In 1994, The Young and the Restless picked a newcomer named Joshua Morrow to play Nick Newman, the offspring of the show’s most popular duo, Victor (Eric Braeden) and Nikki Newman (Melody Thomas Scott). Three decades and five Daytime Emmy nominations later, Morrow is one of the most recognized stars on the No. 1 soap.
On Friday, June 21, the actor marks his 30th anniversary and the show has a special episode planned to mark the occasion.
Here, he looks back on his Genoa City run.
When you hear that you’re about to celebrate your 30th anniversary on the show, what does that mean to you?
Joshua Morrow: Well, it’s staggering to me, really, because I feel like I just had my 20th yesterday. I just blinked in a decade went by. So, it’s an incredible honor to have been able to carve out a career on a show this long and doing what I love. I really do love the people I work for, and I love the people I work with. I remember my dad saying to me, maybe five years into my career, “If you can wake up every day and love going to work, you got life licked.” I was like, “Man, I feel like that right now,” because at the time, I was trying to decide if I wanted to stay and make a career out of it or make a jump. But I was just like, “Why leave? It’s a great job, I find it very fulfilling, and I really do feel like I hit the lottery.”
What do you remember about getting hired?
I remember every moment of it so clearly. Me and some other dude named Dylan [Neal] had gotten down for a role named Dylan on Bold and the Beautiful and I didn’t get it and I was pretty crushed. And then my manager called me in and goes, “Hey, Y&R wants to see you. I guess they heard about you from the B&B thing.” The B&B process was three auditions and then producers and then a screen test and it took forever, and then I went in and read for Jill Newton, the casting director, once and she was like, “All right, I think you’re ready to meet Ed [Scott, then-executive producer] and Bill [Bell, creator/then-head writer].”
Tony Esparza/CBS
So, I went in and read for Ed and Bill Bell and Heather Tom [ex-Victoria Newman] was there. I knew nothing about the industry. I assumed the process was audition, couple callbacks, you meet with the producers, then you screen test. But I read with Heather Tom, and they offered me the job on the spot. Bill’s like, “Job’s yours, kid.” And I remember they kind of escorted me out of the office and Jill was standing there with me and I was just sort of frozen and she’s like, “Do you want to call your mom?” So I went into her office, I called my mom, saying, “Mom, they just offered me a three-year contract on The Young and the Restless.” I remember leaving the building and I couldn’t believe that I’d gotten this job. I didn’t know there was a big balcony above the exit of the building, and I just yelled out this, like, guttural scream because I was so excited. I didn’t know everybody was up there watching because that’s where they all go out and hang out on a five [minute break]. Ed Scott told me that story a little while later. I was like, “Oh, my God. That’s so embarrassing.” But I’m incredibly grateful to the Bell family and Sony and CBS and everybody at Y&R that they went with me and kept me around this long. It’s really been a job of a lifetime.
What stands out about your first day?
I auditioned for Nick when I was 19, got started at 20, so I still lived at home, and I didn’t really know how it worked. My mom made me a lunch and I went off to work and prepared for what I thought was a 16-hour workday. And I just happened to be first up that day with Heather Tom and had four scenes with her. That was when we started at 7:30 a.m. Well, we were done at 8:15. I was like, “Well, what do I do now?” They’re like, “Dude, you go home.” So, I got in my little black Nissan pickup and drove home. I lived maybe 45 minutes from the studio, and I walked in the house at, like, 9 a.m. and my mom’s like, “What happened? Did you get fired?” And I’m like, “No, I’m done for the day. I had four scenes and the girl’s great. She’s, like, the best actress I’ve ever seen in my life.” It’s rarely like that, but I will never forget my mom thinking that I was going to get fired day one.
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This was your first professional TV gig. What was your transition like?
I had to learn how this process worked. The only thing I’d ever done was some theater and it’s a very different animal. I just remember it being very exciting and exhilarating. I learned watching Eric Braeden [Victor Newman] and Peter Bergman [Jack Abbott] — the way I needed to prepare and behave and attempt to lead and set an example I just wanted to be the best Nick Newman I could be and be a part of this huge juggernaut that is The Young and the Restless.
It’s very special that for all 30 years you’ve been there, you’ve had the same actors playing your parents.
I mean, could you imagine a better situation to have your career? To have my parents be Eric Braeden and Melody Thomas Scott is almost unfair. They’re icons and they’re like family to me and I just love them so much. I respect them so much. They’ve been a very big part of my journey and I’m very grateful to them for who they are as people and actors on the show.
Cliff Lipson /© CBS /Courtesy Everett Collection
The show has planned a special episode plan to commemorate your 30th on June 21. How did you react when you heard?
Just the fact that they would be willing to do something like that made me feel very proud. I mean, who doesn’t want to be recognized and celebrated? They have been so kind to me over the years. It makes me feel like I am not worth it, that I’m gonna wake up, and this has all been a dream.
What was it like to see the flashbacks they used?
They had an iPad on stage, and they’d show them to me, and it hits you what an incredible ride it’s been over the years. The show picked a lot of the highlights and really showed some cool stuff with some interesting hairstyles. It never occurred to me how many different hairstyles I’ve had, but our stage manager, Fritz, was making a joke and said, “You’ve had more different hairstyles than Sharon [Case, Sharon Newman]. You realize that, right?” I don’t know if I should be embarrassed by that or if I think it’s an honor.
Is there someone that you have wanted to work more closely with but haven’t yet?
I always wanted to have a TV relationship with Lily. I think Christel Khalil [who plays her] is a fun gal. She’s spicy and sparkly and she’s fun. I don’t know how the fans would react to that, but I always wanted to work with her. I would love to work more Bryton [James, Devon Winters]. He’s just, honestly, the greatest dude in the world.
When you reflect on this whole experience — your decision to become an actor, your first professional job becoming your career — what do you think to yourself?
If you would have told me when I was a sophomore in high school in Oklahoma just playing football, “Hey, in 32 years, you will have had a 30-year career on a television show,” I would have obviously never believed you and thought you were joking. It’s an incredible accomplishment and one I never take for granted. Beyond blessed doesn’t even cover it. I owe my life to this show because I never would have met my wife if I hadn’t been on the show, I never would have had my four kids if I wasn’t on the show. I really do feel like I was made to play Nick Newman and I love it. It’s been the role of a lifetime.
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