Exclusive: Joshua Morrow's Young And Restless Leading Ladies Tell All

The charm and passion of Nick Newman has been brought to life for three decades by his portrayer, Joshua Morrow. On the occasion of the actor’s 30th anniversary, Digest summoned four of his leading ladies — Sharon Case (Sharon), Michelle Stafford (Phyllis), Melissa Claire Egan (Chelsea) and Courtney Hope (Sally) — to reflect on their fondest memories of working with Morrow and the relationship their characters had with him, share their messages to him on this special career milestone and more.

What is the best thing about having Joshua as a leading man?

 

Sharon Case: Well, it certainly helps that he’s this great guy, and a grounded family man. He’s funny and lighthearted but at the same time he takes his job very professionally, and as a package deal that’s important. This leading lady and Joshua have worked together for almost 30 years. We weren’t just together for a couple of years, in which case, maybe the overall personality traits of your co-star doesn’t matter as much. But Joshua and I had to work together for 30 years. We’re talking about 30 years of my life! This is where I go to work and this is who I work with and who I see every day, pretty much, so then that starts to matter a little bit more and I was blessed with Joshua. I mean, there’s all kinds of different personalities out there — or train wrecks, in some cases — that you could have ended up working but in this case, that didn’t happen. So I’m very grateful and I love and adore him.

Michelle Stafford: Oh, he’s very, very fun to work with and that’s probably what everyone will say, too. He’s just fun, but not Jokester Guy. He’s just very easy and fun and has a great attitude and professional and all of that makes him fun to work with. When we were playing the affair [between Nick and Phyllis], he was just so great and very understated.

Melissa Claire Egan: I just love and adore him so much. I also take a lot of pride in the fact that when I was his love interest, I got him out of what I call his man cave, which is his dressing room, and got him to go out to lunch with me very often. That to me is a big deal, getting Josh out of his man cave because he’s watching sports in there. I love our lunches and he’s also just a really great friend and I couldn’t adore him more.

Courtney Hope: Just how he makes working fun and he makes every day enjoyable, whether the scenes are light or whether they’re heavy. He really has a good balance of putting in the work and but also just making the space fun and I appreciate that because not everybody is like that or they can take everything so seriously — and he does take it seriously, but he still does it with a joy that I just personally really appreciate.

Case and Morrow in 1994.

How would you describe Joshua to someone who doesn’t know him?

 

Case: Oh, he tells typical dad jokes and that says everything. You definitely have someone summed up when you say that, the personality of somebody who would do that. That’s Joshua.

Stafford: I would describe him as very easygoing and really just a very down-to-earth Oklahoma boy.

Egan: He’s the life of the party. He can’t not make you laugh. He’s got such great energy; he’s fun, kind, and caring, massively obsessed with sports. There’s no way you won’t have a good time with that guy.

Hope: He is like a jock, a golden retriever and the class clown all rolled into one.

Case, Morrow and Stafford in 2006.

What most sticks out to you when you think about your character’s romance with Nick?

 

Case: We’ve had a lot of different kinds of storylines — tough ones, sad ones, some that just required taking chances and periods of growth of your characters — and Joshua always been willing to roll with those punches with me. I’d say he’s a very tolerant actor and partner because I’ve had to stretch and take Sharon in a lot of different directions and he’s really been right there with me and willing to allow it or been nonjudgmental, which was important when playing Sharon Newman because, like I said, I have to stretch her in a lot of different directions, depending on the storyline. And another thing it’s remarkable about him is all these years, I have this reputation for every time we kiss, I get snot all over his face and I know when he reads this in the article he’s going to laugh out loud because it’s so true. And I can’t help it! I’m a snotty crier. So we end up kissing and there’s snot on his face and he’s been so tolerant of that.

Stafford: I think their romance was unexpected. It was two characters that already had an established history and because you were invested in the two characters, it worked. Josh and I started around the same time on the show, so the characters already had long histories. I believe that’s why [their relationship] worked, because it was a very natural telling of a story. It wasn’t a pushed coupling and it was born from a tragedy [Cassie’s death], which I think also works because that’s a very real story, too.

Egan: What I was most remember is when Nick broke up with Chelsea at a New Year’s party and that was the end of Chelsea and Nick. I still give him a hard time about that.

Hope: I really love the safety, in a good way, that Sally experienced. I don’t think she’s ever really fully had that, and so I loved Nick and Sally in the sense that it felt fun and light, but also mature for Sally. [Nick was] somebody who made Sally want to be better and make good choices. I felt like she grew up and not  in a bad way but in a good way, because she kind of had to level up when she was with Nick and I really enjoyed that.

Egan and Morrow with Mark Grossman (Adam) in 2019.

How do you think your character feels about Nick today?

 

Case: I think that he’s the one that got away. You know, deep down, she’s always going to be very in love with him, but it’s not bubbling on the surface. They’re great friends and great parents to their kids and I think she’s just very happy that he’s still in her life. They didn’t have periods where they weren’t speaking. She’s glad that there’s peace. Of course she would love if things just never took a bad turn or if there’s some way to get it all back. I think people always think that way about the one that got away in their life and hope that they can get that back. That intense hope is what drives us through our lives. It’s what matters more than anything, that we hold on to that hope and that great love is about that and love stories are about that. And you never want that light to go out.

