The Young and the Restless: Joshua Morrow On Nick’s ‘Desperate’ Plan to ‘Silence Matt Forever’ (Excl)
As soon as Matt Clark returned to Young and Restless (now played by Roger Howarth) last year, the psycho resumed torturing the Newman family. And now that the law has failed to handle the problem, Nick has decided to take matters into his own hands. On the Friday, February 27 episode, Nick set a plan in motion to lure the villain into a trap. Soap Opera Digest chatted with portrayer Joshua Morrow about his character’s drive to take town Matt — and how Nick’s growing drug dependency might give his enemy the upper hand.
Taking Care of Business
“It’s been obviously a decades-long problem, this Matt Clark issue, and it just keeps getting more dangerous,” muses Morrow, who notes that Nick is “really desperate to handle this. He wants to do it himself. He wants to be the person to silence Matt Clark forever. Sometimes that makes him do things maybe that are not as well thought out, but he is hell-bent on finishing this story. And, you know, he’s resorting to some pretty crazy stuff.”
During Matt’s previous runs on the soap — notably played by Eddie Cibrian from 1994-96 and Rick Hearst (Ric, General Hospital) from 2000-01 — his focus was on terrorizing Sharon (Sharon Case) and Nick. But now that their family has expanded, the villain has been targeting their son, Noah (Lucas Adams), which has pushed Nick even further over the edge.
“The reason Matt Clark is even a component in all of this is because of the history of that triangle of Nick and Sharon and Matt,” Morrow points out. “So he feels like he’s at fault that Noah is even at risk, and feels an obligation to protect his son. Because at the end of the day, if this man does anything to his son, all bets are off. I wouldn’t put anything past Nick. If one hair on Noah’s head was hurt by him, I think Nick would take a real bad turn to the dark side.”
Desperate Times
Of course, ridding his family of this threat is going to be easier said than done, especially if Nick insists on taking care of Matt all by his lonesome. “Nick has always been a pretty severe hothead, and he doesn’t really think things through a lot, which is honestly one of my favorite things to play about him,” says Morrow. “He lacks the cunning, game-playing and brains of Victor Newman [Eric Braeden]. He’s all heart and action, so he’s impulsive and he makes a lot of mistakes, which, again, is something I really like playing about him. So his temper is always going to hurt him while also assisting Matt Clark, because Matt can always manipulate Nick in that way, knowing that Nick is going to do things that maybe aren’t very well thought out. So that’s a problem for Nick, even though Nick refuses to acknowledge it.”
The last time that Nick tried to take care of Matt on his own, the villain caused him to crash the car they were in, which left Nick with a broken leg and a growing dependency on pain medication that is also not helping the situation.
“He’s got this sneaky drug problem that is really affecting a lot of his ability to make sound decisions as well,” the Y&R star says. “He rushed leaving the hospital with a badly broken leg that’s mostly healed, but it’s still a problem for him, so he’s mixing in a lot of pain meds, as well as now taking drugs that were given to him by Matt. He’s just definitely not in a very healthy space because of it — physically and mentally — to be dealing with something that he cares so passionately about, which is protecting his family and ridding them of the threat of Matt Clark.”
Murder in Mind
Just how far will Nick go to take care of Matt once and for all? “You should never hear the words out of Nick’s mouth that he’s going to kill someone,” Morrow asserts. “Now, I don’t think for one second that he’s not willing to do it if it means protecting the family. But that’s a very big line to cross. And I think somebody smarter and in a better frame of mind, if it wasn’t drug and pill-induced, maybe he would realize that. But right now, Matt Clark is just making him see red and making him do crazy things and react in uncharacteristic ways.”
The fact that Nick isn’t functioning at his peak will also give his nemesis the upper hand in the coming confrontation. “Matt is playing Nick like a flute,” the actor allows. “Every move that he makes is all about getting Nick off balance. Everything that Matt has done has all been part of this giant plan, and to Matt’s credit, it’s worked beautifully. And Nick’s not doing himself any favors, obviously, by going down this drug path. It’s just making it easier and easier for Matt to manipulate the situation and make it even more threatening.
“It would be interesting to see how Nick would be handling it if he was healthier, but he is not in a good place,” Morrow continues. “He’s got an addiction to pain meds while mixing in hard drugs. That’s a recipe for disaster, especially when you have somebody with a personality who’s as impulsive and reckless as Nick can be.”
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