Soap Opera Digest – July 29, 2019

6 Y&R: Nick And

Adam Head

To Court

7 DAYS: Kristen

And Susan

Come Face

To Face

8 GH: Dante

And Lulu —

Divorce?

9 B&B: Liam

Gets A Clue

About Flo

12 GH Alum

Dies At 20

12 2 Stars Wed

D

espite Gordon

Thomson’s sub-

stantial resumé in

prime-time TV — as

Adam on the original

DYNASTY — and

stints on multiple soaps

— ex-Mason, SANTA

BARBARA et al —

the actor still came in

to read for the role of

Y&R’s Daryl Tulane.

“I don’t know if anybody is

offered anything anymore,”

he shrugs. “I think everybody

truly auditions these days. I

auditioned with 20 or 30 other

guys and it was a wonderful

collection of actors.”

Thomson felt that the audi-

tion went well. “I read and I

think my past work helped,

because the network and the

show used my background on

DYNASTY and other soaps

to sort of advertise my pres-

ence, which is very nice of

them,” he notes. “It also shows

me how lucky I am to look

back at decades of my life

professionally, and see what a

very satisfying and lucky time

I had. It’s really been quite

something.”

Daryl is someone from

both Chelsea and her mother,

Anita’s, past. “He’s from Baton

Rouge and for some reason,

I was not allowed to use the

accent with which I got the

part,” Thomson chuckles. “It’s

written with a Southern lilt into

the words, so it was hard to

resist, but I managed. There’s

a bit of chicanery with Daryl;

he’s a little horny, he’s funny

and he’s a scam artist. He’s not

a criminal but he verges on it.”

Because of his past in

daytime, Thomson was well-pre-

pared for the amount of dialogue.

“Soap opera can be the toughest

medium to work in for an actor

but I did SANTA BARBARA

for three years and I man-

aged to learn 35 pages a day,”

he points out. “Mason was a pas-

sionate, ambitious, sarcastic and

brilliant lawyer, who was mad

about Julia. He was the best but

late-breaking

news

INSTAGRAM/HENDRICKSON

OG PHOTOGRAPHY

Y&R’S GORDON THOMSON

ON RETURN TO SOAPS