didn’t allow my reel and real life to bleed into each other. However, when I did read the scene when Adam loses the baby, I had tear-filled eyes. And it was hard to read. But, at the end of the day, I had to get up and deliver those scenes as accurately as I could from Adam’s point of view because it’s my responsibility to not indulge myself with a huge dramatic outburst because I can personally get in touch with the material. Real, professional actors have a responsibility to the script and to the audience. We can’t indulge our own personal fantasies and hijack a scene with jazz hands, wailing about just because we can if it’s not right and doesn’t fit for the character. Especially with Adam because he’s very introverted so I couldn’t let myself get out of control.
Will Adam’s dark side reemerge because he’s lost the baby?
That question is really hard for me to handle. [Pauses] It’s just… Oh, man! It’s such a nebulous question nowadays. Two and half a years ago, Adam was dark. I mean he would have set a sweet family of five on fire while he cooked marshmallows over their charred remains. To say Adam is going to find a dark place… and I can not say this enough fucking times to enough fucking people so we can spread the word… is foolish and a waste of time because he will never, ever, ever be evil. If you take that off the fucking table, where it’s never a possibility or probability, then, you have a man, who if he does go dark, goes dark in a relative swing to that middle grey area. Any darkness or any grayness Adam will lean towards will be something the audience will understand, sympathize and/or connect with because it’s based in reality. If you ask Hannibal Lector if he’ll go dark or if you ask Martha Stewart if she’ll go dark, you’ll get two very distinctive definitions of the word dark. Everyone has a different definition of the term dark.
[Joking] I just meant if he’d be tanning more.
I’m just going to let the audience figure it out on their own. Review it for yourself. I mean, if you ask yourself: what was the darkest thing Adam has done this week? Three months ago? Six months ago? When you answer that question, then you’ll have a good barometer of the relative grey area Adam operates in with relative swings without being extreme.
Oh, by the way: Did anyone guess your baby’s name in your Twitter contest?
There were over 20 thousand names submitted from a multitude of followers. Only one person out of thousands threw out the real name, after several guesses, mind you. When I announced my son’s name at his birth, I imagine a lot of people wanted to kick themselves for not guessing that name. What’s great is that my new son’s name is not a crazy celebrity baby name like Apple, Pumpkin Pie or Blanket… instead it’s a classic name but clearly we’ve been unique enough that in 20 thousand guesses over 3 months only one person a few days ago got it right.
Nelson is a classy name; I agree! [Laughs] Did you ever think you’d have connected and resonated with this industry as well as you have? If you could have told yourself four years ago you’d be one of daytime’s most spirited champions, a part of the fabric of Y&R….
Everything I’m living right now — everything on the show with this character and where I stand with Sony, CBS, producers, writers and the audience — it was all intentional. It was all by design. The hope and idea were always there to make this a reality. It’s just taken a lot of patience, hard work and creativity to take this idea by design to fruition. Where I am now seems like a great reward for all the energy I put into this job. It feels great. As a little side note, other than the performances and friendships on set I’ve enjoyed and fans I have encountered, on top of all of that, the cherry on top, is the audience of Y&R is so gracious that we have received more high-end baby gifts — clothes, toys, shoes — for my newborn son that it blows my mind how much they have must have been touched by me and my performance for them to be so generous. I don’t think there is a word to describe how gracious and generous people have been to my family; and, let me add, these are people I have never met and probably will never meet. It makes me want to give back even more.
Did you watch soaps as kid? I don’t think I have ever asked you that before.
Actually, no. I don’t think I have ever seen a soap before I started Y&R. I may have possibly caught one or two minutes of something when I was switching the channel. I formed a very superficial and general idea of what soap operas were and what soap opera actors were. But, growing up, I knew grandmother had been watching Y&R since the first episode, so now she gets to brag that her grandson is Adam Newman, which is cool. She’s an 80-year-old superstar in her community. So growing up as a kid, Nadia’s Theme was engrained in my head for life. When I watched my first Y&R episode I finally realized how iconic this show is and how important this show is when Nadia’s Theme came on during the opening credits. Y&R is part of TV history.
