!

SHARON:

Photo Credit: Kathy Hutchins

I just laughed, and I love it!  There were a couple of scenes I shot with Joshua Morrow (Nick) that were in the boardroom.  He said, “Sharon, when I read these scenes, I know you, and I know your sense of comedy.  I couldn’t wait to watch you do these scenes, because I know you are going to be so funny.”  And then when we were shooting the recent funeral, Joshua said, “Oh, my Gosh!  This is going to be one of the best and funniest scenes ever shot in the history of The Young and the Restless.”   So I said to Joshua, “You know how we always joke that we would like to do the fun, different, or comedic version of The Young and the Restless?  Well, this is it!  This is the dialog that we have always wished our characters could say, or thought would be funny if our characters would get to say.  Now I am actually getting to do that, because this is the direction they have taken my character.”   Joshua then goes, “I know!”  We think it’s fun and different.  I like playing Sharon that way.  The writers that we have right now have a storyline coming up that they are going to explain Sharon’s behavior, so all will work out fine.  They have a good plan.  But for years, I have wanted to play this version of Sharon, and even more so, and more than that! (Laughs)

MICHAEL:

It seems like the culmination of all the crap the Newmans have put her through, but Sharon is clearly so out of control!

SHARON:

She is out of control! Yes, you could explain that as her motives, that the Newman’s have done a lot of bad things to her, and she is getting them back.  And she is looking, in whatever way, to get her power back, and she has it justified in her mind.  The result is the dialog is fun, and the things she is doing are fun and out of the box, and I really like it.

MICHAEL:

What did you think when they had written, Sharon “cremates” Victor’s body?

SHARON:

Photo Credit: Kathy Hutchins

(Laughs) When she realized the body in the morgue was not Victor’s she says to herself out loud, “Oh well!  Victor must have planned this and faked his own death. And for some reason he wants people to think he is dead!”  So she goes along with it and thinks, “Well, I better cremate this body so nobody finds out that is not Victor.”  So she thinks this is Victor’s plan!  She initially thought when she was going to the morgue that Victor was dead.  Then, when she looked at the body and realized Victor wasn’t dead, she said to herself, “Oh, my gosh. You faked your own death! Why do you want people to think you’re dead?  I don’t know why you do, but whatever reason I will go along with it.”  And then she goes down the aisle to get married to Tucker, but for her, she is playing that Victor is dead and going along with his story.  She can’t tell Tucker the truth.  So when he says, “Marry me,” Sharon first thinks she can’t do that.  But then she rethinks it, and comes up with: if Tucker’s name is connected to hers they could really do well by the stock price and stabilize Newman, because when the word gets out that Victor is dead, it’s going to destabilize Newman even more.  So she thinks if she marries Tucker that can fix things until it all unravels.  Sharon did not know how it was all going to unravel, because she did not know what Victor’s ultimate plan was.

MICHAEL:

New Y&R head writer, Josh Griffith, in a recent interview with TV Guide, previewed that they have a plan to take Sharon Newman all the way down to a complete nervous breakdown … but that it will also reset the character, and perhaps, have her come back from the brink.

SHARON:

Yeah!  She has had breakdowns many times, but there is more coming.  Hopefully this will reset her, but we shall see! (Laughs)  I have not read it all yet in the scripts.

MICHAEL:

Courtesy/CBS

You and Joshua Morrow are now playing a different beat of your long-suffering star-crossed lover’s story!  Sharon and Nick are currently hating each other on the show!

SHARON:

Yeah, right now they are hating each other, but when they hate each other, it’s really out of love, because I think they love each other.

MICHAEL:

Do you think there is a possibility that Shick will get back together in the end!

SHARON:

Oh, absolutely!  They are a super couple! Of course, they will end up together in the end!

MICHAEL:

But there is a tease out there that there could be a man, or a brand new man, that will help Sharon out of this dark hole she has dug herself into.

SHARON:

You think there is a brand new man?

MICHAEL:

Photo Credit: Kathy Hutchins

Well, how is she going to get healed?  It always seems some “Knight in Shining Armor” rescues the beautiful damsel in distress, for a period of time, and then that goes belly up!  (Laughs)

SHARON:

Well, we shall see.  You know the writers have told me that we are not playing the storyline that men help Sharon, or that Sharon needs men.  I am glad.  I did not like that.   I thought it was stupid, and the audience never liked it.  I don’t know why every writing regime that has come along felt the need to play that Sharon needs to be weak and she needed to depend on a man, because that never went over well with the audience!  So why do we keep writing that?  It was ridiculous!  I was constantly playing against it and crossing out lines here and there in the script to take that element out of it.  It’s not entertaining to watch someone like that, and the writers now have told me we are getting away from that.

MICHAEL:

What are your thoughts on the regime change over at Y&R?  Having former GH Emmy-winning EP, Jill Farren Phelps at the helm, and Josh Griffith coming back in as head scribe?

SHARON:

I think that we have a really good formula going on right now with the plans that Sony and CBS have, along with our new team.  They have a formula and a plan in place to make The Young and the Restless successful in its ratings, and to continue to make it have a very long run for at least the next ten years, or God knows, maybe more.  That is what I am really excited about … that everyone is in the same boat and on the team with one vision and one plan to take the show in the direction it needs to for its own survival and longevity.  That’s what I think the entire cast is now excited about.  We are living in a world right now where long running shows are going off the air.  We have had this threat over our heads of  “What if we are next?”   So instead of having to live like that, now we have a team of executives from both studios who are 100% behind the show. Instead of there being a looming threat, now there is a promise and a plan that they have in mind to work with the writers to take this show to where it needs to go.  I think that is good news.

