Photo Credit: Edward McGowan/Plain Joe Studios

How long can you hold on to a secret?  Well, if you’re The Young and the Restless Sharon (Sharon Case), you certainly have plenty of experience in it.  For more than a year, the CBS daytime drama’s executive producer and head writer, Chuck Pratt Jr. has been weaving a tale where at first an unassuming Sharon falls victim to a vindictive doctor with a grudge against Sharon’s long time love, Nick Newman (Joshua Morrow).  However, there was already a flag on the play before that! Sharon had miscarried Dylan’s (Steve Burton) baby and never told him.  Shortly thereafter. she entered the psychiatrist facility Fairview, and that’s when life-changing events, deceptions, and a baby seemingly out of nowhere came into Sharon’s orbit.

Thanks to Dr, Anderson’s (Elizabeth Bogush) machinations, Sage’s (Kelly Sullivan) newborn son with Nick is kidnapped, and given to Sharon (who doesn’t even remember giving birth). Meanwhile, Nick and Sage grieve the loss of their son who they think has “died”, while Adam (Justin Hartley) is revealed to be the true baby daddy only that is being kept under wraps.  Later, Sage figures out that her baby Christian is now Sharon’s baby named “Sully”, and confronts Sharon who now also has figured out the truth.   Next, poor Sage perishes in a terrible car crash on her way to tell Nick his “son” is alive.  Leaving, Sharon as the one person who knows the explosive truth that can destroy her happiness with Dylan!  What will she do next? 

On-Air On-Soaps sat down with Y&R’s enduring star, Sharon Case to get all her insights on the twisty road of her current storyline, and being smack dab in the middle of another arc where Sharon’s house of cards can come tumbling down at any given moment.  In our entertaining and candid chat, Sharon reveals if she thinks her on-screen alter ego can survive if the truth about baby Sully comes to light.  Plus, she weighs-in on her leading men: Steve Burton, Joshua Morrow, and potentially Justin Hartley, if the show were to visit the Shadam romance.

One thing is clear, no matter how dramatic, outlandish, or complex, Sharon Case is always present to give 110% commitment to the material she is given, which has continued to translate into garnering her legions of fans worldwide, who are always concerned about just what mess Sharon is going to find herself next!  Here’s what this Daytime Emmy winner had to say about all the developments of Genoa City’s Sharon’s current plight.

When you first got into this story, and Sharon lost her baby, and then she went to Fairview and was being drugged … when were you enlightened into what this story was actually going to turn out to be, and what was going on?

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SHARON:  I didn’t understand what was going on, originally.  It didn’t dawn on me until months later.  No one sits down with me and tells me anything, nor do I ask.  I like to just see what happens, and be surprised.   It made me realize that this is one large storyline, probably around January of this year.  I thought, “Wow, we have been playing this storyline for a long time, and I can see where it is going now.”   Last summer when they put Sharon in Fairview that is all I knew.  I was going to Fairview, and then all of a sudden it turned into her getting a baby at Fairview.   I just remember when I heard my character was going back to Fairview.  I thought, “Oh, no.  Not Fairview.”  And, the only reason I don’t like going to Fairview is that I don’t get to wear any cute outfits! (Laughs)

You can’t be sexy Sharon all glammed up in Fairview.  I can see that could pose a major problem! (Laughs)

SHARON:   What can you wear at Fairview?  I said, “How long will I be actually in Fairview?”  The powers-that-be said, “Three months.”  I went, “No!  Not the whole summer!  What about all my cute summer dresses? (Laughs)  It’s my favorite time of year.”

When Dr. Anderson (Elizabeth Bogush) was drugging  Sharon it was so cruel.  Was that at all hard for you to play?  Usually you are up for anything the show throws at you.

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SHARON:   I was up for anything.  When they do roll the storyline out, and I see the scripts I am always ready to go.  I always say, “It sounds like fun to me!”

What did you think about the performances of Elizabeth Bogush, who played evil Dr. Anderson?  She played the character so creepy!

