Post by GraceBe on Oct 31, 2008 19:34:59 GMT
A very interesting interview with "Victor" from Y&R. The man really knows a thing or two about soaps... I hope Bell and Miss Alden read what he has to say about love, divorce and romance on soaps these days!
tvguide.sympatico.msn.ca/Dirty+Sexy+Money/Soaps/Features/Articles/081029_eric_braeden_NB.htm?isfa=1
Dirty Sexy Money
By Nelson Branco
2008-10-29
2008’s best actor, ‘The Young and the Restless’ Eric Braeden (Victor) speaks out on past writing regimes, his tortured childhood, politics, those damn Emmys, and why he hates divorce
In Canada, there is no bigger soap star than The Young and the Restless’ Eric Braeden.
Watching daytime’s No. 1 soap opera is a daily Canadian ritual. Even straight men are obsessed with the show. And that’s largely because of one singular talent on Y&R: Eric Braeden as Victor Newman.
In fact, a staggering 50,000 fans flocked to catch The Dark Knight at a Toronto personal appearance a few years back.
Over the past 28 years, the magnetic Braeden has brought to life one of the most fascinating and complex leading men on daytime TV.
Not bad considering Braeden originally only signed a 26-week contract. Luckily, creator Bill Bell immediately saw the fire and ice Braeden brought to the role — and the articulate actor has been the star of the show ever since.
TV Guide.ca recently had breakfast with the Emmy winner at one of his favourite restaurants in Santa Monica, Calif., after one of Braeden’s many Herculean daily workouts.
With Y&R back on track, Braeden is smiling ear to ear these days. The iconic actor was just days away from a Paris location shoot with his former leading lady, Eileen Davidson (Ashley).
“I’m happy she’s back,” he says, finishing off his espresso. “There’s a lot of unfinished business between Ashley and Victor.”
Indeed.
To say Braeden was upset and disappointed with how their last “reunion” storyline was scripted is an understatement. And fans universally agree. He hopes the third time is the charm.
“This is a message for all you soap writers,” he says speaking right into the tape recorder. “Don’t tell us, show us! You need inherent conflict in all your stories. You don’t have to script dialogue to express or manufacture contrived conflict that doesn’t necessarily exist. I know it’s hard to fill out 80 pages a day, but sometimes actions speak louder than words. Whenever Ashley is in a room with Victor, I try to convey that pain and longing with a look or gesture. When you’re in love, you’re vulnerable, and that’s your story. Those feelings don’t end when you break up. Not being with the person you love doesn’t mean the romance is over. Sometimes that’s when the love story begins. In fact, that’s where the tragedy lies and the conflict begins. I feel Ashley and Victor were short-changed in that respect. It killed me when Victor rejected Ashley after she admitted she loved him.”
Braeden, who has been married for over 40 years to wife Dale Gudegast, is not a fan of divorce, either. In general, he believes soap writers rely on the break-up device far too often. “These days, romances end too quickly. Everyone is all about serial monogamy these days. No [kidding]! No one’s married more than a few years before the biologically proven seven-year itch rears its head. I deplore divorce, which is too rampant on daytime and in the world. Divorce is selfish, and it damages children. I don’t think soap writers understand how painful divorce is. I would only agree with divorce as an option, if it were absolutely necessary. However, most people are selfish and need to start putting their families first. You need to balance your needs along with the needs of the people you claim to love. That’s the secret to life.”
With Bill Bell’s daughter-in-law, Maria Arena Bell, putting the show first as Y&R’s co-executive producer and co-head writer, the 67-year-old thespian is confident that Victor’s future will continue to be a tortured existence. And he’s thrilled.
“There have been past writers, who will remain nameless, who have tried to dilute Victor’s power on the show,” he reveals. “I never understood that, not [because I’m playing Victor], but because you need conflict on a show. You need a figure in which other characters smash up against. And Victor Newman’s the perfect character to anchor a show because he’s all about conflict.”
