Poor Sharon Newman Abbott! It’s been a series of devastating events that have led one of Genoa City’s heroines to begin acting out in ways we have not seen before.

I mean, what would you do? The love of your life rekindles your relationship with a night of passion, only to go back to the woman who stole him from you in the first place. Your best friend professes his love for you and you send him away into a snowstorm. He ends up dead by saving your son who has fallen through the ice and almost dies, too. Your second marriage has fallen apart through a series of lies and manipulations and you realize everything you touch… you lose.

Well, Daytime Emmy Award winning actress Sharon Case, tells me what’s behind Sharon’s emotional turmoil. As many “Y&R” fans know, just this past week she spent a drunken night of passion
with Billy Abbott and has begun to steal
items and put them in her purse. Hmmm…

MICHAEL:

Many fans were overjoyed that Nick and Sharon finally reconnected and made love in the cabin! What are your feelings on the story?

SHARON:

I loved the storyline because it has so much conflict in it. I can speak for the actors that nobody wanted to see Nick and Sharon get back together and live happily ever after in one episode. Our audience wants to see them together, and so do we, but not all in one episode. It misses the point. I love that Nick and Sharon slept together and they are playing Sharon and Nick’s feelings for each other. Because for years, where was Sharon and Nick’s feelings for each other? Why weren’t they ever in the same room with each other? What happened? Well, we are back, and that does not mean Sharon and Nick should get together tomorrow, but we should be in the same room together, because there is conflict. In my opinion, this is what should have been playing out all along.

MICHAEL:

They have their son, Noah, but it seemed like over the past few years the show was not playing those storyline beats as parents. Not until recently, however.

SHARON:

We have a son! Where has this storyline been for the past two years? Thank God, we are back and Nick and Sharon had sex together. One of my favorite scenes was when we ran into each other in the office and Nick told me he wants to stay with Phyllis. Oh, my word, after everything we have been through and Sharon’s hopes were high, this was tragic! She has already filed for divorce from Jack and she is thinking, this is it. Once again, he says he is going to stay with Phyllis. He cheated, and now to hear this, how do you ever get past this?

MICHAEL:

Obviously, Phyllis’s manipulations made an impact on Nick.

SHARON:

When Sharon spoke with Nick in the office, he did not come out and say it. Sharon dragged it out of him, and pressure-cooked him into talking, and he was wondering what is going on, and not saying anything. So, I don’t know how you overcome that. I don’t know how any one gets over that. I guess you get over it by doing exactly what Sharon is doing… having a nervous breakdown and acting very unlike her.

MICHAEL:

She is acting so bizarre!

SHARON:

It’s stress that causes her to do weird things and panic. These are really extreme circumstances, where people can blank out or do things unlike themselves, or freak out. They even could go blind, temporarily.

MICHAEL:

Yes, hysterical blindness!

SHARON:

I heard someone who was having a nervous breakdown got hysterical blindness in real life. I know of people who have gone blind from stress or illness, and things can happen temporarily to you. With Sharon, she does not remember moments of time, here and there.

MICHAEL:

I remember after my major back-surgery and the stress of the recovery, I was forgetting things and I didn’t know why, but I think it was because of the stress it put on my mind and body.

SHARON:

People think it’s the illness or surgery, and it’s really the stress that’s connected to the illness or surgery or personal loss, or things like that.

MICHAEL:

So, it makes perfect sense. Sharon had lossed so much. Here she slept with Nick. He does not go back to her. Noah almost died, and Brad’s dead!

SHARON:

Can you imagine? Her child is saved and Brad dies, and she had sent Brad away! She was not that nice to him leading up to that day. She had to stop him from having any hope, but that does not matter now because he is dead. She feels bad about that. It’s awful! Jack was another horrible loss, a tragic loss. She tried everything she could possibly do to make her marriage work. She said, “Jack you are a liar, and I am going to have to adjust myself to live with that.” She tried to deal with Jack’s broken promises again and again. One thing is for sure; a promise from Jack doesn’t mean anything. How do you live with that in a marriage? It’s so disheartening.

MICHAEL:

And, Phyllis is just so mean to her!

SHARON:

She is a mean girl and she does not like Sharon, and she is mean to her.

MICHAEL:

Do you think Sharon can handle Phyllis’s machinations?

SHARON:

Look at the things that Sharon has handled in her life. Of course she can!

MICHAEL:

So, with all of this heartbreak the time was ripe to break her to pieces. It’s very interesting how they are taking apart Sharon’s spirit and mental stability.

