Y&R Exclusive: Linden Ashby On The End Of His 'Fun Ride' As Cameron

It was back in 2003 that Linden Ashby first began playing Young and Restless‘s Cameron Kirsten, the suave businessman with a penchant for torturing Sharon. After exiting in 2004, he returned in 2023 for a fresh wave of villainy, which ended in dramatic fashion when Sharon plunged a knife into Cameron’s chest, killing him. Last year, Ashby made another comeback, this time as a figment of a troubled Sharon’s imagination, but on the Monday, January 27 episode, Sharon parted ways with her unorthodox imaginary friend. Soap Opera Digest checked in with Ashby about his Y&R experience, his working relationship with Sharon Case (Sharon) and saying good-bye to the show once again.

 

Soap Opera Digest: Well, Linden, I’m happy for Sharon, but I’m sad to see you go!

Linden Ashby: Thank you very much. I had such a good time doing it, I really did.

Digest: Take me back to when the idea of returning was first thrown at you this time around. What did you think of the concept?

Ashby: I thought it was great! I loved that he’s not a ghost. He’s actually her, you know? And those conversations where she’s like, “I hate you,” it’s like, “Well, yeah, I’m you. I’m just a voice in your head. I don’t exist.” I love that it was this pretty complex relationship with a lot of levels and colors, and then, when you really break it down and you go, “This is Sharon talking to herself,” it becomes more and more interesting. There was one moment in one of the episodes that I remember, where we were in the hotel room and Cameron is like, ‘This has got to be done, and if you need to, just put it on autopilot. I’ll take care of it.” And that’s a whole other level of, like, “Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. You don’t need to be around for what I’m about to do.” And it was that kind of stuff that really tickled me.

Digest: Were you surprised that you ended up sticking around as long as you did?

Ashby: I didn’t know that it [would end up being such a long visit]. There was a point where I thought I was done and I said to Josh [Griffith, executive producer/head writer], “Hey, I’m gonna shave and cut my hair,” and he was like, “No, no, no, don’t do that yet.” And I was like, “Okay, how long? How long do you need me for?” And he told me and I was like, “Oh! Okay, good. Well, let’s do it well and let’s have fun with it.” And I think we did.

Digest: Well, now I’m curious; since you’ve wrapped, have you shaved and cut your hair?

Ashby: No, I didn’t, actually. I’m prepping right now to go direct a Lifetime movie, and if I’m directing I don’t really shave or cut my hair. It’s kind of like a hockey player in the postseason. There’s other stuff that is more on the front burner for me. I don’t care how I look [laughs].

Digest: I’m curious to hear about how you approached this version of Cameron you were playing. Did you see him as a separate entity from the Cameron that was alive?

Ashby: Absolutely. I think that he was Cameron Kirsten filtered through Sharon. Cameron Kirsten had a lot more levels as a human being, and this person had a lot of levels that weren’t necessarily Cameron’s. I just had a lot of fun with it and I had a lot of fun with the ability to, you know, just call bulls–t when I saw bulls–t with Sharon. I had fun making fun of her sometimes, and playing with her. He wasn’t Cameron, he wasn’t Cameron’s personality, he was Sharon’s idea of Cameron Kirsten. Sharon [Case, Sharon] and I talked about it a lot. And [when it came to an end] she was like, “Why do you have to go away? Why can’t you stay?” She goes, “Everyone can have an imaginary [friend]! We could have a whole relationship!” It’s like, she goes out into the world, does her thing, comes home at night and I’m there and I’m like, “Hey, I cooked you dinner!”

Digest: I would think there was something inherently creative about getting to play a character where you’re not really bound by —

Ashby: You’re not bound by anything! Yeah, you’re absolutely right. You can do anything you feel like doing. No one ever really gave me notes [to guide my performance]. For a while there, there was a lot of over-her-shoulder, sort of whispering in her ear, which I kind of understand; that works for camera. But I was like, “Why wouldn’t I just be straight in front of her, talking to her?”

Digest: Was there ever any temptation to try to break anyone who was also in the scenes — not Sharon, but someone like Joshua Morrow (Nick), who had to pretend that you weren’t there?

Now You See Me, Now You Don’t: Ashby in a scene with Joshua Morrow (Nick) and Sharon Case (Sharon).

Ashby: Josh was like, “I can’t keep a straight face!” He was like, “This is just crazy! You’re there but no one else can respond to you when you’re saying all this stuff!” It was hard for me to keep a straight face around Josh, because Josh is such a fun person.

Digest: I asked him if he was jealous of Sharon because she got the lion’s share of the scenes with you, and the answer was a resounding yes.

Ashby: Oh, man. We’ve got, like, a bromance going on!

Digest: Throughout this particular reprisal, you rocked the same wardrobe with the same bloodstains. Did you ultimately get sick of that shirt?

