EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH JOSH'S LONG TIME CANADIAN CELEB
FRIEND CHRIS W. TUTTY
The Young and the Restless stars Nicholas Newman played by Josh Morrow
Born in 1974 in Juneau, Alaska as Joshua Jacob Morrow, actor Joshua Morrow is best known for
The Young and the Restless (1973), Parker (2013) and Golden Shoes (2015). He has been
married to Tobe Keeney since August 4, 2001 and together they have four beautiful children.
Celebrity Reporter Chris Tutty and friend of Josh says;
He's an awesome person, he has been on TV every day for the last 25 years, on the number one daytime drama 50 years running. Fans are obsessed with Josh and just can’t wait to find out the latest news about him! He is a role model!”
Story by Chris. W. Tutty
Oh, back to memory lane as we hit the legendary Canter's Deli on Fairfax and Fifth for a quick bite to eat while we prepare for a behind the scenes interview and special art presentation with actor Josh Morrow, 25 year veteran of the hit daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless at CBS Studio 33 just around the corner. Canter’s was once the first Yiddish Jewish movie theatre, and years later was converted to one of the most popular delis in the greater Los Angeles area. Everyone from Muhammad Ali to Mick Jagger, Barack Obama, and Marilyn Monroe have eaten there, although these days the 24-hour spot has become a favourite hangout for hungry hipsters hunting a late night snack or some hang time in the adjoining lounge, the Kibitz Room, were such acts as the Wallflowers and Guns and Roses have played. This classic Jewish deli is an unrefined holdover from a bygone era, and serves up some truly amazing food. Canter’s boasts having purveyed over 2 million pounds of lox, 9 million pounds of corned beef, 20 million bagels, 10 million matzo balls, and 24 million bowls of chicken soup. If you ever have the chance, you have got to check this place out! The numbers don’t lie, people—get thee to this famous eatery.
Chris: I am awaiting the legendary Hollywood stuntman producer, actor and Young and the Restless alumni David Shark Fralick, who played the character Larry Warton. Late as always, Shark slides into the deli dressed to the nines with a sleek black and mandarin coloured jacket, and he is talking to everyone on the way into the place. To say Shark is a “people person” would be an understatement; I once watched him talk for forty minutes to a senior citizen and war vet about life and bathroom tile installation.
Shark finally made his way to my table at the back of the restaurant, only to be joined moments later by Canadian stuntman and iconic native actor Gene Rock Brave, known for his work on AMC’s Hell On Wheels and as the Apache Chief from the hit movie Wonder Woman. Needless to say, our presence didn’t go unnoticed as owner Jacqueline Canter generously treated us to everything on the menu. We were in Jewish Deli.
Heaven, and I’m still at the gym working off the calories! I would eat it all again in a heartbeat, everything was fantastic. Stuffed to our eyeballs, we decided to pile into the 1956 Chevy Stepside that Shark had arrived in and we took a short drive to the massive CBS studio. I always get the feeling like in the movies, that when I come to the gate the security guy will turn us away; but we were on the list. Josh is very professional and thorough, as soon as we parked security was waiting for us and again there was another security check point where we were given security tags. As we walk I reflect on the legacy of this studio; a lot has happened behind these doors, with shows like the Price is Right and the Merve Griffin show filming here. Finally we reach the last office-- The Young and the Restless official office. In the waiting room the show plays on a TV, and there are several Emmy statues on shelves. Shark motions towards his assistant, Dean, while pretending to take a selfie with one of the Emmy’s. To my shock and horror, Dean repeats Shark’s behaviour and actually picks up one of the statues and takes a selfie just as the receptionist returns. She politely tells Dean to put down the Emmy and to slowly move away. “Yikes, we are not going to get in to the studio!” was my first thought, but all was well and Josh had arrived. Everyone loves Josh, this handsome, talented charmer who has been working at Y and R for 25 years now. It would be fair enough to say he is as much a staple of the show as its leading man Victor Newman (aka Eric Braden).
