The Young and the Restless Exclusive: Matt Clark Can ‘Absolutely’ Be Redeemed, Head Writer Says
The Young and the Restless brought notorious villain Matt Clark back last Halloween in the form of Daytime Emmy-winning fan fave Roger Howarth — and Head Writer Josh Griffith tells Soap Opera Digest that giving him amnesia was most definitely part of a larger plan to keep the actor active in Genoa City. But can Matt truly be redeemed? Griffith says yes — with a key caveat.
Wicked Game
Griffith says that “as soon as we got Roger on the canvas,” he began dreaming up ways to justify keeping the actor — and therefore Matt — around. “I thought, ‘This guy is just so good and Matt is so bad! And if he continues to be that evil, he’s got a short shelf life. How can we reinvent him in a way that he can still be potentially threatening and a potential danger to the people around him, but redeem him from the horrible, horrible things that he’s done in the past?'”
In time, he settled on wiping out Matt’s memory to jump-start that process. “This is a way of kind of recreating and reinventing the character,” Griffith notes, “through a total loss of memory of everything that he’s done and then having to learn what he’s done and [exploring] how can that impact him going forward.”
Overcoming a rap sheet that spans decades and includes raping beloved heroine Sharon (Sharon Case), framing Nick (Joshua Morrow) for murder and facilitating his drug addiction is a steep climb, but in the writer’s view, it is possible for Matt to turn over a new leaf. “Of course he can,” Griffith says. “Absolutely — if he not only shows remorse but atones for his sins, then sure, yes, there is redemption. But the key is atoning; the key is action.”
Last week, Matt took the most un-Matt-like action imaginable: He helped to save Nick’s life when he overdosed. And that is obviously no small matter to Nick’s loving family, no matter how much they hate Matt. “I think it’s a conflicting moment for them,” Griffith offers. “Here’s someone that they despise, that they think is a threat to all of them, who’s just jumped in without thinking and saved their son’s life while at the same time, he’s saying to them, ‘I don’t remember what I’ve done to you, and if it was as bad as you say, I’m sorry.’ That’s got to affect the way they look at him. It’s going to be difficult for them to get past what they know of him from the past, but it has to affect them.”
Even if some characters with the last name Newman start looking at Matt differently, don’t expect Sharon to lead the charge. “It’s going to be very hard for her,” Griffith nods. “It’s hardest for her because in many ways, she’s been the most abused by this man,” Griffith points out. “So I think that she’s going to be the holdout for a long time of A), ‘I don’t believe he’s telling the truth, I think this is all a ruse, and B), ‘Even if he is telling the truth, he’s a monster.'”
Griffith hints that Matt’s amnesia, while authentic, isn’t a permanent condition. “He has lost all memory, but as his memories slowly come back to him, we’ll see him shocked by what he has done,” he reveals. And getting his memories back won’t necessarily get in the way of the redemption arc the show is unfurling. “If he can remember but if he doesn’t fall back into that person — if he can remember but atone — then he absolutely has a future [on the canvas],” Griffith declares.
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