Ashby: No, no, no. I mean, in films, you often do that. In Mortal Kombat, I wore the same thing the entire time. When I did Teen Wolf, I pretty much wore the same thing for seven years. It’s like you’re going to work and putting your uniform on. For the final time that I was with Sharon, I was like, “Hey, should we do it, like, clean-shaven, looking tidy in a suit?” I thought that changing it up might be kind of fun because he can look any way she wants him to look. But Josh was like, “I think you’re just going to confuse people.”

Digest: Was there more than one bloodstained shirt in rotation?

Ashby: I think it was just the one. They dry-cleaned it, sanitized it. It didn’t smell [laughs]. It was kind of soft, and yeah, it had a little life to it by the end! It was kind of mossy.

Digest: It’s going to go down in Genoa City history as a shirt of note, for sure.

Ashby: Right? We could sell it at auction!

Digest: You mentioned having conversations with Sharon about the unique dynamic that you got to cultivate in this storyline. I’m sure people would be interested in hearing more about what you discussed as you determined how you were going to pull this off.

Ashby: Well, we talked a lot about it, actually. I just know that we wanted it to be more than this terrifying thing, and that she became very comfortable with Cameron and she relied on Cameron. He was there for her. It was a very fleshed-out relationship with a lot of levels. I remember talking to her in the very beginning, when I first sort of appeared to her, and I go, “Can you imagine how terrifying this would be, because I’m not real? To have that moment of, ‘Holy s–t, how crazy am I?!’ I mean, it would be so scary to be like, “Okay, I am ready for the insane asylum!”

Digest: Tell me about working with her this time around.

Ashby: I only know Sharon from my relationship with Sharon, and I don’t know if people realize how serious she is about the work she does, how serious she is about being an actor and the craft of being an actor. It’s just so much fun to work with her. I watched this one scene between her and Phyllis and I was just like, “Wow, that was great work.” And then I finish scenes with her and we’d be like, “Hey, we did it, that was cool, that was fun. See you tomorrow!” Thank God, she works hard at it. I think everybody on that show works hard at it. I’m like a broken record saying this, but it is the hardest job in Hollywood, being a soap opera actor. I mean, the amount of pages that you do every day — and then you finish and you go home and you get ready for tomorrow. It’s like walking out of the studio and throwing the script in the garbage and then you learn it for tomorrow when you walk out and you throw in the garbage — it’s fast and it’s intense and it’s hard, and you work hard when you’re not at work. It’s almost like being at work is the easy part. For me, the learning of the lines and figuring it all out [is the bigger challenge] because you know that there’s no time, you know you don’t have a lot of shots to get it right, and so when it comes together like that, it’s magical. It’s magical, those times when you’re in the zone and you’re just listening [to your scene partner] and answering and you’re locked in on that other person and it’s just this ping-pong game. And suddenly it’s over and you’re like, “I don’t even remember doing that!” It’s great. It’s really fun. There’s a spontaneity and an aliveness that’s very much like doing live theater. It can crackle.

Digest: Did your last day at Y&R have any feel of finality to you, or did it just feel like another day at the office?

Ashby: It definitely felt [final], and I’m so glad they wrote it, you know? It was nice. It was a really, really nice kind of “see you later!” The cast and crew and everyone was really nice. It’s such a good place to work. [The job] is so hard that if it wasn’t a good place, I don’t think you’d want to do it! The crew is amazing, the bosses are amazing, the cast is amazing, everybody in makeup, hair wardrobe, camera, light, sound, electrical, props. You name it! There’s nobody there who’s not nice. I think there’s like a “only nice people allowed” [policy]. It’s pretty unique and it’s pretty special.

Digest: Do you consider yourself a lucky guy to have your character die, and yet get to have this whole experience of playing him posthumously? I mean, not everybody gets that!

Ashby: No, not a lot of people get it. And now I’ll be, you know, his brother [laughs]. We’ll see! But you’re right, usually you’re dead and you don’t come back, and I had this [experience to play Cameron] more fleshed-out when I was dead than I did when I was alive!

Digest: To your point, if there was a circumstance in which Cameron was needed again as a member of the afterlife or if there was another opportunity for you to pop up on the show somehow, would you be open to that in the future?

Ashby: Oh, you never say never, do you? If it was the right part and it made sense and it was going to be fun and my schedule said, “Yeah, this is a good thing to do,” sure! I had a great time.

Digest: I would love to give you the floor to speak directly to the Young and Restless fans who are obviously invested in the role Cameron has played in Sharon’s life and while they appreciate the resolution to the story, at the same time may be sad to see you go.

Ashby: If I had the floor to speak to them, I would say thank you. And I mean that. Sincerely and genuinely, thank you, because none of this happens without you. I’m glad I made you happy, I’m glad you enjoyed it because it made me happy and I enjoy it. I feel like in this business, sometimes we get in like loop, almost — you send this energy out and then it gets magnified and comes back to you and then it goes out again and it comes back and it’s kind of a beautiful thing. So thank you for letting me be a part of that.