SHARON:

I am interested in how they are doing it, too. One thing about Maria Arena Bell’s (co head-writer, “Y&R”) writing is that when you have a breakdown, it’s not only for an hour in a day you have a breakdown, and then life goes on. This is something that happens here and there a little bit each day, over periods of time, and over weeks. That’s how breakdowns happen. I think when people talk about a nervous breakdown they say, “I had a nervous breakdown between 12 noon and one, and now I am all better.” (She laughs) It does not also mean you are in a straightjacket full time. It just means you are going to act bizarre and you are going to have panic attacks at different intervals. It will be hard to deal with.

MICHAEL:

So, what is going on in Sharon’s mind? How are you playing this?

SHARON:

It’s a loss. This is the second marriage she has lost. She has almost lost her second child, which reminds her and reactivates Cassie’s death for her. Then, Nick does not want her and her friend has died. So, every time she thinks, ”Now I have my life together and now I can see a vision of where my future will lie.” You can see the future and it gives you hope. Every time Sharon has mapped it out it has been torn to pieces. She has to overcome it, restart it, and redraw it, not only with her first marriage, but her second, and also with her child, Cassie. That’s why Sharon is in this place right now. It makes you so fearful that you are going to be alone for the rest of your life; that no matter what you go out in life to create, it’s going to be ruined anyway.

MICHAEL:

Will there be a ‘night in shining armor’ along the way?

SHARON:

Isn’t that the hope in life that we all have? I hope so, and I don’t know who it will be.

MICHAEL:

Nick!

SHARON:

What you hope is that Nick will come around and be a good man. What you want to have happen is Nick to snap out of it one day and be the man he needs to be, and who Sharon wants him to be, so they can live happily ever after.

MICHAEL:

As the character of Sharon, what would you still love to do with her, or get a chance to play that you haven’t had in all of your time here at “Y&R”? I mean, Sharon has been through almost every soap storyline imaginable.

SHARON:

You know what I wanted to do? This will probably never happen, but before I knew Brad’s character was dying I did not know where they were going with Sharon and Brad’s storyline. Recently before he died, it looked like they might put us together again because Jack and Sharon were getting a divorce, and Brad was sneaking into my world with Phyllis’s assistance. I thought, “Huh, maybe they are putting us back together. If we were a couple, what kind of couple would we be?” I had this idea that Brad is this dual personality, or dual person assassin guy. What if we had this very cool, “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” relationship, and I get involved as an action hero. If you ask me, anything I would like to do with the character that I haven’t done? It would be “Sharon Action Hero”. I would have this matrix and dominatrix outfit and I would be really good at firing weapons!
(She laughs)

MICHAEL:

Have you noticed a difference in the writing, now that Maria Arena Bell is heading up the team?

SHARON:

Absolutely, and stories are better. Maria is just amazing. It’s got a bit of the old days in it, and every one of the actors feels like it’s the old days and everyone is happy. It’s so nice, and we deserved this. The cast and the show have been through a lot, and I am so happy for everyone here now that we have Maria. It’s what we needed and what we are looking for, someone who is a talented writer and knows the backbone of the show.

MICHAEL:

I know many of your cast mates who I have interviewed and posed this question to have responded the same way. Tell me a few words about working with Joshua Morrow (Nick).

SHARON:

I feel most comfortable when I am working with him. We have worked together for so many years, and even if I have not worked with him in a long time, I go right back into a groove with him that’s familiar and easy.

MICHAEL:

How about working with Peter Bergman, as Jack?

SHARON:

Peter is great to work with. He is very professional and always prepared. He has brought a lot to the scenes. He had a lot of great creative ideas, and a lot of what he brought to it was what that marriage was about. I feel like that marriage was really an awesome representation of modern marriage today. You don’t see a lot of that on soaps; it was not that thunderstorm marriage where kids were dying and house burning down. These were representing every day real problems that marriages have, such as dishonesty and how that whittles away at the marriage, and what that does to two people. It was a different story of marriage, and I really liked that. I liked that Sharon ran into Jack after her marriage to Nick fell apart. She lost her entire identity after that happened, and needed a new one.

MICHAEL:

How is working with your on-screen SORAS’d son, Kevin Schmidt as Noah?

SHARON:

He is a very talented actor. As a guy, he is silly and funny. When I look at him, I can’t believe I have an older son now on the show. I guess in reality, I could have a son that age, I think. No! I could have a son Noah’s age, but not like the actor’s age. He is so great and with Camyrn Grimes (Ex-Cassie) we did not age her. She was a very talented actress and we just watched her grow up. I have been lucky with the casting of my on-screen kids.

MICHAEL:

How was seeing your friend Don Diamont (Brad) depart the show? Have you spoken with him since he left?

SHARON:

No, I haven’t, not since his going away party here. It was hard for me. Everyone was sad. Don was great through it. He went through every different kind of emotion at the party, and he gave a very moving speech.