Stafford: Oh, I think she feels the same that she’s always felt. There was a time period where I didn’t play the role and the relationship changed just because you have a different person playing it and they bring their light to the party, so it changed a bit. Sometimes in the show, the one thing that I have to always remind them, is Nick and Phyllis weren’t just an affair or just a sexual thing. That was an eight-year relationship that I played with him from 2005 to 2013, so it’s a real, legitimate relationship. I sometimes get a little tweaked when I feel like maybe a show is written that they just had a sexual relationship. I’m not saying that’s what changed when somebody else played [Phyllis], but I’m saying that sometimes certain things about the reality of the relationship are forgotten. And I have to continuously say, “Hey, guys, they were married four times. This is an eight-year relationship. It’s a legit relationship.” Phyllis was together with Nick longer than she was with Jack. So, Josh and I always bring the history to it because no [strictly] sexual relationship lasts that long. It’s a deeper relationship and we always bring that to the table without talking about it. I just really love Josh and his care with the history of those two characters. Sometimes we don’t even rehearse because there’s such a natural ease that we don’t need to underscore.

Egan: I think she still loves and adore him. We always joke during scenes, and we still make eyes at each other because the writers don’t write that we’re together anymore, but we’ll just, like, make googly eyes at each other just to be like, “Hey, Nick”, “Hey, Chelsea.” So, we still try to jokingly still play that. But they do have a lot of love for each other and have very close friendship, which I think is really special.

Hope: I think she still loves him. I think she very much appreciates him for who she is now. I think she’s so awestruck by his generosity and his maturity through the whole thing because she obviously broke his heart, and broke it with his brother, so that has to be like a double whammy. But he’s still so kind and generous and loving  and still advocates for her. And I think that that goes a long way in Sally’s eyes, so she still definitely has a lot of love for him.

Morrow and Stafford in 2019.

What memories come to mind of the time you spent on set with Joshua?

 

Case: A lot of laughing and lightheartedness. I don’t ever have to worry that I’m going to be on edge or on any eggshells or having to be careful in any regard when I’m on stage with Joshua. Let’s say it’s a tough day and we’re behind schedule; it’s never stressful when I get on stage with Joshua. He has his own pace and his own beat that he’s marching to and it’s light and it’s fun and funny and he doesn’t sweat the small stuff. Back in the day, we used to do these long party scenes and we’d have very, very, very long days and everybody was miserable, but Joshua would be in good spirits.

Stafford: I have many memories of him talking on set about certain things with my family. I have many memories of him understanding ,as a parent, things I was going through, conversations that we have. [Parenting] is harder as your kids get older and he’s very empathetic to certain things. His kids are in sports, my kids are in sports, too, so I talked to him a lot about that. His daughter is maybe three years younger than mine, so I’ll talk about things with Natalia and his daughter will be experiencing the same thing. And listen, truth be told, he really does believe that of the two of us, he is the funnier one. This is not true, but I will just continue to allow him that fantasy.

Egan: Every single [actress he’s worked with] is going to say this and it’s true: there’s just so much laughter. We would just laugh and make each other laugh and be so silly and fresh and I would make fun of him for being old even though he looks way younger than me. Even right before a serious scene, we’ll just say something snarky or funny to each other and just laugh, which makes for such a great environment that he helps create. There’s just so much fun. And he’s also aging backwards. He’s never looked better. I obviously loved all of the good stuff because I love working with him, but truly what I think about most, sadly, is that I went through my first miscarriage at the time when Josh and I were working and no one here knew, no one except for Josh. He was such a great friend and confidant to me and just was really there for me. I literally remember the moment I told him and seeing his eyes just filled with sadness and he was just really there for me.

Hope: I just really appreciate the laughter and the inside jokes. One of the things that comes to mind is Josh would always try to scare me. He still does. When I get startled I don’t make a big deal of it. I kind of freeze and sound like a mouse. Even now, he’ll be waiting around corners, waiting to see if he can startle me or scare me. He finally just recently got me where I actually did scream. I was like, “Well, that was a good one.” [What stands out is] stuff like that where he just makes everything fun.

Morrow and Hope 2023.

What would you like to say to Joshua on the occasion of his 30th anniversary at Y&R?

 

Case: Here’s what I want say to him on his anniversary, “Joshua. You’re welcome.” He’ll know exactly what I mean — and laugh.

Stafford: Josh, you’re an incredible actor. I know you like to pretend that you’re not, but I know your secret. You’re an incredible human that I have had such a pleasure working with and not just knowing as a very good friend, but I consider you family. I consider your family my family. That will never change. It’s never changed from the moment we started working together closely and, of course, I loved you before that, but getting to know you and and have you in my life as a partner has been one of my greatest acting joys.

Egan: Happy anniversary to my bestie! You are such a fun, great soul and I adore you. Thank you for being such a great friend to me through all of the years — but you’re still older than me.

Hope: Congratulations for a well-deserved 30 years. I’m so thankful for our friendship and the times that we’ve worked together and not only your support of me as a person, but also as Sally. You made my time on Young And Restless, especially working with you, really, really enjoyable.

 For a look back at Nick Newman’s life in photos, click here.