Conner Floyd was pleased to get the call to try out for his new Y&R role, Phillip “Chance” Chancellor IV. “This wasn’t the first time I auditioned for these guys, so it was nice to get another opportunity,” he reveals. “They kept it pretty secret, so I was given a dummy name with dummy sides. So I had no idea [about who Chance was] until Melissa [Ordway, Abby] slipped me a little info.”
Her inside scoop came to him when he got to the studio for his audition. “I was sitting in the lobby, nervous and sweating, and reading through my lines,” he recalls. “She came out and sat next to me and asked, ‘Are you testing?’ When I said, ‘Yeah,’ she said, ‘You’re testing with me!’ She gave me some character details that really helped in my audition when we read together. This was the first time I tested for a studio, so my adrenaline was pumping. I took a couple of deep breaths to calm myself down but once we got in there, it was fun. Everybody was easy to work with, giving me notes and chatting me up. It made the whole experience pretty fun for me.”
Still, Floyd didn’t assume he’d be cast. “I never walk away from an audition and think, ‘Oh, I nailed that,’ ” he says. “I’m always like, ‘I could’ve done that better,’ but that’s the perfectionist in me. I had a good time and kept my fingers crossed.” For three days, he waited to hear if the job was his. “I was biting my fingernails, looking at my phone and texting my agent. I was about to work out in my garage, and just before I got started, she called to drop the good news on me. I ended up not getting a workout because I was too excited.”
The first day of work “was all audio recording, so it was just me doing voice-overs,” Floyd shares. “That day, I also had my wardrobe fitting and by the time I started on set, they had all my clothes ready. This guy is looking really slick, I tell you. There are a couple of jackets that they better not leave out because I might take them home with me!”
When he finally did get in front of the camera, “I had a lot of lines,” the actor recalls. “I got to set, the director said welcome and threw me in the deep end. There was a lot of explaining [from Chance] about what’s been going on, so it was quite a mouthful. Then I heard, ‘Okay, we got it. Moving on!’ I was like, ‘There’s no way. Really?’ It felt great that I could meet the challenge. My first couple of days were with Melissa and she’s basically been my on-set mom, introducing me to everyone, giving me the [rundown] on how things work and helping me with my lines. She’s been a great partner to have in this whole thing. The fact that I can roll in off the street and be made to feel at home is phenomenal and everything you want in a job. I’m excited to be around all of this talent and soak up as much as I can from these savvy vets.”
Floyd feels good about how he’s adjusted to the gig. “I’m definitely getting my feet under me,” he declares. “The first couple of weeks were crazy, but I feel like I’m figuring this out and finding my rhythm. I’m used to the independent film realm and I’ve never done a TV show. It’s a different kind of production with the multiple cameras, and the lighting, the staging, and the blocking is all pretty precise. Now, I just want to step it up and bring the same intensity each day that I’m here.”
