ICYMI Peter Bergman and Jason Thompson Interview

Y&R’s Peter Bergman And 
Jason Thompson Talk About Daytime Emmys, Their Deep Friendship And 
Next-Gen Abbotts

Soap Opera Digest: Well, first of all, congratulations to you both for your Daytime Emmy noms in the Outstanding Leading Actor category. I know you’re both thrilled for each other, but is there any bit of sibling rivalry there?

Peter Bergman: Oh, I really, really wanna beat him and I wanna see his face when I win!

Jason Thompson: To be honest, I just know that I’ll never beat Peter, so I’m totally resolved to the fact that I’ll always be second place.

Bergman: Oh, he’s taking the high road. Listen, there’s no one I would rather lose to than this man.

Digest: How would you sum up your real-life relationship?

Bergman: I have said almost from the minute Jason got here that he’s a really evolved spirit. He’s a really good guy on every front, and he has this wonderful vibe about him. Everyone, everyone likes him. The more I get to know him, the more I like him, and that’s a pretty cool thing. On his first day, I remember thinking, “This is gonna be fantastic!”

Thompson: Well, thank you for that. You know, you don’t come across many people in your life that you can really rely on and trust and have faith that they’re leading you in the right way, plus giving you the kind of advice that you need to hear, and Peter has been all of those things for me. I personally find a ton of similarities with his family and his career trajectory as mine. We both have a son and a daughter, we both were recasts on the show, we both care deeply about the work and for the people we work with. I have such a comfort knowing that I have Peter as a friend, as a colleague and as my older brother. There are certain relationships that you have at work, where you don’t feel you actually need to try very hard. Things are just kind of there. And our personal relationship is very deep and layered. We’ll find ourselves in dressing rooms just talking for hours. I’m incredibly fortunate that our personal relationship is as rich as it is.

Digest: Do you remember when you first met?

Bergman: I know a lot of people on daytime television and before Y&R, our paths never really crossed.

Thompson: Actually, we were up for Lead Actor that one year with Michael [Muhney, ex-Adam], and Doug [Davidson, Paul] won [2013]. We were all being shoved through the red carpet line and Peter reached across four different people, shook my hand and said, “Nice to meet you.” And that was really how we met the very first time, in passing. But before I came to Y&R, we haven’t spent any time together at all.

Bergman: It’s interesting because now that we’re down to four shows, I feel like I know everybody, but I guess our paths crossed once for a handshake.

Digest: When you found out Jason would be the new Billy, did you talk to him before he showed up on his first day?

Bergman: I didn’t get to talk to him before he showed up, but as soon as he showed up, I didn’t feel like I needed to give him the speech that I kind of do with everybody new. It’s just to say, “Hey, they want you to be brilliant. Go ahead and blow them away, but the one thing you have to do is you have to know your lines. Everything else will come together.” I felt that I didn’t need to have that talk with Jason because he was an experienced actor. When I talk to a new person, I’m trying to warn them about this medium, but I didn’t need to warn Jason. From the day I met him, it was very easy to get to know him.

Thompson: I will add that the best ones always lead by example and Peter is like the North Star for that. He’s always prepared, he’s always ready on set, always on time. Nobody’s ever asking Peter to show up or where is he or anything like that. So you quickly learn a level of professionalism and recognize that things work better not only for you, but overall and more importantly, for the show as well. When you are that professional, you carry that kind of excitement for the work. It helps every aspect of the job and the structure of it. So you can’t help but want to emulate his level of professional actor.

Digest: How did the two of you go about establishing your rapport and chemistry as on-screen brothers?

Bergman: I have to say it was automatic. It came on the first scene I had with him. I ran home to my wife and said, “Oh, I got such good news: Jason Thompson!” Yeah, she got tired of me talking about him. So from the get-go, there was this immediate connection.

Thompson: I’ll just add that for me personally, when you get to work with someone who is innately vulnerable and a sensitive human being, the sky is the limit. Peter is that tremendously open and allows himself to be vulnerable in the moment. I can tell that we’ve both almost choked up sometimes and it’s hard to say the next line to a certain extent. I can tell you when we’re in it, it’s like this tether that’s between us that is just a profound thing to have in the scene with someone. And there’s a deep love there even when they’re angry and saying somewhat hurtful things. So there’s never a scene that we’re not excited to do together and I’m always learning from him constantly.

Digest: The Jack and Billy scenes are always great but I’m also enjoying Jason’s scenes with Eileen Davidson (Ashley).