Other than Bill Bell, no one knows Victor Newman better than Braeden. They even share similar back-stories.
Born Hans Jorg Gudegast in Bredenbek, Germany, where his father was once mayor (the star emigrated to the U.S. in 1959), Braeden lost his father at the young age of 12. As Y&R fans know, Victor was raised in an orphanage after being abandoned by his parents, who he later met in Genoa City. Both men changed their real names as well (Victor Newman was derived from three words: Victory, and New Man — remember when soaps used to name characters with some meaning?).
“My father was not in the [Second World War], but many people we knew were killed. That affected him greatly. When I was 12, he died suddenly of a heart attack. His sudden death destroyed my world. Not only were we plunged into poverty, but my sense of justice and injustice, fairness and unfairness — ideals that my father had instilled in me — were also destroyed. I was a very angry kid; I got into fights with other kids, threw tomatoes at the Allied tanks as they rolled into town, and I never understood why my father had left us. From that time on, I was on my own. Victor and I have that in common.”
However, as much as they share in common, the two formidable men are vastly different. For starters?
“I’m closer to my family than Victor is, that’s for sure,” Braden says in between eating a healthy omelette. “There are a number of things I wouldn’t do that he has. I would never turn my back on my children as Victor has done. Victor grew up in an orphanage, so having been abandoned by the people closest to him; I understand why he has mistrust in people. Unless he is being shown love in an unrestrictive way, he will turn against you, because Victor feels that’s a prelude to abandonment.”
And abandoned he has been. This past year, Victor divorced Nikki in an ugly confrontation — that could net him his second Emmy Award (He previously won in 1998, however, he did not attend the ceremony). Moreover, Victor lost his new wife, Sabrina, in a tragic car accident along with Nikki’s husband, David, who also perished. To top off the mourning knight’s heartbreak, Sabrina’s unborn baby also died. When you add his children, Adam, Victoria and Nick’s betrayals, then you understand why Victor’s one angry man these days (Braeden burst into tears laughing over the proposed possibility that due to Hope’s blindness, their child, Adam was lost in the shuffle of life, and that perhaps Adam is not a Newman after all. “That’s hilarious,” he howls as he pretends to hold a baby and then drops it). While that’s a scary and dangerous fate if you live in Genoa City, for fans, it’s soap heaven.
“I was sad to see Raya Meddine leave. She’s one of the most intelligent and cultured women I have ever met in my lifetime,” praises Braeden. “However, I do agree with the fans that Victor and Sabrina’s love story was rushed. This is another grievance I have with daytime TV. We don’t let stories unfold properly in the right time frame. Everything is rushed. Bill Bell never sacrificed a storyline’s natural progression. In fact, Bill had this uncanny knack for writing storylines that mirrored our own real lives — without any of us telling him a single thing. He had unbelievable instincts. It was almost eerie sometimes. Bill loved to play all the beats, and he would watch us act them out beautifully, which later inspired his future story [due to the nuance we brought to the role]. When you play all the beats, the audience has no choice but to be personally involved — and thus, the payoff is more enjoyable; they’ll be in for the long haul. Having said that, I think the [sudden-impact] fallout has been very well done. I’m very happy with the show these days.”
He’s also proud of his venerable co-star Melody Thomas Scott. Braeden agrees she’s never been better. “Isn’t she wonderful,” he asks rhetorically. “Thanks to TiVo I catch the show a lot more than I used to in the past. We have a lot of great actors on our show. Melody, Peter Bergman [Jack], Chris Engen [Adam], Sharon Case [Sharon], Amelia Heinle [Victoria], and Joshua Morrow [Nick].”
Although he believes Heinle has brought her own unique charms to the role as Victor’s favourite offspring, Braeden adds he also misses Emmy winner Heather Tom (Katie, The Bold and the Beautiful) as Victoria. “I agree with you that I often sometimes wonder how Heather would play certain aspects of this storyline in which Victor banished his family, but Amelia has done a fine job. She’s a different Victoria, but I enjoy her interpretation. Heather and I talk all the time. What a smart, smart girl! I miss her, for sure.”
