Anyone who’s been watching “The Young and the Restless” knows that the mother of all babydaddy storylines is about to play out between Chelsea McAvoy (Melissa Claire Egan) and Adam Newman (Michael Muhney), meaning that the cacophony of sweet “oohs” and “aahs” recently heard over baby Connor will quickly be turning into a frenzy of screaming arguments! Soap Opera Network sat down with Muhney to get his take on how his alter ego is going to react to the news that Chelsea’s baby is really his own, and the actor teases that the drama to come will make you cry like a — you guessed it — baby!
Today’s episode ended with Adam overhearing a conversation between Dylan McAvoy (Steve Burton) and Billy Abbott (Billy Miller) that makes him think maybe, just maybe, the baby that Chelsea has been claiming to be Dylan’s is actually his own. And it’s that tiny bit of info that sets a major avalanche into motion. “Adam’s ears perk up, and all of a sudden, his radar is highly tuned; he hears this, and there’s this ‘Oh my God, what now?’” the actor teases. “The next episode picks up with that same moment and the continuing conversation and what it is that Adam learns, which [prompts him] to take off. He leaves the boulevard in a hurry, a little off his center, so the question is, what’s going to happen next?”
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that it won’t be long before Adam finds out that Chelsea has been lying to everyone about the paternity of her baby — a fact that obviously isn’t going to sit well with the Newman heir! “How do you put it into words?” Muhney asks. “It’s going to be surprise and horror and shock and pride and resentment and anger and bitterness, and he’s been deceived and lied to, and precious moments are stolen from him. But some of it is karmic, because of what happened with Sharon and Faith years ago, and Adam being involved. So… it’s like a freaking tornado of emotion. It truly is a roller coaster in that there are highs and lows and strength and weakness in this. WWIII is beginning this fall, there is no doubt. It’s going to be pretty wild.”
But what will all of this mean for Adam and Chelsea? Will the fact that they share a baby eventually be able to pull the pair back together? Or will the fashionista’s lies create a long-lasting war we’ll see play out for generations to come? “I think we’re at that place that anything can happen, and I really believe that,” Muhney teases. “If the writers came down and sat in my room next week and said, ‘Here’s our idea over the next six years: You guys absolutely hate each other, loathe each other and won’t speak to each other, and all you’ll ever do is fight,’ I could see it happening. But they could come down and say, ‘Here’s what’s going to happen: You guys are going to get it out of your system, and you’re going to reunite and reconnect.’ I could see that happening, as well. I feel we’re at this wonderful moment… and the fun for me is reading the scripts as they come and seeing the story unfold.”
Either way, the actor says there will be plenty of acrimony in the months to come. “There’s going to be a lot of battling: Necessary arguments and fights and chess games and power plays are going to have to be made from both sides,” he says, adding that fight scenes are some of his favorite to play with Egan. “You have a really strong actor in Missy, and one of my favorite things to do with her on stage with the cameras rolling is argue with her. She is one of the few professional actors in soaps that is willing to and wants to run lines over and over and over again and know them so well front and back that when you go out there, you can overlap lines. We can really talk about the timing of a scene and make it so realistic that you feel like you’re peeking in on someone’s argument. So we’ve got a lot of that coming up. There are a lot of fireworks that I imagine will be happening, and I get to really sink my teeth in as an actor in scenes with someone who is a really wonderful sparring partner.”
But don’t think that when Adam finds out the truth about the baby, the storyline will be over. In fact, Muhney says that’s not the case at all. “This story sort of leads down a rabbit hole that is going to get deeper and deeper and deeper,” he previews. “It’s a very intense, emotionally packed story that is not a two-week long or a four-week long or a 3-month long storyline. With Adam, you’re finding out that there are so many other stories to tell that continue falling over like Dominoes that keep the momentum of the show moving into the future. The things that are developing for him are getting me excited. I’m intrigued, and I also can say with 100 percent certainty that the audience too is going to be very, very invested in this fall and this winter and really find a favorite place in their heart for ‘Y&R.’”