SHARON:  She was great.  Elizabeth was so creepy in a “Stepford Wives” kind of way.  I had no idea when I went into the scenes in the hospital setting what the character would be, other than here is the doctor.  I honestly did not know I would end up having this long storyline, and the character of Sharon would have this relationship with her.  Every day for several months it was me and Elizabeth in the make-up chair getting ready for our scenes, and that was my life with her during her run on the show.  It would be just me and her at Fairview, and sometimes Sharon would have a visitor, but then Dr. Anderson didn’t allow any visitors after awhile … well, just Patty (Stacy Haiduk)! (Laughs)  It’s fun how your on-screen life can change here at Y&R.  Last summer it was Sharon, Patty, and Elizabeth.  It was hilarious!

Let’s recap for a moment:  Sharon miscarried Dylan’s (Steve Burton) baby, and she did not tell him.  That was her first “oops” in all of this.   She keeps repeating this ‘hiding a secret’ pattern, and it usually involves a baby!

SHARON:  Sharon is not good at being honest with her man.  There are people like that, and more out there than you think.  Sometimes you see a character on a soap opera doing something wrong.  The fans will then say, “She has got to stop that!  She is doing something wrong.”  Like it’s unheard of?   Actually, I think it’s the norm, although maybe it’s just the people I hang around with! (Laughs)

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Would you then say, ‘always being afraid to lose her man’ is definitely a common theme for Sharon?

SHARON:  All the relationships Sharon has been in have fallen apart, and all the people around her relationships have also fallen apart.  Nick’s (Joshua Morrow) have, and Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) and Victor‘s (Eric Braeden), so it’s a worry for her.

When you found out the next part of the story, where Sharon thinks she gave birth and would get baby Christian, and it was really Sage’s (Kelly Sullivan) newborn baby, what was your initial reaction to that major plot point?

SHARON:  I look back on the part in the story where Sage got pregnant, and who knew all of this would come out of that?  When you look at a long and intricate storyline like this, it’s interesting to look back on it.  There was a whole bible of a storyline written here that involved many people.

Y&R executive producer and head writer, Chuck Pratt Jr. has laid out a long term story here that has many far-reaching tentacles.  It seems reminiscent of the type of story Y&R creator, the late Bill Bell, would develop and tell.  Would you agree?

SHARON:  It has the long storyline with many twists and turns that involves many people, and it is slowly told over a year.  That is the Bill Bell style of soap writing.  I am always surprised to read a script and find out what happens next.  The actors on set are always excited going, “Do you know what happens after this?  I’m dying to know!” The storylines shock us, and surprise us, and we like that.

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The last time Sharon kept a massive deception was during the whole Summer (Hunter King) paternity DNA results, and here she goes again!  Did you at some point go, “Oh, my God?  I am doing another baby deception?”

SHARON:  I guess people repeat their behavior.

Recently, Sharon had a freak out after a nightmare about Sage, and then when she woke up she reached for her pills in her nightstand.  Were those her meds?

SHARON:  Those were Sharon’s every day bipolar meds.  She took them out to take one, but then decided to not take them, and to actually stop taking them all together. Maybe she thought that she wanted to stay in control, thus she decided against taking them at that point.

What did you think of the car crash that ultimately killed off Sage, and saw Kelly Sullivan’s exit from Y&R?  What did you think of your final scenes with her?

SHARON:  Kelly Sullivan was great as Sage.  I worked with her for a long time, and I was sad to see her go.  She had become part of the family.  The car crash scenes came out really great.  It was a car crash scene where someone dies, and you have a baby there on top of it, and I’m wearing high heels out in the street!  For as much as we had to do it went really well, and turned out very good.  I am glad that in the last scenes I did with Kelly that there was something very special like that for us.  They were really serious and emotional series of scenes.

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When you have to play Sharon having haunting visions of Sage, how do you perform and tape those scenes?

SHARON:  We do two passes it at.  We do a normal master of the scene, and then the camera resets in my position, or hers, and then we run the scene again where one of us is acting straight to the camera.  I don’t prefer doing that.  Some performers, such as singers play right to the camera.  A lot of performers in all genres play right to the camera, so you think it shouldn’t be that weird for me to play to the camera.  I’m a performer, but I am just used to doing it a different way.  Playing the role of Sharon I am never looking at the camera.  So when I have to do that it’s weird.

