Exclusive: Y&R’s Reylynn Caster & Lily Brooks O’Briant On Their Real And Reel Bonds

Soap Opera Digest: Tell us about the Netflix series you did together before Y&R.

Lily Brooks O’Briant: We were half sisters on a sitcom called The Big Show Show in 2019.

Reylynn Caster: I was 16 and she was 13 when we did that together.

Digest: Big Show is the name of a real-life wrestler, who the show was built around, right?

O’Briant: That’s right. It was a family sitcom about his family and we played his daughters.

Caster: I was the cool older sister who was really sporty and fun.

O’Briant: My character, Mandy, was very academic. She wanted to be class president. Her biggest inspirations were AOC [New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] and [Supreme Court Justice] Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The sisters were very different characters.

Digest: Did they get along?

Caster: Yeah, we did. I mean, we had episodes where there was sister drama. We literally had an episode where it was just us arguing the entire episode at each other, which was fun.

O’Briant: It was so fun!

Caster: Other than that, our characters got along.

Digest: After that series wrapped, did you stay in touch or just went your separate ways?

Caster: The whole family that we created on that show, we’ve all stayed in touch. We just got together and had dinner when everyone was in town. I was texting with [Big Show] to tell him that we were working together and he was like, ”Oh, my gosh, you guys have grown up so much,” and I was like, “I know! It’s crazy.”

O’Briant: He really did become kind of like a second dad to us on that show. We’ve very much stayed close with him and he’s enjoyed watching us grow up.

Digest: Reylynn, you landed on Y&R first. Were you surprised when Lily showed up at the studio or did you know in advance that she was trying out for the part of Lucy? 

Caster (to O’ Briant): You didn’t tell me that you were initially auditioning, but you did tell me when you booked it. Honestly, it was such a full-circle moment. That was the most exciting news because we were pretty devastated when The Big Show Show only ran one season, so getting to work together again was really great.

O’Briant: I was definitely excited. Y&R keeps things kind of secretive when you’re self-taping [during the audition process] and I wasn’t sure exactly what character I would be playing. So I was like, “I hope we get to work together!” And at first, we didn’t really have scenes together. We would sometimes be on set the same day and hang out, but we didn’t really get to film together [at first].

Digest: You each came into the show with established vets as parents. Reylynn, tell us about working with Joshua Morrow (Nick) and Sharon Case (Sharon).

Caster: They’re incredible! Any time Josh is on set, he’s always joking. If he’s not teasing you, it’s probably not a good thing. And Sharon is just wonderful.

Digest: Lily, what would you say about working with your on-screen dad, Michael Graziadei (Daniel), and Vail Bloom, who just exited as Heather?

O’Briant: Oh, my gosh, they are the best. I remember, from day one of being on Y&R, I was kind of nervous because I had never worked on a soap before and I knew it’s a different filming schedule, so there was a lot of new things to learn. But Graz and Vail had been doing this for years, so they took me under their wing and said, “Okay, here’s how things work” and I was very, very, very grateful for them taking me in and they’ve been the best. Graz and I are always joking around and Vail and I have this great mother/daughter friendship.

Digest: The two of you started working together earlier in the year, when Lucy began idolizing Faith and trying to cultivate a friendship with her. Lily, what is your take on what drew Lucy to Faith?

O’Briant: I think, especially in the beginning when she first was really interested in being friends with Faith, Lucy had just moved to Genoa City and she hadn’t had the chance to make a lot of new friends. And Faith is this older, mature, really popular girl that she can kind of look up to. Obviously Lucy is a little bit younger, so when she sees Faith and Faith kind of offers some kindness to her, she grasps onto that really quickly and is like, “Oh my gosh, I have this cool older girl who wants to be friends with me!” And I think she really holds onto that and just continues to really fight for that relationship because she doesn’t really have anyone else. I think that’s the driving force of their relationship, for sure.

Digest: Clearly, a very different dynamic than you’d played on TV before.

