Exclusive: Y&R's Jason Thompson On Chelsea's Betrayal Of Billy (2024)

Connected Four: Things are about to get even messier for (from l.) Sally (Courtney Hope), Billy (Jason Thompson), Chelsea (Melissa Claire Egan) and Adam (Mark Grossman).

OnYoung and Restless, Billy already has his hands full helming the newly formed Abbott-Chancellor while fending off corporate raider Victor Newman — but now that his lady love, Chelsea, has copped to sleeping with Adam in Baltimore,his private life has gotten just as complicated.

Deep Betrayal

Billy could tell that something was up with Chelsea, and relentlessly pressed her to tell him what was going on. For Billy, that was “a little bit of a tough position to be in,” allows his portrayer, Jason Thompson, “because he can come across as being annoying or putting himself in the middle of something that clearly [Chelsea and Adam] don’t want him in. But I think ultimately, what scares Billy about Chelsea is the situation that they had a year-and-a-half ago now where things really got very real for her [with her mental health struggles and she pondered taking her own life]. And, of course, Billy finding himself standing on the edge of the building holding hands with her, trying to coax her to come down like that was very, very real. And I think the challenge of a character like Chelsea having the fear of going back there is incredibly strong.” So, posits Thompson, Billy was “trying to get her to just trust that she can tell Billy anything just to get it out, because he can tell that keeping this in is so much worse than whatever this thing could be. Keeping it inside could basically snowball into so many other things that could lead you down a path that is really scary for her, for Billy, for Connor, for everyone, and he doesn’t want to see her go down that path. So, he’s like, ‘Please just tell me whatever it is, we’ll figure it out,’ and the longer this goes and she doesn’t tell him, it just keeps getting worse.”

For Thompson — who, of course, was privy to the information that his character was not — playing oblivious presented an acting challenge. He explains, “You don’t want to come across [as] dumb, but Billy didn’t jump to conclusions about them having an affair. There’s definitely some sort of secret that they’ve been keeping but it could be a million other things. But sometimes it gets a little bit tough, especially when the audience knows what the secret is. I think they want to see so much of the anticipation of when things are revealed, so I think you’ve got to do your job and make sure that you are aligned with where the story is headed in order to keep the integrity of what the goal is.”

With the cat now out of the bag, Thompson is excited to sink his teeth into the dramatic fallout. “It’s so layered,” he praises, “and there’s so many other things going on [for Billy], too, that you’ve got to kind of manage it all, which is great. You have to show up at the office just after having a conversation with Chelsea and then you have Victor coming in with a smile on his face knowing that he’s coming after you, and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, my life is just blowing up.’ It’s all fun and I’m looking forward to all of it. There’s a lot of moving parts here. It’s an infidelity, and maybe it’s understandable because of the certain circ*mstances, but it’s Adam and he’s got this vision for [Abbott-Chancellor] and it needs attention, so there’s many things to take stock of and try and do the right thing. And what is Billy’s bandwidth to do all of that is a whole other question. I don’t know exactly how it’s going to all pan out in the coming months, but I’m definitely looking forward to it.”

On the subject of the Billy/Adam dynamic, Thompson describes its current state as “interesting. I think Billy can see Adam as a father and see how challenging it could be to be in his situation. I like working with Mark [Grossman, Adam] as well. You always know that there’s going be some tension between [our characters] no matter what, and its ebb and flow. I don’t think they’re ever going to be friends. In fact, I don’t think they should ever be friends. There’s too much water under the bridge but allowing Billy to have these kind of conversations with Adam about being human but Billy really doesn’t want to see him that way, but Billy can’t really help himself to have compassion for another human being in that position. It just happens to be Adam in this one.

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