When the possibility of double Emmy wins for Y&R’s première super-couple, Braeden immediately grimaces. “I have not submitted myself for Emmy consideration in years because of the internal politics. It’s a popularity contest and not about the work being judged,” he sternly states. When pressed by this reporter to submit himself, he answers, “Perhaps I will. I don’t know, and basically, I don’t care anymore. I’m certainly not concerned about winning awards. I’m here to act and deliver to the audience.”
In 1959, Braeden began delivering memorable performances to audiences. His ascent to stardom began with high-profile TV shows such as Rat Patrol, Gunsmoke, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Wonder Woman. His film resumé highlights such features as Colossus: The Forbin Project, Escape From the Planet of the Apes and James Cameron’s Titanic.
But fans may be surprised to know Braeden originally wanted to pursue a career in sports — his greatest life passion.
“Everything I believe in life comes from the philosophy and discipline of the sports world,” he proudly boasts. In fact, as a lifelong athlete, he won the 1958 German Youth Championship in track and field and the 1972-73 National Soccer Championship with a Los Angeles-based team, the Maccabees.
Today, Braeden is immersed in his second passion: politics, which is an arena he has thought about entering in the past. Having appeared often as a guest on Bill Maher’s now-defunct Politically Incorrect (Maher told TVGuide.ca that Braeden “is one of the smartest political pundits I’ve ever had on my shows”), he is sought after for his on-target analysis of the world today.
Who will he vote for? Braeden says his candidate of choice isn’t an option. “Hillary Clinton was by far the most capable of them all and the best candidate of them all,” he opines. “However, her downfall was ironically due to her husband, Bill Clinton. In order to right his wrongs, he wanted to give her the presidency, which was a romantic and beautiful gesture, but alas, that’s what led to her downfall and failure. You see, as a woman, she couldn’t have a man pull the strings. That worked against her. It’s a tragedy. Shakespearean even. Of course, I will be voting for Barack Obama.”
When asked whom Victor Newman would vote for, Braeden waits a suspenseful beat before answering, “No one. I don’t think Victor concerns himself with the silliness of politics. I don’t think he’s a Republican or a Democrat.”
That’s just one more difference between the two magnetic men. Having lived through the Second World War, and witnessing racism in the U.S. during the 1950s, Braeden believes the world is a better place today despite the shameful Iraq war and the current economic recession due to the “ineptitude” of the Republican party. “As humans, we are destined to make the same mistakes over and over again. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, my friend; but I do think we’ve evolved over time. A little too slowly, but we do.”
Thanks to his sports doctrine, Braeden strives to improve his game in every aspect of his life from his acting career to his marriage to raising his family.
“Once you believe you’re perfect and buy into your own press, it’s game over. That’s been the downfall of many former Y&R actors who thought they were the show; that the show would die without them. Of course, their egos eventually led them to their undoing, and surprise — they are no longer on the show. I thank you for all the kind words you’ve written over the years regarding my performances, but one can not listen to the praise; one has to focus on striving to be better. Sports are all about that. Once you’re perfect, you’re dead. What’s the point of living if you have nothing to learn?”
The education of Eric Braeden just expanded. On Nov. 3 (ironically a day before the historical U.S. presidential election), Braeden is guest-starring on How I Met Your Mother as Robin's father, in what could become a recurring part. Also, Braeden branched behind the scenes as executive producer and star of next month’s marvelous film, The Man Who Came Back — a historically based drama revolving around a violent American labour strike in 1876. The labour of love, which will be available on DVD on Dec. 9 by American World Pictures, co-stars Billy Zane, Armand Assante, James Patrick Stuart (ex-Will, All My Children), and Sean Young.
Braeden’s love of the arts has inspired his son Christian’s career. “Christian is a film director and writer. My only regret in life is I never wrote about my life story in a scripted format or wrote my memoirs. But he’s doing what I always dreamed of, without us ever talking about it. I’m very proud of him.”
