A recent inductee to Canada’s Walk of Fame, the country’s highest mark of excellence, former “The Young and the Restless” star Tonya Williams revealed in an interview with The TV Watercooler that she thinks the daytime drama series should recast the Olivia Winters character she played off-and-on for more than 20 years, having joined the series in June 1990 and last appearing in February 2012.
Asked about comments she made last year in which she declared she had no plans of ever returning to the soap opera, Williams said, “Well, I figured after ten years of me not going, that it wasn’t going to be too hard of a blow, but it was!” She added, “I love the show, but I don’t even know how to get into the headspace of that character that I’ve not played in so long. It’s just the way I work. It’s not like I would start saying lines and turn up.”
“I think they should recast!” Williams exclaimed to the outlet when asked if the show should consider recasting the character down the road, while this time not entirely ruling out a possible return should the timing be right.
“It’s hard to say [that I’d go back] when people [usually] ask me when I’m in the middle of the Reelworld festival, and there’s just no other thing that I can do [at the same time] when I say ‘no,’” clarified Williams, referring to her full-time role as founder and executive director of the Reelworld Screen Institute, Reelworld Film Festival+Summit and Reelworld Foundation, launched in 2000 to address the lack of opportunities, access, and inclusion in Canada for Black, Indigenous, Asian and other people of color in the screen industries.
“But who knows? Maybe in the years to come, I’ll go back and have time in my life that I could, you know, retrieve that character in some way,” Williams said, while emphasizing her current full-time responsibilities, and stating, “What I do is a full-time job. That would kind of be like asking [the late co-creators of ‘The Young and the Restless’ ] Bill and Lee Bell in the middle of their show, ‘Oh, are you going to go back and do this other show over there?’ And they’d be like, ‘We work 24/7 as it is! When would we do that?’”
Earlier this month, Williams was inducted in the Arts & Entertainment category for her work as an actress, producer and advocate, with other Canada’s Walk of Fame inducteees including Liona Boyd (Arts & Entertainment), a five-time Juno Award winner for “First Lady of Guitar”’; Dr. Tirone David (Science, Technology & Innovation), a cardiovascular surgeon; Dr. Samantha Nutt (Humanitarianism), a champion for Children’s Wellness on the Frontlines of Global Crises; Our Lady Peace (Arts & Entertainment), the multiplatinum, diamond selling band; and Mike Weir (Sports & Athletics), often referred to as one of Canada’s greatest golfers.
Outside of her work at Reelworld, Williams is an active board member at the Canadian Artists Network, the Telefilm Diversity & Inclusion Group, the Telefilm Authentic Storytelling sub-committee, the Canadian Media Fund Racialized Advisory Group, the Ontario Creates Advisory Industry Committee, Canadian Creative Industries Coalitions Group and the Canadian Racial Screen Leaders Collective. She is the co-founder of the Black Screen Office, where she served as a board member for its first two years.
Nominated for two Daytime Emmy Awards for her role on “The Young and the Restless,” Williams has won two NAACP Image Awards, an ACTRA Award of Excellence, a WIFT-T Crystal Award and a Harry Jerome Award, among other awards.
An outspoken advocate for racial diversity and equity all of her life, Williams is a citizen of three countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.
