Carrie Malabre played a key role in Claire’s fantasy on The Young and the Restless last week in which Cassie Newman never died and got to know her twin, Mariah, both played by Camryn Grimes. Malabre chatted with Soap Hub about how she helped both characters appear together at the same time.
Twice As Nice
Not only were Nick and Sharon always together in Claire’s (Hayley Erin) fantasy, but Cassie had never been in the fateful car crash. She was later reunited with her twin, Mariah. Y&R cast Malabre to stand in for and play Cassie when Grimes was playing Mariah and vice versa when she was playing Cassie.
Malabre says this role called for being more than a stand-in. “I would be acting the parts out when Camryn was acting the other role,” the actress tells Soap Hub. “Usually, you don’t have to audition [for something similar to this], but this was a full audition. It was such a large scene. I had to be off [script] for this part.”
Malabre says she embraced the challenge of matching Grimes’s take on the characters and coming up to speed on Y&R history even though she’s seen the show over the years courtesy of her mother and grandmother, who’ve watched the top-rated soap. “Y&R is such a classic show,” the actress says. “What’s so great about soap operas is that my Mom has seen many of the same characters I worked with.”
She has films and nighttime shows on her resume, but Malabre says she greatly enjoyed the theater-like aspects of soap operas. In film, you might be acting your scene opposite a script reader during your close-up. However, in soaps, all the actors are present in the scene. When Malabre sent a photo of the back of her head in, she made sure she styled it to look like the one provided in the casting breakdown.
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Malabre did a deep dive into Y&R characters and the interpersonal relationships so that she came to the table prepared. “I was acting with those actors so I wanted to make sure that I was giving them the correct relationship vibe,” she says.
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While Tessa (Cait Fairbanks), Mariah’s wife, wasn’t in the scenes, Malabre learned from the script that Mariah’s in a same-sex marriage. “It’s incredible that there’s that representation,” she says. “I think one of the best ways to show other people’s stories is through entertainment. I think it’s great that [stories] can help open people’s eyes.”
Now that she’s had a taste of what working on a soap opera is like, does Malabre have any desire to join Y&R or another serial on a full-time basis? “That would be a dream come true,” she responds. “You love having a job, but if you have a family, the days on soap operas are relatively short compared to 15-hour long days [in other mediums]. I can’t imagine a better scenario. Everyone at Y&R is so close. They’re all hugging each other and talking about their babies.”
Friends Old and New
Malabre didn’t walk into Y&R completely blind. She and Melissa Ordway (Abby) played best friends in the 2010 Miley Cyrus and Liam Helmsworth film The Last Song. That’s what got me my SAG [Screen Actors Guild] card,” Malabre says. “We were on location in Georgia. Melissa is a doll. Our parents spent time together.”
While it might have been Claire’s party on camera, the taping day actually took place around the time of Sharon Case’s (Sharon) birthday. “The cake you saw in the scene ended up being her birthday cake at the end of the day,” Malabre says. The actress has nothing but raves for how she was treated on set that day. “Josh [Morrow, Nicholas] is such a jokester. He kept us all laughing. He’s super-funny.”
Malabre shares that one actor was especially welcoming. “J. Eddie Peck [Cole] told me at lunch that I was doing a great job,” the actress says. “He told me he’d been on the show years ago and they’ve recently brought him back. He had some great pointers for me.”
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