“After eight long years in prison, they finally let me out,” quips Ray Wise in character as Ian Ward, who has returned to The Young and the Restless as public enemy No. 1. “I paid my debt to society and naturally, I would come right back to Genoa City and reestablish my old relationships.”
Wise’s return engagement began when the show’s head writer and executive producer, Josh Griffith, reached out several months ago. “He said, ‘Ray, would you be interested in coming back to stir up things?’ And I said, ‘Well, yeah, I’ve been waiting for this to happen for eight long years!’ ” shares Wise. “In the meantime, I did a series called Fresh Off the Boat for ABC, so I wasn’t exactly out of work, but I wanted to come back to Genoa City because I enjoyed myself so much the first time I was there.”
That first stint, which lasted from 2014-16 and earned the actor a Daytime Emmy for Guest Performer in a Drama Series, holds fond memories for Wise. “I did a variety of nasty things the first time I was in town,” he recalls. “I started fires and I kidnapped people and I did all sorts of things and enjoyed all of it. I worked with Justin Hartley [ex-Adam Newman] as my partner in crime; he is now the star of Tracker. And my confrontations with Victor Newman, played by Eric Braeden, I always enjoyed. He’s one of my favorites.”
Sonja Flemming/CBS
This time around, Wise has been paired with Colleen Zenk (Jordan Howard), and together, their alter egos are wreaking havoc all over the canvas. “She’s been wonderful,” Wise enthuses. “She’s my perfect partner in crime. We have the same way of working, so it’s just a joy to do scenes with her. She’s a veteran of many, many years and I certainly appreciate everything that she’s done in the past. We just have the greatest time together.”
Because of the mystery surrounding the story — Ian and Jordan may just have something to do with Heather’s murder and framing Sharon for it — Wise’s comeback was kept under wraps. “They had to keep my identity a secret for the longest time, even to the other cast members and the crew,” he says. “They called me ‘Mr. X’ instead of Ian Ward. For the longest time, my parking space said ‘Mr. X’ on it.”
When he arrived on set, “Mr. X” was kept separate from the rest of the cast. “They very cleverly kept me in scenes that were away from most of the other people and just working with Colleen, who obviously knew the secret because she was part of the secret,” Wise explains. “They pretty much sealed me off from everybody else and anyone that did come in contact with me, they would make them swear on their life not to give away the secret. Now that I’ve been revealed on the show, everyone can call me Ian again, and I like that much better.”
Once he was able to move about the studio freely, “It felt like old home week,” Wise reports. “I very quickly got back into the routine.”
He was thrilled to reconnect with his former costars. “Always Eric Braeden. I love him. And of course, Mel [Thomas Scott], who plays Nikki [Newman]. Love seeing her again, and some of the others that I worked with before — Josh Morrow [Nick Newman], I love him. It was great to see them and it was great to see some of the old directors, like Owen Renfroe and Sally McDonald, and some of the old crew and some of the old makeup people. But there are a lot of new people, too, so, I had to introduce myself to them, and they didn’t quite know how to take me and this ‘Mr. X’ business. It was very mysterious to all of them.”
Now that Ian’s presence has been established, Wise teases, “It’s kind of wide open and everybody realizes that I’m just in town to cause as much trouble as I possibly can.”
