In October, Steve Burton announced on Twitter that he would be leaving the role of Y&R’s Dylan McAvoy, and he wraps his run this week. The actor, who was flying back and forth from his home in Tennessee to film Y&R, opens up about his departure from the show he joined in 2012.
I don’t know if there was one particular moment,” Burton reflects of the steps that led him out of Genoa City. But the travel was definitely a factor. “I always tell people that I’m the one who made myself geographically undesirable [laughs]. I chose to move my family here. I’m grateful to have had the jobs that I’ve had. It wasn’t just like, one day, ‘Okay, that’s it. I’m done.’ Because really I love it there and I love the people and I’ve loved playing this character. So it was very difficult for me to even make the decision to do it.”
Now that he’s gone, Burton is putting his focus on matters closer to home. “I want to take a little time,” he explains. “My daughter [Makena] is 13. My son [Jack] is 10. My youngest daughter [Brooklyn] is 2½. I also have so many other things going on in my life. Music stuff I’m involved in. Other businesses that I’m launching coming up. So there’s just a lot happening. I just want to see what’s out there … see what’s going on.”
Burton already has plenty of irons in the fire. “I’m a part owner in five craft beer bars in Chicago and Pittsburgh called Beerhead [Bar & Eatery]. I’m working on a few more deals of opening more of those. I have my restaurant [Jack and Jameson’s Smokehouse] here [in Nashville] with Jonathan Jackson [ex-Lucky, GH]. We’re 11 months into that. I just launched Hollywood Schooled online [hollywoodschooled.com] with my buddy Derk Cheetwood [Max, GH], which is kind of a blueprint on how to break into Hollywood. It’s 30 years of experience from each of us on how to get your start in Hollywood, just to get nudged in the right direction. Basically, avoiding a lot of pitfalls and wasting a lot of money, and finding agents, photographers, acting classes that are legitimate. It’s kind of a whole map. If you lived in Ohio and said, ‘Hey, I want to act. What do I do?’, you can listen to this 10- or 11-hour audio series and have a pretty good idea about what to do when you come to Hollywood. We launched that about three or four weeks ago.”
He’s also looking to break into the lifestyle biz. “I’m heavily getting into fitness and nutrition; it’s always been a passion of mine. I finally have time to really focus on that. I don’t want to open up a gym. I want to come out with some nutritional products and create a community to help people change their lifestyle. I’ve got some real estate stuff happening. So there are a lot of things that are happening.”
The actor had to chuckle at rumors online that he’s retiring. “I can’t sit still. Two weeks off and I’m ready to start a business. So this whole, ‘Steve’s retiring’ thing … I don’t know where that started. I’m still going to audition. I’m still going to be available to act. I’m doing a lot of voiceover work now. I’ve been doing a voice for a character in video games and movies [the Final Fantasy series] for the last 13 years. It’s a character called Cloud Strife. I’m the only American voice for that character. Now I’m getting into more commercial voiceovers.”
But that doesn’t mean it was easy for him to leave Y&R behind. “I just had a great experience there. It was an amazing four years,” he enthuses. “Everybody was great. The cast was great. The crew was great. I met a lot of great people and now I’ll have lifelong relationships. Everybody was really professional and on their game all the time. It was awesome. But it was difficult leaving, for sure.”
As far as his castmates, “I could go on for days. First of all, Josh [Morrow, Nick] is one of my closest friends. He’s a great guy. I’ve known him for years. I love him. We had a great time together all the time. I’m going to miss him. Sharon [Case, Sharon] and I had a great working relationship. We created such a great couple. It sounds weird to say ‘couple’. I thought it was real and honest. She’s a hard worker and we always had fun. With Mel [Thomas Scott, Nikki], it was just something natural. I didn’t feel like I had to work with her. She was always great to me, very open and inviting. It was just super-easy to work with her.”
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Filming his final scenes with Doug Davidson’s Paul was a challenge, Burton shares. “First of all, it was very difficult to do any scene where it was a good-bye or, ‘Hey, this is your last scene, Steve.’ It was horrible, emotionally, especially with Doug, because he and I are super, super-close. I mean, I could barely get through the scene, quite honestly. It was very, very difficult. I literally had to keep telling myself in my head, ‘There’s no way you can do this again. You have to get through it.’ I could barely talk.”
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He has high praise for his departure storyline. “I think they came up with a great story,” Burton declares. “Honestly, I’ve had so much great material in the last year. I’ve been able to really explore the character and the story. I spent so much time at the studio because my personal life is in Nashville, so while I was at work, I focused on work. I just thought everybody in the story did great — Josh and Sharon. There were so many dynamics with Paul and Nikki, and Nick and Sharon. Even with Mariah. There were so many people involved in this story and everyone really kicked butt. It was a lot of fun.”
After more than two-and-a-half decades in daytime, Burton is thankful for the support he’s gotten from the audience. “I’m always grateful for and so appreciative of the fans,” he says. “Obviously, we all know if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t have jobs and I wouldn’t be able to do what I do for a living. A lot of the fans started with me in the early ’90s and are still with me today, which is amazing. And I know a lot of them personally, which is great. And then I got a whole bunch of new fans or viewers when I went to THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS. That’s been great, too, because they welcomed me. I thank them for everything they do and for keeping daytime on the air.”
Burton reveals that he doesn’t rule out a daytime comeback. “On Twitter, everyone was like, ‘Oh you’re gone. You’re done. You’re retiring,’ ” he chuckles. “It was like I was at a funeral. I was like, ‘Guys. It’s not over.’ I don’t know what’s going to happen. They could say, ‘Hey, come back in three months and do this for a while.’ I don’t know. They may not. They may. Of course, I’d be open to it. I love to act. I want to act. There’s always a chance to return.”
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