And you’re finally a part of the opening credits!
Well, to be honest, there’s still a picture of the Y&R cast that was taken 7 years ago in our studio hallway, which I walk by every single day, and I think like 70 percent the actors have been fired, quit, killed off, or recast. The updated opening credits are just the latest development. It took me 3 years to get a picture up in our offices and 3-and-a-half years to get myself in the opening credits. But some people who joined Y&R just before our opening credits were updated didn’t have to wait; however, I liked that I had to wait. It was good for me to have to earn my way in and that I wasn’t rewarded immediately by being put in the opening credits in the first week or month of me joining the show. I liked the idea of being on the outside looking in. Moreover, I liked the idea of having to earn my place in a company that had been around for many, many years. I think all Americans should view their jobs the same way and earn their way up — and I believe that’s why we’re in this current economic situation. Our eyes became bigger than our stomachs. We wanted instant gratification. There is something to be said about the old-school mentality of the 40s and 50s: go to work, be professional, don’t call in sick, earn your paycheque and you’ll be rewarded. So over time, I’m being rewarded.
A couple of months ago, you tweeted that you had been offered a pilot and had to choose between Y&R and a new prime-time drama. Can you expound on that? Most actors would’ve told Y&R to kick rocks. Also, considering Adam’s back on the front burner and driving the show, you must be pretty happy you stayed!
Obviously I know where I stand with Y&R [to have turned down the prime-time series]. Behind closed doors, I have been reassured in meetings of what I mean to the show, where Adam’s future is headed, and how valued we both are… so I took that in to consideration when another job came calling. Every so often, there will be a projects or offers you can’t refuse and you have to make a choice. Because I came from prime-time TV… I have a lot of roots still there so they will come calling for me. It’s a different scenario for me; whereas most daytime actors, who want to break into prime-time TV, find it more difficult to find work in that medium for several reasons, most of which, are not their fault. But, for me, that’s where I started and I made a consistent living for me and my family for 12 years. For now, being a part of the Y&R is my first priority.
Can you mention which prime-time project you were offered the lead in?
[Skirts issue] Um, you know, I’d rather not say. I don’t want to take anything away from the actor who got the part after I turned it down. I don’t work that away. Let’s just say it was a new series from a high-profile showrunner. It was great opportunity and a character. In the end, I chose Adam Newman.
Are you submitting yourself for THE DAYTIME EMMY AWARDS next year? Once again, you have killer reels to submit from Adam going blind to Adam losing Bambino Newman.
[Quietly] Um, I don’t know. This is the second year when the second phase of Emmy reform kicks in. The Emmys will become a more hospitable place to submit yourself for an Emmy but it’s not even on my radar right now. I think sometimes… I don’t know… it can be kind of emotional because when you run a 100-meter-dash race and your break the finish line first and the
n they don’t let you stand on the podium in first place— or, heck, second or third place for that matter — you become naturally disillusioned and cynical… especially when it’s happened to you enough times. You start to devalue what it’s like to be voted as the most outstanding actor in your profession, you know? For quite some time, I’ve been emotionally distant form the Emmy situation, so I’m not sure.
The important thing is that everyone knows who the MVPs of this business are, the true stars who get people watching and talking about a show, despite the fact that they have always been shafted come Emmy-time, that’s really what’s important. There are a lot of actors in this business who should have mantles filled with Emmys who don’t... and there are a lot of actors who have mantles filled with plastic trophies who didn’t deserve it. Of course, there is a grey area of certain actors who definitely won when they deserved it, but, unfortunately, that’s rare. It’s such a subjective thing. It’s not the Olympics where you can definitively judge who is the best like you can in a race. There’s a lot of emotional
Nelson Branco's SOAP OPERA UNCENSORED: Issue 53 Page 3