O’Briant: Yeah, Reylynn and I are really close outside of this world and really good friends, and going into this storyline, it’s a completely different dynamic from what we’ve played before, because we used to play sisters. So it was really interesting to have conversations with Reylynn about, like, how to pull it off, and not make it seem like Faith was being mean or just trying not to be friends with Lucy because she didn’t want to. I think that really, it just came down to the fact that Reylynn’s character is older and it’s kind of hard to set those boundaries. I know that’s what it was for Reylynn’s character. But for me, I was thinking a lot about when I was in middle school, and how I would look up to all of the older kids or the kids in high school because you were like, “Oh, my gosh, they’re so cool. They have it all figured out. They know exactly what they’re doing.” And I think Lucy is a little bit lost and she was kind of trying to find that, that sense of understanding that Reylynn’s character has.

Digest: Reylynn, why do you think Faith was shying away from Lucy’s efforts?

Reylynn: I think that Faith knows that she’s a lot older than Lucy and she knew that there was definitely a maturity difference there. She wanted to remain respectful and kind to Lucy because I feel like that’s kind of who Faith is at her core; she’s always super kind to everyone. But she sees her mom spiraling, and she knows in the back of her mind that [losing daughter] Cassie  has to do with that. And she also knows that Lucy’s related to Daniel and Lucy’s a young girl who’s kind of trying to be too old for her age and there’s definitely some parallels there [with the circumstances that led to Cassie’s death]. So she’s very alarmed by this. She doesn’t want to entertain it.

O’Briant: I think maybe deep down Lucy understands that, but in her mind, I think she might be feeding into a little bit of this delusion of like, “No, no, no, no, no.” Like, “She really likes me. She really wants to be friends with me.” I really do feel for Lucy. It’s hard to feel like someone you really care about doesn’t want to be friends with you. It’s really difficult and I know that there’s a lot of kids out there that can understand that feeling. With Lucy, she takes it to an extreme and it’s a really hard thing to watch because you know that deep down that, it’d be easier for her to just walk away from that friendship. But Lucy cares so much about Faith and I think that that drives her fight for that relationship even when it becomes a little bit unhealthy.

Digest: How do you think getting into the car accident together and winding up in the hospital changed the dynamics between Faith and Lucy?

Caster: I think from the beginning, Faith was serious about [having boundaries with Lucy]. But the accident really changed the tone of things. She saw that the fears she had actually did play out to be true — something awful did happen, and it could have been a lot worse, and she really reflected on that and tried to make it clear to Lucy that it could have been worse because again, Lucy is so young, she kind of doesn’t really understand how much worse things could have been. And Faith feels awful about the fact that her partly entertaining [a relationship with Lucy] and not really shutting it down from the beginning is another reason why the accident happened and her mom kind of had to relive this Cassie nightmare in a different way.

Digest: What about from Lucy’s perspective, Lily?

O’Briant: I think Lucy didn’t really know how to deal with her emotions and I don’t think she knew how to deal with the idea that Faith didn’t want to be friends with her. So, she was like, “How do I make sure that I keep this relationship? How do I make sure that Faith likes me? How do I make myself seem cooler?” Obviously, that led to some not great things for Lucy. And I think coming out of that, Lucy has somewhat learned her lesson. I think she has to deal with the repercussions of the mistakes that she’s made, and I think that’s obviously really difficult on her because her relationship with Faith has been really affected by that and she obviously still wants to be friends with Faith.

Faith No More? Faith (Caster) has tried to set healthy boundaries with Lily (O’Briant).

Digest: Sharon’s reaction to the accident put her family members on high alert. How do you understand what it has been like for Faith to witness her mom unraveling?

Caster: I mean, it’s terrifying for her. She’s scared and she doesn’t want to admit it and she’s trying to be strong for her family and for her mom. But, you know, deep down, her mom is her rock. Every single time that something happens in her life, she goes to her mom, she relies on her mom. And she can’t really do that right now. So she’s kind of just caught in this whirlwind of not knowing what to do. She is young still, so she doesn’t have all of the tools to handle this problem. She’s not a therapist like her mom. So, she’s terrified and she loves her mom more than anyone in the entire world and all she wants to do is help her in any way that she possibly can.

Digest: The storyline has kicked up in gravity and intensity now that Heather is dead, and Sharon is scrambling to cover up her role in her death, and we saw that when Faith first learned about Heather, her thoughts immediately went to Lucy.

