Young and Restless’s Vincent Stalba Teases Carter ‘Will Do Anything for His Boss’ (Exclusive)

When Vincent Stalba made his daytime debut as Aristotle Dumas’s assistant, Carter, on Young and Restless, he very quickly found himself sharing the screen with established soap stars like Eric Braeden (Victor), Melody Thomas Scott (Nikki), and Peter Bergman (Jack), who have decades of experience in the industry. And in his first scenes, welcoming the guests to Dumas’s estate, he even had to boss them all around! “That was a lot of fun,” the actor enthuses. “The first time I walked on the maze set, Joshua Morrow [Nick] said, ‘Oh my God, he’s perfect.’ So that was my first introduction, and I felt immediately at home. I was able to breathe and have fun because yeah, I’m talking to these legacy actors and characters and I’m telling them what to do and not giving them any answers and leaving them in a very uncomfortable position. So I think it was fun for them just as much as it was fun for me.”

Getting Started

Like many performers, the acting bug bit early on, and for Stalba, it was in high school. “I asked my dad if I could pursue theater because I loved movies,” he recalls. “He wanted me to be a professional golfer, and I just kind of hated being told what to do and fell in love with acting. And he’s like, ‘Yeah, actors make a lot of money. You can try that.’ So I got to pursue acting in theater in high school, fell in love with it, came out of my shell, had a great mentor, Mrs. Keller, and she advised me to go to community college with her mentor, David Moberg, and then he told me to go to USF to finish my degree. There’s a long, windy path there to where I am now. But it all started in Fort Pierce, Florida, doing a play called Voices 2000.”

The actor soon began booking professional gigs, his first a pilot for a television series titled Hoke starring Paul Giamatti. “I’d had an agent for a couple of years, nothing was really hitting in Tampa,” Stalba says. “And then finally, I booked two things in a row. I booked that [pilot] and then Graceland on USA.”

Growing Restless

Stalba described the process of auditioning for Y&R as “super quick and easy.” Originally meant to be an under-five role for the one episode, the actor auditioned with the scene where Carter tries to prevent Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) from reaching his boss, Aristotle Dumas. “So it was a quick two-scene audition of me basically stonewalling her,” he explains. “I get to set, it’s kind of like boarding a moving train because how fast soap operas move. So it’s just one take and you’re done. The stage manager, Fritz [Brekeller], was like, ‘Have you ever done a soap opera before?’ And I said, ‘No.’ And he’s like, ‘Okay, great. We’re not rehearsing. We’re going — three, two, one.’ “

Despite the pressure of that, “It was a lot of fun,” Stalba professes. “It was overwhelming. It was great. But then [Fritz] mentioned, ‘Hey, your boss is coming back in a couple of weeks, so we may see you again.’ And I didn’t really know what that meant. Didn’t think much of it, but then a couple weeks later, I was brought back and I have a really cool arc on the show.”

Keep Up

Actors who are new to daytime often find themselves having to adjust to the rapid pace at which soaps are produced. “They have it down to a science,” Stalba marvels. “When you first arrive for the day, there’s a little kind of walk-through rehearsal, and then you go back to your room and it’s kind of the waiting game. Then you’re called back, you do another quick walk-through just to remember the blocking for the cameras, and then it’s, ‘Okay, we’re taping,’ and then that’s it, and they just quickly move on. It’s just so fast. It’s remarkable.”

Thankfully, Stalba received help navigating the daytime world from another Y&R newcomer who joined the cast at the same time he did. Billy Flynn was taking over the role of Cane Ashby — the man behind the Aristotle Dumas alias — but he has years of experience from playing Chad DiMera on Days of Our Lives. “He’s been a soap opera actor and a tremendous actor for many years,” Stalba says. “I think I just saw him as a mentor and he kind of guided me along the process of what to expect. Just very kind of me, talking about his family and just really opening up and sharing about his journey as an actor.”

Finding Carter

When Stalba was first cast as Carter, he was given no indication as to where the storyline was going, so he based his character on the description he was given. “Carter’s calculated, cold, polished, professional, and very robotic,” he shares. “So I just really embraced that as much as I could. And once I got the scripts for some of the other upcoming episodes and learned how the other characters talk about me, I kind of just utilize all of their feedback and embrace that for my character and role.”

Although initially introduced as Cane’s right-hand man, Carter’s role will continue to grow as the storyline unfolds. Teases Stalba, “It’s basically just being an assistant until there’s a much bigger plan that comes into focus. I say very little, but I know everything. Things are about to get very juicy and very exciting, and I think people are going to connect with Carter in a new way, and Carter may have plans of his own. All I’ll say is I will do anything for my boss.”