Even after nearly three decades on The Young and the Restless, Joshua Morrow says that he “never takes this job for granted. Getting the opportunity to play Nick and to be a part of this iconic show.” When asked to walk with us down Memory Lane, he was more than happy to do so. Tag along as he reflects on Nick’s life and the people with whom he feels blessed to have worked.
“This is the exact outfit I wore on my first day,” laughs the actor. “I remember asking, ‘Wait, is that a thing? That people wear sweaters you can see through?'” Meanwhile, Heather Tom — who at the time played Nick’s sister, Victoria — was “the very first person I worked with. I was blown way by her talent, and she was so young! I want to say she was maybe 17 when we started? I was a few years older. She probably doesn’t know this, but she had a huge impact on me because she, probably more than anyone, taught me what it took to be a young actor stepping into a show like this and find your footing.”
As the audience swooned over the romance of Nick and his first love, Sharon, Nikki fumed. “Does any mother thing any girl is good enough for her son?” asks Morrow. “It created a great rivalry between Nikki and Sharon. I loved watching them go at each other!”
What makes Nick — here with Sharon, Noah and the late Cassie — such a good father? Well, that’s a case of art imitating life. “I love being a dad,” says the real-life pop of four. “It’s something I take very seriously. So it’s the easiest thing for me to play.”
“Christian Jules LeBlanc is legendarily funny,” understates Morrow of Michael’s portrayer. “But he’s also incredibly smart and a fantastic actor. He always finds moments where it’s important that he’s in the scene, whether his character is speaking or not, and I mean that as the highest of compliments.”
“I hit the Powerball when it comes to having Melody Thomas Scott and Eric Braeden as my TV parents. They’re obviously TV icons, but the three of us and Amelia Heinle have grown to become an actual family. There’s something very, very special that happens when the four of us are together.”
“The times I’m most proud of on the show is when I do something that Eric likes,” admits Morrow. “He literally just holds up a fist and gives me a nod like, ‘You did it.’ I relish those moments. I want him to be proud that I’m playing his son!”
“It’s incredible to get to work every single day with people who I respect and admire so much,” says the humble actor. “I feel lucky to have the opportunity to share the stage with them.”
“She was the Grande Dame, man,” shares Morrow, a slight catch in his voice. “She loved me like a grandma, but she was also the first person who would call me out. Her death was one of the low points of my life.”
“Nick go to be the hero,” recalls Morrow of the sequence in which his later ego saved Sharon from bad guy Cameron. Another reason he loved these sequences? “The field where we filmed this was, like, 15 minutes from my house!”
“Don Diamont loved to tease me when I came on board,” says Morrow of the actor who, before becoming Bold & Beautiful‘s Bill, was Young & Restless‘ Brad. “He was like the senior and I was the freshman!” As for Brad and Victoria’s wedding, “I don’t think Nick wants her married to anyone, because nobody is good enough for his sister.”
“I was genuinelly heartbroken that Camryn Grimes, this little girl who I loved like her own father, was forced to tell this very mature story,” Morrow reflects of the scenes in which Cassie died. “It was the hardest, but ultimately most rewarding, story I’ve been involved with on our show.”
“This day was spectacular,” Morrow smiles of the location shoot which found Nick chasing and pummeling Michael Graziadei’s Daniel as his mom, Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) tries holding him back. “I got to throw Graz around a lot, and he’s such a punk, I need to do that on a regular basis anyway,” Morrow jokes.
“Nick and Phyllis were not supposed to be together,” the actor reminds us. “But Cassie died, and Nick went a little crazy. Phyllis saved his life. He was going to a dark place, and she was there for him.”
“I can honestly say this was my least favorite profession for Nick,” says Morrow of his alter ego’s stint as editor of a fashion magazine. “Because I know nothing about clothes. I can’t even pretend to be knowledgeable about it. But at the end of the day, it was about putting Nick, Phyllis, Sharon and Jack together and watching the fireworks. Because that’s what you want… fireworks!”
“It’s still hard to talk about him,” admits Morrow of the late Kristoff St. John (Neil). “He was one of my best friends, and he was an incredible actor. Not good, incredible.” As for these scenes, “We’d both had knee surgery a few months earlier. You can see the braces on our knees! We were like two old men out there stumbling around, trying not to move laterally too much.”
Although fans were caught off guard when a tipsy Nick and Christine flirted — and even shared a smooch — Morrow wasn’t. “Hey, I sort of assume I’ll eventually make my way through every woman on the show,” he laughs. “Not in a sexual way, but that’s what you do on a soap. You pair up, break up and move on!”
“He’s a 6′ 4″ adonis who has the world by the tail,” the actor says of Justin Hartley (ex-Adam), “but you’d never know it. He’s incredibly down to earth. He’s a talented dude who can do anything he wants, and he’s going to.”
“To me, the show never should have killed Sage,” says Morrow of Kelly Sullivan’s character. “Kelly is an incredible actress with so much going on. The should have found another storyline avenue for Sage to go down. her death led to dramatic story, so I get it, but all I see is that they took this fantastic actress away from our show.”
“That was such a pinch-me moment,” recalls the actor of the location shoot which saw Nick, Sharon and Phyllis jetting to the City of Lights. “It felt like we were in a mini movie. When people ask what storyline I’d like to go back and play again, it would be that one. Everything about it was amazing!”
When in 2016 the show explored what might have been had different choices, Morrow says the cast was thrilled. “You don’t get to do things like this very often, so it’s a real treat. I’ve always wanted to work with Christel Khalil (Lily), but our paths don’t cross all that often. Here, our characters got to sort of have a fling, if only for that one episode.”
The twist which saw Nick donning a mask in order to pass himself off as J.T. definitely wasn’t one of Morrow’s favorites. “I don’t know that I believed this was something Nick would do,” he confesses. “That said, the scene where he pulled off the mask was as good as you’d see in a film. It was an incredibly technical shot, and it was executed so well!”
“He’s a pretty serious dude,” Morrow says of Mark Grossman (Adam). “So I’m constantly picking on him and trying to lighten him up. When he lets loose and gets goofy, that’s when I know my job is done!” As for Melissa Claire Egan (Chelsea)…
“Missy has turned into literally one of my best friends in the world,” smiles Morrow. “There’s nothing I can’t talk to her about. When I’m old and gray, I know we’ll still be in each other’s lives.”
“I’ve been blessed with such incredible people who play my children,” glows Morrow. “I genuinely fall in love with them and want to be like a father figure to them and be there for them.
“Everybody’s telling him they shouldn’t be together, but he doesn’t want to hear it,” says Morrow of Nick’s romance with Sally. As for her portrayer, he’s having a blast working with Courtney Hope. “She’s not afraid to take chances. We like to find new ways to keep it interesting, and she’s always game.”
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