Thompson: Peter can speak to Eileen’s talent better than anyone here. They’ve worked together for so long, but you’re talking about a powerhouse right there. She is a fantastic actress. Eileen is a genuinely funny person who loves to have a good time, but loves doing the work. She’s so incredibly prepared, but she’s not overly cautious and precious about it. I love working with her. I think this relationship that our characters have is really intriguing to me. Billy’s screwed up a lot and this is the family company and we can throw around things like trying to emulate dad but I think Ashley sees him as the guy that’ll never really get it together. It’s a blast to work with somebody like Eileen.

Bergman: Yeah, she is a force and I love this marvelous dynamic that Jack and Ashley have. When Dina left, and since Jack is the oldest, Dad tells Jack, “I can’t do this alone. I’m going to need some help with the girls.” And Jack took that really seriously and pretty much ran the girls’ lives for a lot of years. Now they’re full-grown adults and they don’t need anybody telling them what their next moves should be, so Ashley comes with a fire in her that’s created by life experiences and here she is smack dab in front of a guy who has so many of those feelings himself: Billy.

Thompson: “I know, I’m your little brother. I know I’m not one of the three. I don’t need you guys lording that over me.” Ashley and Billy are fighting the same fight but against each other.

Digest: Peter, you have two brothers. How would Jason fit in with the Bergman clan?

Bergman: My brothers would love Jason. He’s a guy’s guy. He’s funny, he’s an athlete and he’s fast on his feet. Jason’s my kind of people.

Digest: And Jason, how do you think Peter would fit in with the Thompson family?

Thompson: They would love to sit around and listen to stories about everything because Peter is a heck of a storyteller and there’s something magnetic about him. You just want to be a part of whatever he’s doing or sharing. So, they would love him. He would have to learn how to love hockey.

Bergman: Yeah, that’s a big problem.

Digest: What has been your most memorable scene together?

Bergman: I have one that stands out because I’ve marveled at how good he was at it. Jack doesn’t use his hands often, he uses his mouth, but there was a scene where I’m punching Jason and throwing him against the wall. This is when Jack found out about Billy’s affair with Phyllis and they really had me throwing him around and, surprise, surprise, this guy knew stunt work. It was so cool. He made it look like I threw him like a paper clip. When he hit the wall, it looked like real damage was done. It was just fantastic and it was like what the real stuntpeople do.

Thompson: I remember doing that. That was a lot of fun. I remember loving the scene we did in the coffee shop not that long ago. It was an argument they were having about where Billy’s life was at. There was something extra there.

Bergman: Every time I work with Jason, I connect with him. When we were in the middle of the pandemic and we couldn’t work, we were constantly talking to each other on the phone about what we have to do when we get back and what we have to do to supercharge this show. He’s just as passionate about this work as I am.

Thompson: The best example I have for that is Peter because he cares so much about the work and the people that he works with. This is someone who always validates that feeling for me.

Digest: How much fun is it when all the Abbott siblings are in scenes together?

Thompson: When we all get together, we get very excited about being in the same room and doing scenes together because we really genuinely love each other, so we want to elevate the work. We really want to be relied upon to tell these stories and relay a certain amount of emotion.

Bergman: The best way to tell you is the group text that normally follows when we’re done. Someone will start off with, “God, wasn’t that fun?” and it turns into this long chain of, “You guys are the best!”, “We are the best!”, and “This family is so terrific!” Beth Maitland [Traci] hasn’t been here for a month and she shows up and lights up the Abbott set but with just her pure goodness and kindness. Eileen, we’ve already said is a force of nature. With Michael Mealor, Kyle is fast becoming the man that he wants to be and Diane’s presence in that household has been revolutionary and impacts everyone in the family. Oh, and don’t let me leave out Summer, one of the most difficult recasts in the history of this show and Allison Lanier is just electric. When you get all those people together, Jason and I are pretty happy.

Thompson: It’s true. There’s also so much trust there, which is fun because it allows us to kind of crack up a little bit and make fun of each other and laugh and take the edge off. When it’s time to work, we’re ready to work.

Bergman: If one of the family has to carry a lot of the load, you can watch all the others give some deference and a little space. We can’t all be joking at the same time because this person has to carry these next two scenes and every time, it’s so natural and so generous. That’s why I’m so proud of our soap family.

Thompson: I agree. So proud.

Bergman: The Abbott family has been in transition for some time. Ashley comes and goes, Traci’s in New York, Billy’s busy, and it’s been my argument that Billy, and I mean Jason, is the future of the Abbott family. If this show goes on for the next 15 years, he’s the future of the Abbott family. And so the more we can build that, that’s good for the show. I always care about scenes, but I especially care about the scenes that are foundational stuff. The scenes that Jack and Billy have are building blocks for the family.