When Sharon Case heard that The Young and the Restless was interested in her for the role of Sharon Collins in 1994, she didn’t jump at the chance to audition. “I had just finished shooting a season of Valley of the Dolls, a primetime show based on the book and the movie and that was an exhausting shoot,” she recalls. “So once I had finished, I was on a much-needed vacation and that was when Young and the Restless called. But I was at this excruciating point where I had to carry on with my vacation; I needed the rest.”
Nevertheless, she agreed to cut her trip a little short, auditioned for Y&R, and landed the role. But having already appeared on General Hospital as Dawn Winthrop and As The World Turns as Debbie Simon, she didn’t think she’d be sticking around. “At the time, I was thinking it would probably be shorter term,” Case shares. “Soaps tend to be a revolving door. Also, as I started to work at Young and Restless, I was still on hold for the next season, potentially, of Valley of the Dolls. By December of that year, we heard that Valley was not getting picked up, so I could stay at Y&R. I didn’t have any super high expectations for how long the role would last but I liked working there.”
The fact that she was the third actress to play Sharon also gave her pause. “That added to my thinking that this might not last a long time,” Case explains. “I mean, if they’ve gone through three actresses, they could very potentially hire someone else beyond me or maybe even get rid of the character because that’s a bit unstable. But it turned out it wasn’t unstable, they were just taking their time hunting for the right actor, one they were satisfied with, and I guess that turned out to be me.”
Fans were quickly taken by the newcomer, and Sharon’s on-screen pairing with Joshua Morrow’s Nick Newman was a hit with the audience. “I liked working with him from the first day,” Case shares of her longtime acting partner. “I did my screen test with him, and he had only worked there a few months. I immediately got along quite well with him and just loved him. He’s such a great guy to this day. I think so highly of Joshua.”
Monty Brinton/CBS
After a decade together, the pair split following the death of their daughter Cassie in 2005, which completely changed the trajectory of their characters’ paths. “Sharon and Nick are the main throughline of Sharon’s romantic life and I don’t think Sharon would’ve dated or married or had other romances had Sharon and Nick not gotten thrown off course when Cassie died,” Case observes. “That was a big and poignant story, because it broke up this couple who had been together for 10 years and spun them both out into a variety of other romances, and they haven’t been able to find their way back yet in a solid way that lasts.”
That was just one of the many emotional tales Case has tackled over her 30 years in Genoa City. “Sharon is always crying over something,” she points out. “I do a lot of sad stories. Not to be too shallow or anything, but my first reaction to reading that in my script is, ‘Oh, no! More waterproof makeup?’ And you’ll notice sometimes in my crying scenes I’ll have a lot more black makeup rolling down my face and that’s just because I don’t want to wear the waterproof. I hate it. I get over it quite quickly but that’s my knee-jerk reaction [Laughs].”
Something she loves, however, are the sets her character frequents, like Crimson Lights, the coffeehouse Sharon owns. “There’s a few good things about the coffeehouse,” she notes. “One is that she’s out of the house. Two, it’s a classic set that’s been there since the Bill Bell [co-creator] days, so I love that about it. Three, she meets all of these other characters and actors because they come there. And it’s probably a little more selfish, but we have two stages and the coffeehouse is on the second stage, so it’s likely to shoot in the afternoon and I love rolling into work at noon or one. I’m not a morning person.”
Her feelings about Sharon’s house are more complicated. “I walk into that set and I feel so at home,” she smiles. “It’s been in my life for decades. I will add that it’s on the first stage. When I see that set go up, I’m like, ‘OK, my life is about to change. I’m going to have early mornings, getting up at 4:30 now.’ ”
Monty Brinton/CBS
On September 27, Y&R will air a special episode devoted to Sharon. “I don’t want to spoil it for, people, but it was a long day,” she teases of filming it. “There were a lot of scenes and I had a lot of dialogue to memorize. I was in a time frame where I was in a lot of shows and doing a lot of work and long hours and that was one of those moments of terror. I didn’t think I’d be able to do it, but the crew and the people I work with are right there with you. We all work together as a group so well. My stage manager, Fritz [Brekeller], and my director, Sally McDonald, really were key in getting me through that and making it so that I could accomplish that show. It was a big show, so thank you to them.”
Expect flashbacks aplenty that illustrate Sharon’s three-decade journey and tie into her current drama. “They used flashbacks that were relevant to what is going on in that episode for Sharon,” Case previews. “It is a Sharon-centric episode, but it isn’t a one-off or a separate day. It makes sense within the storyline that we’re doing. It isn’t an episode where we’re just going to air all my favorite flashbacks.”
As she looks back on her time on the No. 1 soap, Case marvels, “It’s really unbelievable. It’s not something you see every day and you certainly don’t expect. How lucky am I? It’s an honor to be a part of something that long-running and successful. This has just been amazing. For me, playing Sharon becomes more interesting all the time. Not less.”