Does Sharon’s nightmares, regarding Sage taunting her, make Sharon want to shut the truth down some more  … or purge herself and finally come clean?

SHARON:   She’s back and forth on that.  Some days she talks to Mariah (Camryn Grimes) and feels she has to say the truth.  But then she has always stopped from doing that, because she thinks: “How?  How am I going to say the truth?  What will be the fallout?”  She feels she must do it, and it’s got to be done, but then when she goes to do it she thinks that there is no way that she can.

Photo Credit: HutchinsPhoto.com

What do you think about the relationship dynamic between Mariah and her mother Sharon is in all of this?  Mariah seems to be acting like the mother in the relationship extolling advice, et al! (Laughs)

SHARON:  I love it, and Camryn and I were just talking about that.  We were saying to each other how these characters have this relationship now where they keep each others secrets, and they are each others confidantes, and they have each others back.  Sometimes there is even a little bit of comedy in that.  It reminds me kind of Sharon and Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) at times.  Although Sharon and Nikki are adversaries, they do love each other.  Sharon and Mariah are clearly a little different of a relationship, but I will say they kind of remind me of Lucy and Ethel from “I Love Lucy”.  A lot of this storyline has allowed for Sharon and Mariah to be on-screen together a lot, and supporting each other through the story.  I love building the mother/daughter relationship up, and showing all of these dramatic incidents, and the secrets that we share.  It really builds the relationship that Sharon and Mariah have between them.  I am very glad about that.

Camryn Grimes has been terrific in the role of Mariah.  After playing your little girl Cassie so many years ago, what do you think of her as this all grown-up actress?

SHARON:  She is unbelievable in this role!  She played Cassie, who was this very sweet simple little girl to now this complex, funny, interesting, and kind of dark, but real woman Mariah, who also happens to be Sharon’s other daughter.

Courtesy/CBS

Is Sharon partly afraid that Mariah could crumble and reveal the truth about baby Sully, or even betray her, and thus screw up Sharon’s plans?

SHARON:  Yes.  I think Sharon thinks that Mariah could do that.

Is there a certain manipulation Sharon might do to Mariah to keep her from spilling the beans?

SHARON:   No.  I think Sharon just keeps bringing it up all the time … constantly. (Laughs)   She will go, “You can’t tell anyone, you know.” (Laughs)  She does this every day. (Laughs)

Does Sharon think right now she has this perfect life with Dylan and Sully, therefore she does not want to endanger that happiness?

SHARON:  Sharon does think this is the perfect life for her, for now.  If she went back to how she felt having the perfect family with Nick and Cassie, was that better or worse? She wouldn’t have changed that for anything in the world, but things change, and life moves on.  She is just happy to land in a similar place in her life again.  Sharon feels lucky to have Dylan, family, and children … all good things.

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Sharon is very concerned that if Dylan knew she lost the baby originally, and that Sully is not his biological child, that it would crush him.  After all, he went through this whole similar scenario once before!

SHARON:  Of course, and it would break up Sharon’s family.  Losing Cassie broke up her family before.  Losing this child could do the same thing.  What if Dylan reacted the same way as Nick and loses it, and it breaks up their marriage?  And also, Sharon doesn’t want Dylan to go through what he went through before.  That loss of a child made him and Chelsea (Melissa Claire Egan) break up, and this could do the same.  Sharon just doesn’t want to mess around with her relationship and her marriage.  I don’t blame her.

Meanwhile, here we have Nick (Joshua Morrow) who is grieving the loss of Sage, and he’s lost.    It’s clear to all that Sharon loves Nick.  We see that in their scenes together now.

SHARON:  She really does love Nick.  But, I love how in the story with Sharon being in love with Dylan we found a way for her to love Nick, and be really open about that, and how she does feel, which is:  “Love ya.  Will always love ya.  But, circumstances are that we are not together.  Doesn’t mean I don’t love ya.”  Sharon obviously knows Nick is in pain, but he married Sage, and Sharon married Dylan.  I guess you get to the point in your life where Sharon is and a lot has happened.  You have been married a few times, and you are not just in love with one person.  There is enough real estate for a couple of people in her heart.