Caster: Yeah, before, when the accident had just happened, she was pushing Lucy away, and now she’s kind of stuck in this. middle zone where she obviously doesn’t want to give Lucy the wrong idea and she doesn’t want to say that they’re going to be friends because she still knows the gravity of the situation and that they shouldn’t be friends. But she also feels horrible for her. She can’t even imagine losing her own mother, so she definitely wants to give her a little support, as much as she can. Obviously, seeing her own mom struggling so much and then having a death like that happen in the community — even though Faith doesn’t know that her mom is responsible in some way — it’s still awful for her. She’s kind of relating it to herself, as well. I’m playing around the same age that I am [in real life] and I’m just drawing a lot from how I would feel, being thrown into a situation like this. I think, honestly, Faith has had a lot more grace and she’s dealt with this better than I probably would. There are times when I’m reading the episodes and I’m like, “Wow, she’s so, she’s so calm and so kind and I probably would have screamed at the top of my lungs in this instance!”

Digest: When Faith has had to be firm with Lucy in trying to set boundaries, do you just go with your gut about how to play it or do you make conscious choices about how to play those beats to make sure Faith isn’t coming across as mean?

Caster: This question has me thinking about a scene that already aired where I’m in Daniel’s apartment telling Lucy that we cannot be friends. And I remember that when I first read that scene, I read it a few times, and my natural instinct was to get angry, because when I was reading it, it felt like Lucy was attacking Faith’s mom and I was like, “I would get so upset in this moment.” But I was reading between the lines and I was like, “No, Faith wouldn’t get angry. She would show kindness.” And so I looked through [the script] and tried to find the beats where I definitely have to be firm, because there are certain moments where it doesn’t matter whether you’re being kind or not, the point needs to get across. And so I took those moments and I made them a little more firm and I definitely tried to weave in little moments where Faith can be defensive of her mom and kind of get upset with Lucy. But overall, I feel like my approach is always to try to kind of keep Faith as level-headed as possible. It’s just that I feel like that’s my instinct with her.

Digest: Does being friends in real life make it more fun to play out a dynamic so different than the one you share off camera?

Caster: I think so! It’s incredible. I’m so happy to be doing this storyline with her. I’ve loved her as a person for so long and we’ve always been really close, so it was really exciting when she was cast on the show and we would text each other and be like, “Oh, maybe we’ll be in scenes together!” And now, we have this whole weighted storyline where our families are intertwined and it is so fun. It’s also kind of surreal to be doing because we did work together before, but she’s such a great actress and she’s really easy to play off of and because we’re so comfortable with each other, I feel like that does show in the scenes, you know? We take more risks with our scenes.

O’Briant: I think it’s really fun to play this dynamic that we have because obviously before, when we were playing sisters, our characters fought a little, in that sisterly way, but most of the time our characters were having a lot of fun together. So now, switching over to this character dynamic, it was honestly really fun because as actors, it’s fun to get to come on set and play a completely different dynamic. I have really, truly enjoyed this storyline. It’s definitely difficult at times because the subject matter is very deep and heavy, but I think it’s the most fun when you get to do something really challenging.

Digest: So, we’re certainly not at the point in the story where the truth about Sharon’s actions unravel, but have you given any thought to how you would imagine Faith and Lucy each might react if they were to find out that Sharon is responsible for Lucy losing her mother?

Caster: Well, I mean … Anyone being told that their mother is responsible for such a horrific act, it would be the worst thing in the world. It would be horrible. She probably wouldn’t want to believe it and she would definitely struggle with, you know, “Is she responsible? Could she not have done this? Is that even a possibility?” And it would definitely weigh on her because she’d be stuck in the middle of these two moral dilemmas, like, “She’s my mom, but she also could have murdered someone!” And, “Maybe she didn’t, maybe she did.” She would definitely not react well!

O’Briant: I don’t even know if Lucy would know how to navigate that. That’s such a difficult position to be in because obviously she loves Faith so much and cares so much about her. It’s a hard thing to think about. I don’t know how she’s gonna react, but I guess we’ll see!

Caster: I do think that if it comes to light that Sharon is responsible, I can’t imagine Lucy taking that lightly, and Faith is Sharon’s daughter. To have my mother do that to her mother … I think that is going to make for a really interesting dynamic between them.