guys all the time. One of those actors turned out to be Todd Bridges [Laughs]….
How did you manage to avoid the child star curse? I mean, you never had to go to rehab or have your driver’s license suspended….
I’m not quite sure. I didn’t have a lot of friends in the business. I stayed home a lot. My parents lived far away from Hollywood — literally. I grew up in the mountains up around Ojai for many years. That set-up allowed me to live a stable life. Also, while I worked a lot, I never hit a top ten show. And that’s probably a big reason why I didn’t go down the child star route. If I had five to eight years of consistent work on one show, my story may have turned out differently, but I was busy hopping around from show to show as a guest star. I wasn’t out there partying.
Are you happy you’ve stayed on Y&R for this long? Or do you regret not taking a chance on Hollywood like Shemar Moore did (although he had a gig lined up when he left Y&R)?
No regrets, man. None. I’m extremely happy that the last two decades of my life has consisted of steady employment, which is very difficult to find. I remember during my first five years of being on Y&R, many of my prime-time TV friends criticized me for calling a soap opera my home. Those same friends are now calling me asking me to give our casting director their name and picture — and a recommendation! I appreciate the employment Y&R has provided me — and the opportunity to work outside of the show on an unlimited basis.
Actually, I went up for CRIMINAL MINDS against Shemar! It was down to four of us cats. I remember telling Shemar, “This is it! This is the Willy Wonka Golden Lottery Ticket! Take this seriously.” He was like, “I don’t know about this. The script isn’t great. I don’t know if this is my kind of role.” And I said, “Shit, I’ll take it!” [Laughs] I knew CRIMINAL MINDS was going to be a big hit. Would I have liked to have jumped ship? Hell, yeah! That’s every actor’s dream: work five to eight years on a hit show and then, after it goes off the air, you watch the cheques pile up for next ten to fifteen years.
That’s one of the drawbacks about working in daytime: You know you’re never going to be paid past your first run. Yes, we get cheques from the foreign sales of Y&R, but nothing like prime time!
But on the flip side, if you look at the history of TV, the roles of African American males are very few and far between. These shows will have one token minority role, which is Latin or African American. God, I feel bad for Asians, but not too bad because I’m not Asian! [Laughs] Had I not been on Y&R, I’d have been out there hustling to try to land of these rare roles. I mean, I can count on two hands how many African American males are acting on TV. We have Hill Harper, Shemar, Jesse L. Martin but they’ve been out there for a minute. It’s not an attractive offer to quit a steady gig like Y&R to go chase a role that may not be there. And it’s gotten worse in the past five years when it comes to sitcoms and dramas: where are all the intelligent African American comedies and dramas? I’ll tell you — there aren’t any!
Ironically, even when you were badly written for on Y&R, you got to tackle far better material in daytime than most African American actors tackle on network TV. Since all these D-Listers want to be on Y&R, do you think the stigma of being a soap actor has diminished? I mean, James Franco did GH…
First, it’s a little different for an A-lister to join a soap because it’s on their terms. I still find a lot of resistance from casting directors who have the knowledge that I’ve been a daytime performer —and have been one for many, many years. The stigma may not exist as strongly for those actors who have done soaps for a few years but for someone like myself, who has been on Y&R for 25 years, yeah, it’s tough. I mean, they say you’re only as good as your last job and, if that’s the case, that’s Y&R for me. It doesn’t mean I can’t work outside of Y&R. Yes, maybe there is a bit more acceptance of soap actors because look at how many channels are out there now. I don’t think we’re accepted into the circle that I’d prefer to be in like the feature film world. And now we have to compete with film stars like Laurence Fishburne and Cuba Gooding Jr., who are on TV now! You get my drift… it’s getting harder for daytime stars to even just nab a guest star role because all the film stars are taking them. It is what it is. You try to create work where you can get it.
