Viewers of The Young and the Restless were in for a shock when a presumed dead Cameron Kirsten, played by Linden Ashby, reappeared on August 1.
“It’s great because it’s not back from the dead,” Ashby tells TV Insider exclusively. “It’s not a ghost. It’s a person who is living in Sharon’s head and is aware that he’s living in her head and aware that he doesn’t exist. And that adds a huge wrinkle.”
The actor admits he never expected to return once his character was fatally stabbed in 2023. “No, I mean, I was dead,” he says. But when the show reached out in May, he was intrigued by the idea of a comeback. “Look, I have so much fun doing this,” Ashby adds. “I really like everybody on the set. I like my family here, real and imagined. And any time I get to carpool with [wife] Susan [Walters, who plays Diane Jenkins on the soap], it’s a good day. She’s so helpful and I’m lucky I have a built-in acting partner.”
Viewers have seen Sharon Newman (Sharon Case) slowly unraveling following Cameron’s reign of terror last year, and Ashby reveals he is enjoying playing a different version of his alter ego. “The abusive parts are gone,” he points out. “I don’t think he has the same level of threat that he did in real life. It’s Sharon’s idea of Cameron. He’s a manifestation of her internal world, to help her give voice to things that she’s afraid to say out loud, things she’s afraid to do. He’s that person who’s encouraging her to do things that maybe she shouldn’t be doing. It’s not quite what Cameron would do, but who know knows what Cameron would do—it’s what Sharon believes Cameron would do.”
Ashby has been impressed by Case’s work. “She’s doing such a great job,” he raves. “She’s a friend, she welcomes me back with open arms, and I welcome her with an open heart. We get along great.”
Though Ashby says he picked up right where he left off when he came back to the studio, he’s reminded of how demanding the gig is. “This is the hardest job in show business, being a soap actor,” he asserts. “It’s brutal. I mean, you’re shooting five shows in four days, you memorize it, you do it, you walk away, you pick up tomorrow, you memorize it, you walk away, you pick up next week, you start reading, you start memorizing, then you come in and do it. It’s just a bit like Sisyphus when you’re in the midst of it, pushing that stone up the hill. It’s hard and you forget how hard it is when you don’t do it for awhile.”
That amount of dedication is why he can’t help but marvel at his costars. “These guys are amazing,” he praises. “Honest to God, I don’t know how they do it. I’m a guest here, so I get a healthy dose of it, but hat’s off to them.”
While he may be a guest star, Ashby reveals Cameron will be sticking around Genoa City for the foreseeable future. “I’ve read quite a bit ahead. I know where certain things are going and it’s pretty good stuff,” he teases. “I love good stories; that’s what’s fun to me.”