And vice versa, we’re sure.
tvguide.sympatico.msn.ca/Dirty+Sexy+Money/Soaps/Features/Articles/081029_eric_braeden_NB.htm?isfa=1
Dirty Sexy Money
By Nelson Branco
2008-10-29
2008’s best actor, ‘The Young and the Restless’ Eric Braeden (Victor) speaks out on past writing regimes, his tortured childhood, politics, those damn Emmys, and why he hates divorce
In Canada, there is no bigger soap star than The Young and the Restless’ Eric Braeden.
Watching daytime’s No. 1 soap opera is a daily Canadian ritual. Even straight men are obsessed with the show. And that’s largely because of one singular talent on Y&R: Eric Braeden as Victor Newman.
In fact, a staggering 50,000 fans flocked to catch The Dark Knight at a Toronto personal appearance a few years back.
Over the past 28 years, the magnetic Braeden has brought to life one of the most fascinating and complex leading men on daytime TV.
Not bad considering Braeden originally only signed a 26-week contract. Luckily, creator Bill Bell immediately saw the fire and ice Braeden brought to the role — and the articulate actor has been the star of the show ever since.
TV Guide.ca recently had breakfast with the Emmy winner at one of his favourite restaurants in Santa Monica, Calif., after one of Braeden’s many Herculean daily workouts.
With Y&R back on track, Braeden is smiling ear to ear these days. The iconic actor was just days away from a Paris location shoot with his former leading lady, Eileen Davidson (Ashley).
“I’m happy she’s back,” he says, finishing off his espresso. “There’s a lot of unfinished business between Ashley and Victor.”
Indeed.
To say Braeden was upset and disappointed with how their last “reunion” storyline was scripted is an understatement. And fans universally agree. He hopes the third time is the charm.
“This is a message for all you soap writers,” he says speaking right into the tape recorder. “Don’t tell us, show us! You need inherent conflict in all your stories. You don’t have to script dialogue to express or manufacture contrived conflict that doesn’t necessarily exist. I know it’s hard to fill out 80 pages a day, but sometimes actions speak louder than words. Whenever Ashley is in a room with Victor, I try to convey that pain and longing with a look or gesture. When you’re in love, you’re vulnerable, and that’s your story. Those feelings don’t end when you break up. Not being with the person you love doesn’t mean the romance is over. Sometimes that’s when the love story begins. In fact, that’s where the tragedy lies and the conflict begins. I feel Ashley and Victor were short-changed in that respect. It killed me when Victor rejected Ashley after she admitted she loved him.”
Braeden, who has been married for over 40 years to wife Dale Gudegast, is not a fan of divorce, either. In general, he believes soap writers rely on the break-up device far too often. “These days, romances end too quickly. Everyone is all about serial monogamy these days. No [kidding]! No one’s married more than a few years before the biologically proven seven-year itch rears its head. I deplore divorce, which is too rampant on daytime and in the world. Divorce is selfish, and it damages children. I don’t think soap writers understand how painful divorce is. I would only agree with divorce as an option, if it were absolutely necessary. However, most people are selfish and need to start putting their families first. You need to balance your needs along with the needs of the people you claim to love. That’s the secret to life.”
With Bill Bell’s daughter-in-law, Maria Arena Bell, putting the show first as Y&R’s co-executive producer and co-head writer, the 67-year-old thespian is confident that Victor’s future will continue to be a tortured existence. And he’s thrilled.
“There have been past writers, who will remain nameless, who have tried to dilute Victor’s power on the show,” he reveals. “I never understood that, not [because I’m playing Victor], but because you need conflict on a show. You need a figure in which other characters smash up against. And Victor Newman’s the perfect character to anchor a show because he’s all about conflict.”
Other than Bill Bell, no one knows Victor Newman better than Braeden. They even share similar back-stories.