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She must think that if Nick found out that she once again hid the truth from him about another paternity situation, he would hate her yet again!

SHARON:  Yes, he would!  Remember, they almost got married.  They were at the altar and Phyllis (Gina Tognoni) came back and blew the whole thing out of the water, and they never got back together since then.  I think it’s a long road, but part of the road if Sharon and Nick were ever getting back together are coming out of these casual everyday family scenes.  These are where Sharon and Dylan are hanging out with the kids, and Nick’s over there too, and there’s interaction.  These are little seeds where things grow from every time you have more experience with someone.

Could you see Sharon wanting to be with the baby and Nick, should the truth come out at the expense of Dylan in her life?

SHARON:  No, not just suddenly up and leaving Dylan, and wanting to be with Nick.  I think that would be weird.  I could see a slow progression of something like that happening though.

Have you thought about what would happen if Sharon found out that Adam (Justin Hartley) is actually Sully, AKA Christian’s baby’s daddy?

SHARON:  Sharon and Adam haven’t been together for a long time.  I always thought they were a great couple.  Maybe this would be the thing that brings them together.

Photo Credit: Edward McGowan/Plain oe Studios

I was thinking this the entire time, and going over in my head how Chuck Pratt might be constructing the story long term.  At one point I thought they were playing the attraction between Adam and Sharon, when he was holding the baby and she was in the scene with him.  That’s when I thought, “Oh, my God.  They are finally going to get Shadam back together at some point!”  I thought that would be the greatest twist in the whole story arc.

SHARON:   The story is brilliant.  I think Chuck has done a great job with this.  I also though that Adam and Sharon getting back together would be the greatest twist through all of this.  Their love story happened a long time ago, and we are still in the middle of many twists in the story.  It hasn’t landed there yet, and we will see if it even does.  But what a great way for Sharon and Adam to get back together, and there is this baby!  What an interesting way to tell the story.  But, I don’t know if it ends there, or even happens!  But yes, it certainly had crossed my mind, and everyone else’s mind.  Shadam is a fun couple.

And one of your favorites!

SHARON: Yes, along with Nick and Sharon, Brad (Don Diamont) and Sharon, and Jack (Peter Bergman) and Sharon … (Laughs)

What’s the deal, Sharon Case?  You get to work with all the hot guys on the show!   Do you make a request like, “I must work with all the hot guys on the set?” (Laughs)

SHARON:  I never ask for the hot guys.  They just force them on me! (Laughs)  By the way, I don’t mind.  I am a professional actress, so I don’t want to complain. (Laughs)

What are the fans on social media saying to you about Sharon’s current story plight?  Are they supportive of her, or are they fed up with her shenanigans at this point?

SHARON:   I get a lot of positive things about Sharon and Dylan.  I also get positive things of people wanting Sharon and Nick back together.  And then the third thing I always hear is that they are tired of Sharon getting the short end of the stick in a storyline, and being not so well liked.  But, I do think that is starting to change, and that Sharon is not so hated anymore, either.  There was a time where I think she was hated all over town.  However, now there are characters in Genoa City who are becoming friendlier to Sharon, like Abby, and maybe possibly Victoria (Amelia Heinle). People who were really down on her, and had nothing nice to say about her.  I think it’s finally turning around.

Courtesy/CBS

I always come back to the heroine Sharon, and how she has gotten far away from that over time and years on the show, and from different writing regimes.  She has done some pretty horrible things, where you still feel kind of bad for her, though.

SHARON:  Bad things have to happen, because someone has to do it on a soap.  Back in the old days Sharon was always the damsel the distress, and Phyllis was the bad person perpetrating all of the crimes.  But at that point, I did feel there were a lot of complaints that Sharon was truly was a damsel in distress.  She wasn’t very colorful.  So now over the years we have made her do bad things.  Maybe they took that too far over the years of her just being bad without justification, but I think we really cleaned all that up when we discovered Sharon was bipolar.  It gave motive, and reason for all of that.  I really like where Sharon is now, and how she has ended up, where she is still a heroine and a romantic lead.  But you know, all romantic leads are supposed to be a little crazy.  That’s in the text book of writing these kinds of characters.