Have you figured out why you resonate so well in the daytime-TV medium? You have two Emmys and you are one of the genre’s most beloved and popular stars…
Sure, I’ve thought about it. Not so much as why I’ve played Neil for as long as I have, but let’s put it like it is: there are very few black daytime performers on soaps. I happened to get in at the perfect time. My predecessors [on Y&R] were Phil Morris [who played Y&R’s Tyrone Jackson] and Brock Peters [who portrayed Y&R’s Detective Frank Lewis]. I have to say, I couldn’t find this particular kind of character anywhere in the entertainment business — and play him for 25 years. Why do I work on Y&R? I’m one of very few. Look what happens when you dismantle a family like the Winters: Shemar leaves, Vicki [Rowell] quits, Tonya [Lee Williams] leaves… I feel like the last man standing, representing what once was. It gets more critical and dangerous to be a part of that [Hollywood] world now — and it’s not like I feel safe — but I sort of feel like I’m needed on Y&R. And you know what? I don’t mind that. I get it. Do I want to call myself a “token?” Absolutely not. But I know my place. My work does speak for itself. I’m not coming up with a cure for cancer. I’m entertaining people so I still feel good about being here. Yes, I have some wear and tear…
Who doesn’t?! Let’s talk about Sally Sussman Morina’s GENERATIONS. Do you think the “black” soap opera would have worked today? It was a pretty forward-thinking show at the time for the late 80s.
Oh sure, it was. Would it work better now? Yeah, but not necessarily with that same script. If you remember back to 1989, and Sally’s excellent execution with story at first, we were ice cream heirs. That wouldn’t work today! It wasn’t a black show. It wasn’t an African American show. It happened to have a very strong African American cast. There was a black and a white family. When you put more than a few African American actors on one show, people say, “Oh, that must be a black show.” But it really wasn’t — we were just very well integrated. Yes, it would fly today with a different premise. Recently, someone was talking to me about bringing back GENERATIONS — and I thought, “That isn’t a good idea.”
I’ve heard about a reboot of GENERATIONS being whispered about, too. Did you feel NBC canceled GENERATIONS too soon? I mean, you have to give any soap a good five years — let alone a new soap competing against the number-one serial, Y&R!
For sure. I remember specifically then-NBC President [Brandon Tartikoff] standing out on Stage 9 where we were shooting GENERATIONS at NBC Studios in Burbank, California during a press conference — this was around the holidays in 1990 — where he stated that his mother was a huge fan of the show and we had just hit the two-year mark and we weren’t going anywhere. Three weeks later, we found out the ax fell. My first reaction was complete terror because I had a young son and I didn’t know what I was going to do. I thought I had landed the dream job that would’ve been on the air for many, many years. And I was one of the four core characters on the show. Yeah, it was terrifying. I’ll never forget what my Dad said when we were having a conversation. He said, “Well, what’s the number-one soap? It’s Y&R, right?” And I replied, Yes.” He suggested, “Well, let’s call them.” I called [then-Y&R producer] Nancy Wiard and told her I was looking for a job because our show was going down. Two weeks later, I had a meeting with Bill Bell and, a week later, I was on Stage 41 at CBS.
And a dynasty was born.
Yes, a dynasty was born.
Large black audiences watch daytime TV. It’s a fact, as John Black would say. And talk shows understand that. If you look at the majority of daytime talk shows, there are multiple black co-hosts on THE TALK and THE VIEW. Even LIVE! WITH REGIS AND KELLY got into the action when it replaced Regis Philbin with Michael Strahan. And Steve Harvey’s
new talker is doing well, along with Wendy Williams’ chatfest. Do you think Bill Bell, who created the strongest black ensemble in daytime history, understood who was watching his show? Was he a visionary in creating The Winters?
Um, he was right on time. I got to the party about six months after Victoria Rowell and Tonya Lee Williams were cast. Was he a visionary? Yes. Was he a master storyteller? Yes. He knew what the audience wanted at the time, absolutely. More importantly, he saw that we worked. I remember my first day on the Y&R set: I, as Neil, was walking through the hallways of Jabot Cosmetics and I bump into Drucilla, who drops all her mail. I bend down and help her pick it up. At that moment, Neil looks into to her eyes and immediately realizes that she’s going to be his soul mate. There was so much electricity that day that Bill Bell called down to the set and asked to speak to me. He asked me in that conversation if I wanted to stick around and become a part of the Y&R family, at that point, I was only scheduled to be on four shows at the time. He just knew what was working. It kind of grew from there.
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Nelson Branco's SOAP OPERA UNCENSORED: Issue 48 Page 2