The Young and the Restless: Peter Bergman Recalls ‘Real Conflict’ With Eric Braeden Early On as Jack
On Young and Restless, Jack Abbott’s legendary, decades-long feud with Victor Newman is still going strong. Now, in a new conversation on Soapy, the podcast co-hosted by Greg Rikaart (Leo, Days of Our Lives) and Rebecca Budig (Taylor, Bold and Beautiful), Peter Bergman (Jack) opened up about the real-life friction between him and co-star Eric Braeden (Victor), which became tabloid fodder when he first joined the CBS sudser.
Conflict Resolution
Bergman launched his soap career in New York, starring as heartthrob doctor Cliff Warner on All My Children starting in 1979. A decade later, he was let go from AMC in a headline-making shocker — and as luck would have it, his sudden availability coincided with the role of Jack being vacated by the late Terry Lester, who had created the character in 1982. Melody Thomas Scott (Nikki) infamously recommended Bergman for the role, and on November 27, 1989, the actor made his Y&R debut as Jack.
During his chat with Budig and Rikaart, who starred alongside Bergman on Y&R as Kevin Fisher, brought up the off-camera dynamic between Bergman and Braeden when Bergman first assumed the role of Victor’s longtime nemesis. “Bergman’s setside friction with co-star Eric Braeden (Victor), which became tabloid fodder when he first joined the CBS sudser.
“There was tension there,” Bergman admitted. “There was a lot of tension there. In fairness to Eric, Jack Abbott wasn’t kind of naturally who I was. Today, he is. At the time, Jack was a real cad. He was a womanizing, manipulating cad of a guy. He was not very kind. And so for me, it required that I kind of steel myself in a way that I could bring some cocky to the set. So I brought a lot of cocky to the set. And I’m sure Eric probably looked over and thought, ‘Who is this Mr. Cocky here?’”
Begman added that “Eric and I always worked very differently,” which added to the discord. “So early on, there was some real conflict there, yes. It was very tough. And that made the transition [from AMC to Y&R] harder. And I worked pretty exclusively with Eric and Melody for my first two years there, besides the Abbott family part of it. And it was… it was an experience.”
Over the years, the men worked through their differences and nowadays, it’s smooth sailing on set as they continue to breathe life into one of the greatest on-screen rivalries in daytime history. “We’re great friends today,” Bergman reported. “We get along very well today and are very proud of this [Jack/Victor saga],” which he called “probably the oldest enmity in all of television. The journey we’ve taken together [off camera], I’m also very proud of.”
Conversation
All comments are subject to our Community Guidelines. Soap Opera Digest does not endorse the opinions and views shared by our readers in our comment sections. Our comments section is a place where readers can engage in healthy, productive, lively, and respectful discussions. Offensive language, hate speech, personal attacks, and/or defamatory statements are not permitted. Advertising or spam is also prohibited.