Eric Braeden has played Victor Newman on The Young and the Restless since 1980, but he almost quit before he really got into the role. On the May 4 episode of Still Here Hollywood with Steve Kmetko, Braeden, 85, talked about his journey as Victor. The plan was for him to die and never be heard from again. That didn’t happen. Show creator William J. Bell decided to give him a contract instead. However, Braeden nearly stepped away from the role of a lifetime. What happened?
Eric Braeden Almost Left Young & Restless
While Bell wanted to sign Braeden to a contract, he soon had other ideas. He said, “They had gotten to a point where I wanted to leave the show after about a year. I couldn’t stand the medium, to be frank with you. It is daunting.”
Braeden continued saying that there is “nothing harder in this business” for an actor or a writer than working daytime shows. He said of soap operas, “It’s the hardest medium there is. I’ve done them all. It is relentless, ruthless.”
Every scene, he explained, requires actors to learn their lines and interpret them as best they can. Braeden claimed he regularly works 15, 20 or 25 pages of script in a day, noting, “The most I’ve done was 62 in one day.” He said there wasn’t much time to really think about how the part should be played. It was also just cramming to get it all done. However, Braeden claimed that once Bell, who passed away in 2005, “humanized” Victor, he ultimately “decided to stay on the show.”
Sick Of Being The Villain
Eric Braeden first told Bill he couldn’t do the job anymore. He said he spent too much time playing villains. Braeden said it’s too demeaning and dull. He jokes that IMDB showed many villains he had played in the past. Braeden appeared on shows such as Wonder Woman, Gunsmoke, and The Six Million Dollar Man.
The turning point came when Victor made his first appearance on screen with Melody Thomas Scott, who plays Nikki Newman on the soap. Braeden said during that scene he opened up about where he’d come from, which was an orphanage where he was left at the age of 7. At that moment, he knew he was staying on the Young & Restless.
He said, “And once I did that scene, I said, ‘No, I’m staying,’ because it opened up huge possibilities that you could go in psychologically.” He said it explained Victor’s “devotion to family” and why he would “fight anyone to maintain” it.
Now, he’s grown accustomed to daytime and says he doesn’t like doing primetime shows anymore. He said it takes too long.
What do you think about Eric Braeden almost leaving the hit soap opera many years ago?
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