Y&R’s Courtney Hope And Jason Thompson Defend ‘Silly’ Pairing
After Courtney Hope’s Sally Spectra and Jason Thompson’s Billy Abbott were cheated on by their respective partners (Adam Newman and Chelsea Lawson) on Young and Restless, they turned to one another for solace — and eventually hooked up themselves. But the pairing of the two characters has drawn mixed reviews from fans — a fact that Hope and Thompson acknowledged in a new interview with Swooon.
“Silly” Business
The actors made it clear that they greatly enjoy working together, with Thompson praising Hope as “one of the most playful, sweet, kind, actresses you’re ever going to work with” and Hope gushing, “I’ve been super excited from the day I found out that we were going to be working together. I respect him and his work so much.”
They also both think the relationship between Billy and Sally has great potential. Hope noted that both characters are “very headstrong, and they’re very passionate, and they’re in pursuit of the truth,” and Thompson agreed, enthusing, “I’m personally a big fan of the two of them together,” and describing the duo as “both passionate people in whatever it is: business, love life, everything.”
Still, some of the impassioned reactions the burgeoning “Silly” relationship has drawn from viewers have leaned toward the negative — and Hope and Thompson were both of the opinion that that comes with the territory when a new couple is being developed on a soap.
“Everyone’s got who they love,” observed Hope. “And I think, you know, if they loved the couple that each of us were with before, they’re going to [be] screaming from the rooftops about that…. They weren’t going to be happy about this! And I think that’s natural.” She was optimistic that even Sally and Billy’s detractors would eventually come around, enthusing. “I love seeing people, flip, too. That’s super fun. Like, they’re super gung-ho about one thing, and then you have one episode and all of a sudden, they’re like, your biggest fan!”
Thompson said he understood why some fans were still rooting for an Adam/Sally reunion. “If you’re an Adam fan and you like these two together, [I] understand that, because Sally was good for him, so you want that for him. It’s very, very natural to want to keep them together because you know, ultimately, that she was good for him, and he could probably use somebody like that in his life.”
But he, too, was hopeful that the Billy/Sally combination would win over the skeptics. “I like having people root for you,” he admitted. “It’s nice…. If the fans like it, [it] helps you kind of be committed to it, it helps the writers know it’s working.” He added, “When we go to do the job, we ultimately want people to like us together, you know? You want it to work in whatever way.”
Thompson also recognized that even if Billy and Sally’s relationship is more than a blip, that doesn’t necessarily mean that “Silly” is endgame. “This is an ever-evolving story within a larger storyline,” he pointed out. “We could be together for two years, and ultimately, the biggest payoff might be when we break up down the road, you know?”
“We can’t control what people think of us,” Hope concluded. “And so for me, I’ve always just approached [a divisive pairing] with [the mentality of], ‘I just need to find what I like within the dynamic and play with that and pursue that.”
Where do you stand on the subject of “Silly”? Let us know in the comments below!
Love ‘Em Or Leave ‘Em? Fans are divided about whether Billy and Sally make a good couple on Y&R.
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.