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Interview

ICYMI: Daniel Goddard Looks Back At His Favorite Y&R Moments

Daniel
Daniel Goddard "The Young and the Restless" Set CBS television City Los Angeles 03/30/17 © Howard Wise/jpistudios.com 310-657-9661 Credit: JPI

Daniel Goddard (Cane) Looks Back At His Favorite Y&R Moments

Favorite Y&R Storyline? “When Cane got his own family. First, there were the twins and then he got a mother in Genie Francis [ex-Genevieve; Laura, GH] and a father in Tristan Rogers [ex-Colin; Robert, GH]. That was huge because to me, when you have your own family, you finally know you’ve kind of made it on a soap opera. So, having a family meant a lot to me. It was fantastic, but now they’re gone.”

Favorite Thing About Cane? “I know he has lied but I always liked Cane’s moral compass, which always led him to do whatever he could do to protect his family, like when he took a bullet for Lily so that she couldn’t be hurt.”

Favorite Scene Partner? “Definitely Christel [Khalil, Lily]. We have a connection where we got to act outside just the words and outside the scene, but we had so many moments in our lives that would cross over, so if it would happen in the scene, we knew it had reference for other things. I loved watching Christel grow and mature into a woman, have her family, go through her life and get her confidence about who she is as a person, and allowing that to play into our relationship on camera.”

Favorite Scene? “When Cane and Lily got their house and he carried her across the threshold and was spinning her around in circles. She was yelling, ‘Put me down! Put me down!’ and laughing. It was a real, sweet moment that resonated with me, with her and with the fans.”

Favorite Line Of Dialogue? “Even though it turned out to be Cane’s evil twin brother, Caleb, who died, it was still moving when the last thing he said to Lily was, ‘I love you.’ At the time, we all thought it was Cane who died and it was heartbreaking.”

Favorite Thing About Playing Caleb? “That I wasn’t restricted to the confines of what had already been established. It was fresh and I could do whatever I wanted with it to create something new and different.”

Favorite Thing About Your Co-Stars? “Just catching up with everybody’s lives, you know, just finding out how they’re doing. Josh [Morrow, Nick] and I spend time talking about our kids, Jess [Walton, Jill] is having another grandchild, and Christel having her son, then finding love again. Just staying in touch with everybody and seeing how they are, and the way their families have changed and grown. I think the day-to-day connection that you have with these people that you’ve spent years with is a very emotional thing because you play these roles where you lose love, there are trials and tribulations, and ups and downs. To see the way that everyone came together when Kristoff [St. John, ex-Neil] passed proves it’s more than just a job.”

Favorite Thing About Jess Walton (Jill)? “Making jokes with her about the ’60s, when she was a child of the free love movement and making love to mimes while Marcel Marceau watched [laughs].”

Favorite Thing About The Late Jeanne Cooper (ex-Katherine)? “She would call it how it is and she cussed like a truck driver. She was amazing and the heart of the show. She’s greatly missed.”

Favorite Thing About Bryton James (Devon)? “He is loyal to the core. I could trust him with my life. He’s my son Ford’s godfather.”

Favorite Thing About Your Dressing Room? “It used to be Jeanne’s room, so every day I walk in, I say, ‘Hi, Jeanne,’ and ‘Good-bye, Jeanne,” when I leave. I still feel her presence there. I haven’t changed a thing in that room. I left it exactly how it was.”

Favorite thing About The Late Kristoff St. John (ex-Neil)? “He’d give you the shirt off his back. And you wouldn’t even have to ask him if you needed it. He’d know and he’d just give it to you. He was that giving.”

Favorite Thing About Playing A Dad? “I became friends with Lexie [Stevenson, Mattie] and Noah [Alexander Gerry, Charlie] outside of just being their TV dad, and actually guiding them and giving them advice about life off camera. I think being a dad in real life allowed me to bring that level of understanding to the character when Cane’s kids were having problems, like the way he would talk to them and embrace them or love them.”

Favorite Thing About The Chancellor Set? “That it’s historic. The décor and the little crystal chandelier things that are in there are all from Day 1. I mean, walking onto that set is history. I remember Tyler Perry said to Oprah, ‘I told my mother one day, “I’m going to buy you a house like Mrs. Chancellor,” ’ and he was talking about that set and the history of the show. It’s a huge deal.”

Favorite Thing About Being A Chancellor? “To me, it meant I was part of the show’s history, not just being brought in. Your character is actually part of the soap. You had Jess Walton as your mom and Jeanne Cooper as your grandmother. I mean, that’s royalty. That’s soap opera royalty. But Cane managed to have his own family, which had their own name, the Ashbys.”

Favorite Job For Cane? “There’s been so many. I really enjoyed when I worked my first job as a bartender at Indigo, and then I also worked at Jabot, Chancellor and Brash & Sassy. I have to say it was when I was working at Jabot and we were doing the Fresh Face of Jabot campaign. The whole relationship with Lily and Cane developed while they’re working together at this one place. It allowed love, life and business to all intersect. They weren’t separate. And that’s also when they brought in Liz Hendrickson as Chloe. Great stuff.”

Favorite Thing About Working With Beth Maitland (Traci)? “She’s very emotionally connected to the scenes. She has a very strong emotional core. As an actress or actor in general, there’s nothing more important than that because otherwise they’re just saying words. I think we have a good rhythm.”

Favorite Thing About Being Part Of Y&R? “The fans. Meeting fans who tell me that I’ve contributed to something in their lives. They love the character and they sit around together and they talk about it. That means a lot to me. It really does. The last fan event was great. I got to host it with Melissa Ordway [Abby] and it was a lot of fun. I really work well with Melissa. We have a good rapport together. Just to always see the fans and the joy they get. The Y&R fan event is almost like a pilgrimage. You see familiar faces every two years and you catch up with these amazing people. A lot of the fans I saw this year were telling me they had been sick, or they’ve had kids or even grandkids. You see these lifelong fans that are dedicated to the show and you watch them and their lives change. You feel like you’re part of that, which is always wonderful.”

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