ICYMI Peter Bergman Interview

LET’S MAKE A DEAL, 1989 You took over the role of Jack from Terry Lester and your first major story was with Nikki. Did then-Head Writer William J. Bell outline that story to you? “No. I wasn’t told anything but it became clear in the script that Jack was going after Nikki, so I filled in where there were blanks and it became a pretty good story.” It didn’t take long for the fans to fall in love with your rendition of Jack. Did that surprise you? “Yes. I thought I would only be around for six months. It was a testament to the audience that they were able to make the adjustment. Getting used to somebody else playing a role is the toughest thing we ask our audience to do and I’m so glad that they accepted me.” Jack basically used Nikki, which wasn’t very nice. “That’s right. Jack made a bargain with the devil. He told Victor, ‘I’ll give you back your wife, if you give me back Jabot.’ Jack set out to make Nikki fall for him and he succeeded, although Victor was always a presence there. Just when Jack was ready to work out the deal with Victor, he realized that he was truly in love with Nikki. Jack lost out in the bargain and walked away with nothing. He lost Nikki and Jabot and thus began 30 years of losing to Victor Newman.” What is your take on Melody Thomas Scott (Nikki) as your longtime co-star? “I adored working with Melody when I first came on the show and I still do. We always had this depth of so much experience between our characters. Nikki was reckless like Jack and had to grow up to become the head of a family. Those two have both taken some parallel journeys and they both know, even though they don’t talk about it, they respect that in each other. And they have always stayed friends. Jack learned more of life’s lessons with Nikki.”

VICTOR-Y LAPS, 1989-PRESENT Victor and Jack have gone around and around with each other as bitter enemies. “In the three decades of me playing Jack, the absolute constant, regardless of storylines and his personal growth, was his enmity with Victor Newman, which has shaped him in a really significant way. No matter how much Jack opens up and no matter how noble he becomes, there will never be a place in his life for Victor Newman. And that has been a wonderful gift. No matter how far afield we take Jack, no matter what quality each writer wants to bring out in him, there is one thing that cannot be erased, and that is Victor is everything that Jack doesn’t want to be.” As important as the chemistry is between romantic partners, it’s just as vital to also have chemistry between enemies, which you and Eric Braeden (Victor) had in spades. “From day one. I’m so very grateful to the show, the audience and Eric that the Victor and Jack feud has been kept alive all of these decades. It is, to my knowledge, the oldest rivalry in the history of television. There have never been two dyed-in-the-wool enemies [like] Jack and Victor.”

JACK GETS BACK JABOT, 1999 Why was it so important to Jack that the Abbott family reclaim Jabot? “Jabot was John Abbott’s legacy and Jack was responsible for letting Victor Newman swoop in and take it away. It constantly wounded Jack that he separated his father from his life’s work and it became a driving force for Jack to pry Jabot from Victor in any way possible and return it to John. Jack always treated his dad with love, but if he had any respect for John, he wouldn’t have behaved the way he did for years. It was a huge deal to Jack that he was instrumental in getting Jabot back after jumping through a whole lot of hoops to make that happen.” Do you think this was another growth spurt for Jack? “Yes, it became a pivotal storyline because central to all of this was Jack’s commitment to be the son that John wanted and needed him to be. It was a new color for Jack where he became truly responsible to his father and the family legacy.”

HAVING HIS PHYLL, 2000-04 Who would have ever thought about Jack and Phyllis falling in love? “Right? Before this story started, I remember running into Michelle Stafford [Phyllis] on the streets of North Hollywood and she said, ‘Peter, I’m coming back and they’re putting me with you!’ and I said, ‘I heard that, too.’ We were both kind of, ‘We’ll make this work,’ even though it was that odd to us. Our characters were like oil and water but sometimes that can work.” The audience was expecting a train wreck with these two polar opposites, but they ended up loving Jack and Phyllis together. “I was surprised and I think Michelle Stafford was surprised, as well. Here’s a woman who was nothing like anyone Jack had been with before. They didn’t have girls like Phyllis at boarding school, Harvard or the country club, but there was something intoxicating about this crazy redhead who was unapologetically herself. He’d been with well-behaved women who toed the line and put on a good show but Phyllis wanted none of that and he was gobsmacked. Well, in Jack’s classical way, he fell head over heels in love with her but she can- not be contained. Not only did Jack learn this lesson, he was confident that he was enough for her but one day he learned that he wasn’t, so they divorced.”

DEATH BECOMES HIM, 2006 You believed that killing off John Abbott was the wrong move. Why is that? “At first I thought it was a terrible idea because I felt Jack taking over the mantle as head of the family would be too monumental of a challenge for him. It went against his type and who he naturally was. That was a seismic shift for Jack but I’d give it all up to have Jerry Douglas [ex-John] back.” What did you think about the idea of John coming back as a ghost? “I remember when they first mentioned that John would at least come back as Jack’s conscience and they would have conversations, and I thought, ‘Oh, man, this is something from another soap opera. We don’t do ghosts and I’ll have to carry it.’ Boy, was I wrong. I thought those were lovely moments as Jack is trying to do the right thing and have the person he respects the most say, ‘Jack, it’s already there in you. You just have to find it.’ I thought it was powerful stuff to play.” Replacing John as patriarch of the Abbott family was a huge learning curve for Jack. “That took Jack from carefree cad to the lone head of a family, where responsibility and self-examination were no strangers.”

HAVING HIS PHYLL, TAKE 2 (2006) AND TAKE 3 (2013-16) Jack and Phyllis got close again in 2006 but that got nipped in the bud. “When it looked like they’d reconcile, she fell for Nick. That knocked the wind out of Jack and he couldn’t get back on his feet. He foundered, tried to find comfort in Sharon for a while and ran for office [as senator] and it was all to get Phyllis off his mind. He went into business with her at the [Restless Style] magazine and was around her all of the time. Jack knew that she was wrong for Nick. There wasn’t a shadow of a doubt in Jack’s mind about that but he had to eventually get used to the fact she was with Nick and let her go.” Phyllis and Nick didn’t last, and Jack and Phyllis found their way back to each other in 2013. “Yes, he let her back into his life over time and [there was] a new actress playing Phyllis [Gina Tognoni]. She and Jack got into all kinds of problems when Victor put them in an untenable position with this doppelgänger [Marco] who looked like Jack. And as they tried to put that behind them, Phyllis hit Jack where it hurt the most by going after his family. No matter how much she tried to convince him that she didn’t want Billy and was committed to Jack, they couldn’t stay together; not because they fell out of love but because it was just too painful. ” Does that mean you believe Jack still loves Phyllis? “Oh, yes, yes. She’s the only woman who Jack has never gotten over. I don’t think their story is done.”

I REMEMBER MAMA, 2020 Jack and his sisters just recently lost their mother. Why do you think this is a significant story point? “With Dina’s death, Jack is, without question, the head of the Abbott family with an empty house. Jack has allowed himself to look at a life outside of Jabot and he realizes that he’s coming up a little short here.” So, is this a big crossroads for your character? “It really is. This is as clean of a slate as I can remember. He doesn’t have his mother to blame anymore for his mistakes. I have no idea where the writers are going next and I’m fascinated. Jack has never been alone this long in his life. This isn’t a full life, so what comes next, I’m as curious as anyone else is.” And in closing? “These are the things that made Jack adapt and made him grow. It’s a reminder to me and the audience that we’ve come a long way with Jack — and it only took 30 years.”