Born Hans Jorg Gudegast in Bredenbek, Germany, where his father was once mayor (the star emigrated to the U.S. in 1959), Braeden lost his father at the young age of 12. As Y&R fans know, Victor was raised in an orphanage after being abandoned by his parents, who he later met in Genoa City. Both men changed their real names as well (Victor Newman was derived from three words: Victory, and New Man — remember when soaps used to name characters with some meaning?).
“My father was not in the [Second World War], but many people we knew were killed. That affected him greatly. When I was 12, he died suddenly of a heart attack. His sudden death destroyed my world. Not only were we plunged into poverty, but my sense of justice and injustice, fairness and unfairness — ideals that my father had instilled in me — were also destroyed. I was a very angry kid; I got into fights with other kids, threw tomatoes at the Allied tanks as they rolled into town, and I never understood why my father had left us. From that time on, I was on my own. Victor and I have that in common.”
However, as much as they share in common, the two formidable men are vastly different. For starters?
“I’m closer to my family than Victor is, that’s for sure,” Braden says in between eating a healthy omelette. “There are a number of things I wouldn’t do that he has. I would never turn my back on my children as Victor has done. Victor grew up in an orphanage, so having been abandoned by the people closest to him; I understand why he has mistrust in people. Unless he is being shown love in an unrestrictive way, he will turn against you, because Victor feels that’s a prelude to abandonment.”
And abandoned he has been. This past year, Victor divorced Nikki in an ugly confrontation — that could net him his second Emmy Award (He previously won in 1998, however, he did not attend the ceremony). Moreover, Victor lost his new wife, Sabrina, in a tragic car accident along with Nikki’s husband, David, who also perished. To top off the mourning knight’s heartbreak, Sabrina’s unborn baby also died. When you add his children, Adam, Victoria and Nick’s betrayals, then you understand why Victor’s one angry man these days (Braeden burst into tears laughing over the proposed possibility that due to Hope’s blindness, their child, Adam was lost in the shuffle of life, and that perhaps Adam is not a Newman after all. “That’s hilarious,” he howls as he pretends to hold a baby and then drops it). While that’s a scary and dangerous fate if you live in Genoa City, for fans, it’s soap heaven.
“I was sad to see Raya Meddine leave. She’s one of the most intelligent and cultured women I have ever met in my lifetime,” praises Braeden. “However, I do agree with the fans that Victor and Sabrina’s love story was rushed. This is another grievance I have with daytime TV. We don’t let stories unfold properly in the right time frame. Everything is rushed. Bill Bell never sacrificed a storyline’s natural progression. In fact, Bill had this uncanny knack for writing storylines that mirrored our own real lives — without any of us telling him a single thing. He had unbelievable instincts. It was almost eerie sometimes. Bill loved to play all the beats, and he would watch us act them out beautifully, which later inspired his future story [due to the nuance we brought to the role]. When you play all the beats, the audience has no choice but to be personally involved — and thus, the payoff is more enjoyable; they’ll be in for the long haul. Having said that, I think the [sudden-impact] fallout has been very well done. I’m very happy with the show these days.”
He’s also proud of his venerable co-star Melody Thomas Scott. Braeden agrees she’s never been better. “Isn’t she wonderful,” he asks rhetorically. “Thanks to TiVo I catch the show a lot more than I used to in the past. We have a lot of great actors on our show. Melody, Peter Bergman [Jack], Chris Engen [Adam], Sharon Case [Sharon], Amelia Heinle [Victoria], and Joshua Morrow [Nick].”
Although he believes Heinle has brought her own unique charms to the role as Victor’s favourite offspring, Braeden adds he also misses Emmy winner Heather Tom (Katie, The Bold and the Beautiful) as Victoria. “I agree with you that I often sometimes wonder how Heather would play certain aspects of this storyline in which Victor banished his family, but Amelia has done a fine job. She’s a different Victoria, but I enjoy her interpretation. Heather and I talk all the time. What a smart, smart girl! I miss her, for sure.”