MICHAEL:

Photo Credit: Steven Bergman

Y&R just celebrated its 10,000th episode.   You have appeared in how many of those, do you think?  Did you ever think you would be on a soap for this long?

SHARON:

I have been on Y&R for 18 ½ years, so probably under half of those episodes I have appeared on.  In the early days and years I thought about, “What if I am playing this role forever?  How do I continue to make the role interesting for that many years?”  And then I realized, that the way you do it is that the writers write so many different things for your character.  When you’ve gone through all these different types of storylines it is almost like playing different kinds of characters, because you go through different jags and romances during that character’s life and point of view.  On a soap opera you get to really try everything as an actor, such as: mental breakdowns, marriage and divorces, and kleptomania.  You have really played almost every single thing there is to play, from the highest drama of losing a child, and becoming a mother.  I have gone through every single story that could ever be told for an actor.  I think I have played them all now.  I never thought I would get to do that!  And, when I was growing up and I decided to be an actress, I certainly did not think I would end up getting to play all this.

MICHAEL:

Sharon and Victor are finally, for all intent and purposes, done as a couple in any way, shape, or form.  Right?

SHARON:

Oh, yes!  That did not go over well.  I had a feeling it wasn’t going to, because when we did that storyline the year before with the prison wedding, it didn’t go over well then.  So when it came back up, I was saying, “Hey. I don’t think this is going to be a good idea,” simply because the fans didn’t like it, and the fans need to be behind what we do.  We are a fan-driven medium.

MICHAEL:

Photo Credit: Kathy Hutchins

Fans were clearly not happy or amused with this coupling.  And, I believe that is what you were saying when you were trying to explain in the retweet you sent out on Twitter regarding the negative fan response to the Shicktor pairing.   Is that true?

SHARON:

I was retweeting what the fans were saying, that is what retweet is for.  To give someone else’s voice … a louder voice.  People will ask you to retweet their favorite charity or their birthday, something, and you are trying to put their voice into a louder speaker.  So that is important to listen to what the fans say.  I have always come from that point of view, but there have been other people who I have worked with that don’t have that point of view.  And that is, what the fans want to see is not as important as what they want.  In this medium, the fans should and do have a say.  I knew when we were doing this storyline that it was not going to go over, because we had done it a year before with the prison wedding.  And even that, I was not sure was going to go over, and it didn’t.  And so this second go round, I was shocked that it came around again, and that we were going to attempt it again, because the fans blew up my Twitter page.  They let me know that they did not like it.

MICHAEL:

You have a new Noah, once again!  Your new on-screen son is being played by Robert Adamson, formerly of Hollywood Heights!  How is working with Robert? And do you see the SORASing of Noah and Summer a way to add a new wrinkle to the on-going Sharon/Nick/Phyllis triangle?

SHARON:

Photo Credit: Kathy Hutchins

I have always liked the Sharon/Nick/Phyllis triangle, and I like the Nick/Sharon/Adam triangle, too.  They are all good things and we should play all of them, as they all provide really good dynamics.  As far as Robert, he is a good kid.  So we will see what the audience thinks, and how they like him.  Then, we have a new Summer too, and again we will see how the audience likes that and how they have aged the characters.  So I think we have to see how that works.  They are both terrific actors.  It’s just when you age a character, it’s kind of tricky to see how that will work within the context of the other characters, and the storylines of the show.   I have met and worked with Robert a few times, but I have not worked with Hunter Haley King yet, who is playing Summer.

MICHAEL:

There have been some heavy-duty cast cuts on Y&R recently that sent a lot of big name soap actresses packing their bags.  You, however, look to be sticking around for some time to come.  What has it been like for you, with the fans of the show, who have stuck by your portrayal of Sharon no matter what situation she inevitably finds herself in?

SHARON:

When I was on The Talk to promote the 10,000th episode, I wanted to give a shout out to my Twitter peeps, because everything went so fast up there on the panel discussion with the hosts.  I wanted to give a shout out to:  Kathy@makeupdetective, @SharonCaseFan, and then there is Nicole.  We just talk, and I love them.  They are so great.  They talk about the storyline a lot, and whatever comes up in the news.  We talk about my boyfriend and their husbands. We talk about my Pomp jewelry line, and when I have new stuff that comes out.  They are just so cute.  Michael Muhney (Adam, Y&R) was the one who first got me involved on Twitter.  I was so afraid to get involved at the beginning. But then, I ended up meeting all these really nice people.  They are smart and funny, and I laugh out loud a lot sitting at my desk chatting with them.  They call you out on your stuff too, because they get to know you after a while, and it is fun.  Recently, I was walking down the street and a girl came up to me and said, “Sharon, I follow you on Twitter.”  And I asked her name, and she said, “Morgan,” and I said, “Oh my God, Morgan!  I recognize your face now!”  So yeah, I wanted to give a shout out to all my favorite gals, and Frank too!

MICHAEL:

Photo Credit: Kathy Hutchins

So, what did you think of the content of Y&R’s 10,000th episode?   Many fans have been underwhelmed by it, but they also know there is big, big stuff ahead for Sharon!

SHARON:

I thought the 9999th and 10,000th were both great, and one is the set up to the other.  But I think the 9999th episode was the more fun one with lots of activity.  The 10,000th episode was more classic Y&R, and a wrap-up of what these 10,000 episodes have meant.  It was sort of about Nikki and Victor, and their classic relationship.  We tried to get a way from the camp in the big 10,000th episode.  But what I can say is, the next few weeks of air shows are going to be a very exciting time to tune-in!