Celebrity Encounters: Y&R

Judith Chapman (Gloria) on Little Richard, 2008 “I remember that he was so frail. I’d be surprised if he weighed more than 60 pounds. When I first met him, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, he’s never gonna get through the scene.’ He had this big bodyguard/assistant, who just stood on the sidelines to help him for whatever he needed. But I swear, performers, whether they’re in Vaudeville, A-listers in show business or just a working actor like me, can be as tired as anything, but when we creep onto the stage, it’s 5-4-3-2-1, bam! We come to life and that’s what Little Richard did. All of a sudden he just started playing the piano and he was just so dear. You couldn’t get anyone more perfect to marry Gloria and Jeffrey. I still have the marriage certificate.”

Michael Graziadei (Daniel) on Aaron Neville, 2006 “He’s a huge Y&R fan and was so happy to be there. His singing on the show was just beautiful and it was so much fun to have an artist of his caliber visit our show. I remember he was thrilled about meeting Kristoff [St. John, ex-Neil] and Victoria [Rowell, ex-Drucilla], and he was super-nice to everyone.”

Michelle Stafford (Phyllis) Trace Adkins, 2008 “He was a doll and the song he sang was called ‘You’re Gonna Miss This’. It was about paying attention to what you have in the moment. He was talking to us about his kids and just a really cool, funny dude that you want around, the kind you like to hang out with. He had another really great song before [that] called ‘Honky Tonk Badonkadonk’ and we had fun talking about it. He was just a really lovely man.”

Michelle Stafford (Phyllis) on Katy Perry, 2008 “I remember she was really sweet but very soft-spoken. She didn’t know the show — I mean, she knew of it, but she didn’t know who anyone was and she wasn’t a diva at all. She was very professional and knew her lines, and she knew what to do, which is very important. She was really cool and just hung out with us. She was happy to be there and excited about having a song [‘I Kissed A Girl’] that was doing really well.”

Bryton James (Devon) on Enrique Iglesias, 2007 “He couldn’t have been more kind. He, was very warm, generous, and an extremely talented guy. I got to share a story with him that my father [Eric McClure] worked with his dad, Julio Iglesias. My dad was a songwriter for Kenny Rogers back in the ’80s and they had worked together with Julio. So, that was cool to talk about that with Enrique.”

Bryton James (Devon) on Telma Hopkins, 2021 “I had mentioned to our producers that Telma was a fan of the show and if there was ever an opportunity, she would love to come on. I didn’t know that they had reached out to her and asked about doing a guest role for a few episodes. She didn’t say yes [at first] because she wanted to ask if I thought she’d be able to handle it. She was so nervous about the pace and how much dialogue we had to learn. I told her I would help her every step of the way because I know she’s an extreme professional and would be just fine — and she was. She literally held me my first day on a set all those years ago and so I was more than happy to hold her hand through this.”

Eileen Davidson (Ashley) Erika Jayne, 2016, 2017 and 2018 “We were already friends [from RHOBH] and at her birthday party, I gave her a part on the show as her gift. Of course, I had already cleared it with the producers, so she was very excited. They decided to audition her anyway to find out what she could handle and how much dialogue to give her. I knew she would nail it because she had the chops. I can tell you we had a lot of fun that day [of taping]. We shot our scene in one take which was a good thing because I had to spill coffee on her. I would love to have her come back.”