When the possibility of double Emmy wins for Y&R’s première super-couple, Braeden immediately grimaces. “I have not submitted myself for Emmy consideration in years because of the internal politics. It’s a popularity contest and not about the work being judged,” he sternly states. When pressed by this reporter to submit himself, he answers, “Perhaps I will. I don’t know, and basically, I don’t care anymore. I’m certainly not concerned about winning awards. I’m here to act and deliver to the audience.”
In 1959, Braeden began delivering memorable performances to audiences. His ascent to stardom began with high-profile TV shows such as Rat Patrol, Gunsmoke, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Wonder Woman. His film resumé highlights such features as Colossus: The Forbin Project, Escape From the Planet of the Apes and James Cameron’s Titanic.
But fans may be surprised to know Braeden originally wanted to pursue a career in sports — his greatest life passion.
“Everything I believe in life comes from the philosophy and discipline of the sports world,” he proudly boasts. In fact, as a lifelong athlete, he won the 1958 German Youth Championship in track and field and the 1972-73 National Soccer Championship with a Los Angeles-based team, the Maccabees.
Today, Braeden is immersed in his second passion: politics, which is an arena he has thought about entering in the past. Having appeared often as a guest on Bill Maher’s now-defunct Politically Incorrect (Maher told TVGuide.ca that Braeden “is one of the smartest political pundits I’ve ever had on my shows”), he is sought after for his on-target analysis of the world today.
Who will he vote for? Braeden says his candidate of choice isn’t an option. “Hillary Clinton was by far the most capable of them all and the best candidate of them all,” he opines. “However, her downfall was ironically due to her husband, Bill Clinton. In order to right his wrongs, he wanted to give her the presidency, which was a romantic and beautiful gesture, but alas, that’s what led to her downfall and failure. You see, as a woman, she couldn’t have a man pull the strings. That worked against her. It’s a tragedy. Shakespearean even. Of course, I will be voting for Barack Obama.”
When asked whom Victor Newman would vote for, Braeden waits a suspenseful beat before answering, “No one. I don’t think Victor concerns himself with the silliness of politics. I don’t think he’s a Republican or a Democrat.”
That’s just one more difference between the two magnetic men. Having lived through the Second World War, and witnessing racism in the U.S. during the 1950s, Braeden believes the world is a better place today despite the shameful Iraq war and the current economic recession due to the “ineptitude” of the Republican party. “As humans, we are destined to make the same mistakes over and over again. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, my friend; but I do think we’ve evolved over time. A little too slowly, but we do.”
Thanks to his sports doctrine, Braeden strives to improve his game in every aspect of his life from his acting career to his marriage to raising his family.
“Once you believe you’re perfect and buy into your own press, it’s game over. That’s been the downfall of many former Y&R actors who thought they were the show; that the show would die without them. Of course, their egos eventually led them to their undoing, and surprise — they are no longer on the show. I thank you for all the kind words you’ve written over the years regarding my performances, but one can not listen to the praise; one has to focus on striving to be better. Sports are all about that. Once you’re perfect, you’re dead. What’s the point of living if you have nothing to learn?”
The education of Eric Braeden just expanded. On Nov. 3 (ironically a day before the historical U.S. presidential election), Braeden is guest-starring on How I Met Your Mother as Robin's father, in what could become a recurring part. Also, Braeden branched behind the scenes as executive producer and star of next month’s marvelous film, The Man Who Came Back — a historically based drama revolving around a violent American labour strike in 1876. The labour of love, which will be available on DVD on Dec. 9 by American World Pictures, co-stars Billy Zane, Armand Assante, James Patrick Stuart (ex-Will, All My Children), and Sean Young.
Braeden’s love of the arts has inspired his son Christian’s career. “Christian is a film director and writer. My only regret in life is I never wrote about my life story in a scripted format or wrote my memoirs. But he’s doing what I always dreamed of, without us ever talking about it. I’m very proud of him.”
And vice versa, we’re sure.
