Young & Restless’ Eric Braeden Lets Loose On Ashland’s Death: ‘I Was Not Necessarily That Happy… ’

“Obviously, not everything can be 100 percent satisfaction. It’s not possible.”

When writing for a soap, it’s difficult — heck, downright impossible — to make everyone happy. Sometimes, that even applies to the actors telling the stories. Still, when you’re as much of a professional as The Young and the Restless’ Eric Braeden you understand the difficulties of storytelling, whether or not you get to tell the stories you were hoping for.

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“It’s the most difficult job to write for a soap opera,” he acknowledged during a recent video interview with James Lott Jr. “There’s nothing more difficult. I don’t know how they do it. I do not know how they come up with these stories day in and day out, year in and year out. Endless! That’s hard, that’s very, very hard.”

“I admire them,” he concluded, saying that he understands that they can’t make everyone happy, but still, “I have great respect for writers.”

With that said, when asked about working with Robert Newman, Braeden cautiously explained that, “We didn’t work together that much.” But he readily added that Newman’s “a good actor.”

As great as this scene was, Braeden had hoped for so much more between them.

Credit: CBS screenshot

The problem, though, as Braeden told Lott Jr., was that, “I was not necessarily that happy that I didn’t do more between Victor and Ashland.” He then switched over to speaking as Victor, saying, “I watched Ashland come into town, and I suspected him from the very beginning. I didn’t trust him from the beginning.”

When Ashland first arrived, he was presented as this big threat to the Newman empire, but more specifically, to Victor. Here was a menace, both personally and professionally, who could go toe-to-toe with the Newman patriarch. And The Mustache knew it. He was preparing for it. And then things… gear switch? Ashland wooed Victoria and the supposed feud with Victor faded as viewers actually began falling in love with the couple.

In the end, though, Victor was right the entire time: Locke was a menace, even if he didn’t quite shape up into a corporate rival like Jack was back in the day. Ultimately, he was still a threat to Victor’s family, and because of all of that, Braeden says, he saw a very different ending to the Ashland Locke saga.

“I thought it should have been Victor who does him in because he’s protecting his family,” the actor shared. “But then, Nicholas protects his sister. I had seen the ending differently, but yeah.”

At least Victor got to help cover up Ashland’s death to protect his family? That’s something, right? OK, admittedly, it isn’t quite as satisfying as seeing these two titans finally square off, but we guess even The Mustache can’t always get what he wants — namely Ashland’s head on a plate!

Revisit Victoria and Ashland’s whirlwind romance in our photo gallery proving their relationship could only end in tragedy.