Look at Erika Slezak (Ex-Viki)!  She was the leading heroine and lady of One Life to Live, and the character of Viki suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and mental illness, too!

SHARON: Yes! Everybody is flawed. 

But let’s be real … Sharon definitely has had an ongoing issue of baby switches!

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SHARON:  Yes, but this one is not her fault!  I think lately they have been writing that when she does something wrong she didn’t mean to, and it’s not her fault.  Sharon hasn’t done anything bad that is her fault.  For those fans who are saying: “I don’t want her to get the short end of the stick, anymore,” things have been slowly, but surely turning around over the last few years with Sharon not getting the short end of the stick.  Sharon was handed a baby, and now she has to make a hard decision.  What wouldn’t have been the short end of the stick?  Sage died in a car crash!  I think lately, Sharon has had a lot of great story and exposure with many characters on the show, which I love.

Let’s talk about your leading men!

SHARON: Yes, I love talking about them!

So let’s start with Steve Burton.  What did you think of him when you first met him?  And, what do you think of him now?

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SHARON:  When I first met Steve we weren’t working together at all.  I didn’t know that we ever would.  He was involved in another storyline, and what tends to happen sometimes is we don’t see the person ever, so we don’t get to know them.  As an example:  Justin Hartley.  I have probably seen him 4 or 5 times, ever.  We were not in the same storyline.  If I see Justin, it’s like less than 60 seconds at a time.  That is how it was for me and Steve for a long time.  Then, they put us together in a storyline.  I went, “Oh, my God.  I can’t believe it!”  Joshua always makes fun of me all the time for this, but I was excited, because I was going to be in a storyline with Jason! (Laughs)  I watched Steve as Jason on GH for so long, and he was so amazing in the role.  He was this dark assassin dude, and I didn’t watch the show that closely.  So, I saw him as a hit man, and that is what I gleaned from his character, and I love hit men! (Laughs)   So, this was very exciting for me to work with him.  Then I start working with Steve, and the character he is now playing (Dylan) and he is nothing like Jason.  Steve is really nice!  He wasn’t a hit man.  I am going to have to ask Steve to make an adjustment. (Laughs)

Next up, give me your thoughts on Joshua Morrow.  He is still one of my favorite people, ever.  When I come to visit the set this guy steps up.  He’s funny, and he’s always here for Team Y&R!

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SHARON:   Yes, I feel the same, and in many ways.  Joshua is one of my favorite people on the show.  He’s one of my favorite actors that I have ever worked with.  Also, he is one of the most brilliant, charming, connected, funny, grounded people that I have ever met.  Joshua is so colorful, great, and easy, and open.   I couldn’t have asked for a better co-star, and I couldn’t have dreamt it any better to have someone like that to work with, and to have such a long term relationship with.  We know each other so well now.  We can just look at each other onstage and know what we are thinking, and start laughing.

And then we come to Mr. Justin Hartley.  What are your thoughts on this talented gent?

SHARON:  As I said, I have barely met him, and still to this day!  When he came on to the show, he had really big shoes to fill.  He had a lot of nuances of how Michael Muhney played the character, and that is really unusual to be able to do that.  I thought Justin was a very smart, and clever actor.  Justin is a really handsome guy, too!

In closing, I am sure Sharon fans will want to know: Do you think Sharon can come through this latest ordeal OK?  Heaven forbid … we don’t want to see her back at Fairview.

Photo Credit: HutchinsPhoto.com

SHARON:  I think there will be a great ending as great as this whole story has been.   I don’t think there will ultimately be a sad ending for Sharon, but again, I don’t know what is going to happen.  I can say that I am not concerned that something terrible is going to happen in the end to her.  Something has to happen where everyone figures out the truth, and the truth hurts, but beyond that I think she will survive it.  I mean, how many truths have we all come back from in our own lives?  We all have to survive and solider on with our lives.  It happens all of the time, and we are still here.

So, how do you think the true identity of baby Sully will be revealed to all?  Would you like to see a Shadam romance revisited?  Are you rooting for Dylan and Sharon to make it through this whole ordeal, or can you see a Sharon and Nick finding their way back to each other in the near future? What have you thoughts about all the twists and turns of Y&R’s latest baby tale?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below!