“Phyllis is really kind of controlling her life again, and possibly the town. I’m just going to leave it at that,” Michelle Stafford told “Extra” about her return to “The Young and the Restless” in her star-making role as Phyllis Summers after several years away from the CBS soap. Her return air date on the show is June 21. Watch her interview above.
“It feels really fun to be on set,” says Stafford about her “Y&R” comeback. “The very wild thing about it is it’s been six years since I’ve worked here, and nothing has really changed.” That doesn’t mean it was simple to just jump back in, though. She played Phyllis for the better part of 20 years between 1994 and 2013, but a lot happened to the character during the years since then when the role was played by Gina Tognoni. “I knew it would be difficult because I had been playing another role that was so opposite Phyllis. Honestly, I spent a really long time researching and reading everything that had happened to the character, watching every show I could while I was away.”
For the last few years Stafford made Port Charles her home as Nina Reeves on “General Hospital,” and it was sad to say goodbye to that team, but “everybody there is so lovely. I know that’s what everybody says in Hollywood, but they really are. They were very supportive of me coming back here.”
Stafford is one of many “Y&R” comebacks this year. Past cast members Greg Rikaart and Melissa Claire Egan returned to the show in their signature roles as Kevin Fisher and Chelsea Newman, respectively, while the presumed dead character Adam Newman was resurrected with a new actor, Mark Grossman, in the role. How do you think Stafford’s return will fit in with the rest of the changes on the show this year?