We were now heading to Josh’s rather large dressing room, being a veteran has its perks, the room had a big screen TV, a couch, sports memorabilia, makeup chair, mirror and a private bathroom which Sharks assistant immediately needed to use. He said he had to do a number 3 whatever that is? All joking aside Dean did carry the large surprise, a Baker Mayfield painting I was about to present to him. Josh was overwhelmed by the art, and it brought tears to both our eyes. Actors can be emotional.
Later I learned that Josh's son stole the painting and it's in his room, really cool seeing as art my appeals to a younger demographic. It was now time to get down to business and conduct what you guys are hopefully looking forward to a one on one interview with Josh, okay here we go. Things are always easy, light and fun with Josh and as serious as I could try to be I knew Josh wouldn’t have it, so wing it it is ha ha!
Q AND A WITH JOSH MORROW BY CHRIS W. TUTTY
CHRIS: Hey guys, your buddy Chris Tutty. You'll never guess who I am with! Who am I with? JOSHUA: Lorezo Lamas. (Apparently Josh gets this a lot)
CHRIS: Lorenzo Lamas one of my favorite guys, I remember you from The Renegade. Did you learn to ride a motorcycle yourself? Was that like a stunt double (I joke, I know where this interview is going so I run with it.) JOSHUA: It was a double, very old Peruvian man doubled me. He was quite the rider though. CHRIS: And I heard you guys went to Sturgis. You and Peewee Herman, he rode a bike.. JOSHUA: Yeah we did that. We got some tacos, and we shared a caravan of juice boxes. It was an amazing trip..
Sharon Case and Joshua Morrow in The Young and the Restless (1973) - 2020 The Young and the Restless, Episode #1.11463.
CHRIS: I'm actually here with Josh Morrow, none other than Nicholas Newman, from The Young and the Restless. I'm doing an I’m Here With Magazine interview at the CBS studios powered by Zomongo, our sponsors. That's right. NASCAR super-car our good buddy Mr. Intensity Jeremy.
JOSHUA: Jeremy, Mr. Intensity, thanks for the hat.
CHRIS: I want to ask a couple of questions; Is anything taboo? Can I ask you anything?
JOSHUA: Yes.
CHRIS: (Using my better judgement I avoid talking about his 90’s boy band with Eddie Cibrian called 3 Deep). OK so here we are on the set right now. Why did they let me on here in the first place, Josh? JOSHUA: Because I'm a pretty big deal and if I say I've got friends coming they say Mr. Morrow, when and how many? (laughs)
Still of Joshua Morrow from TENTACLE 8 (2014)
CHRIS: I kind of noticed that later when we got to the gates there was a ribbon cutting ceremony. JOSHUA: Yeah there was skywriters and the skydivers, the Flying Elvis’s, did you see those? CHRIS: I did see that, a lot of prestige. I did see the skywriting too. That's something they don't do a lot in Canada because it's just too cold.
JOSHUA: Yes Tutty, that’s all for you and they even wrote the name of your favorite band Butt Hole Surfers. CHRIS: (laughs) you know me too well Josh. Back to the interview, that’s right we're here now with I'm Here With Magazine. I just want to ask you how many years you've been on this show, didn’t you just celebrate your 25th anniversary?
CHRIS: So you're 45 years old already? You don’t look it! Teen Beats number one question to heartthrobs, when was your first on screen kiss on Young and Restless and who was that first onscreen kiss with? JOSHUA: Julianne Morris in the summer of 1994. CHRIS: You seem to know those dates pretty well, so was that your first kiss at like 19 as well? You’re a busy guy, no time for relationships? JOSHUA: No, it's just because I had that question recently. No it was not my first kiss. My first kiss as you know, six, bro, six. Her name was Justin and she was nine.
CHRIS: You heard it right here folks. How many pages of size (written dialogue) do you get on a general basis? Does it come to your house FedEx?
Everyone on set says you are the master. I mean I have worked with you before, at the Woman’s Show in Calgary, you just seem to be able to absorb material really quick even if each day was entirely different. JOSHUA: My average size probably per day is somewhere between 12 to 15 pages. But these days, well I shot today and that was approximately, if you do the math, somewhere around 35 to 40 pages. CHRIS: Wow, pages? In a movie you are lucky to do five pages in a whole day! JOSHUA: It was a heavy day for me because I'm not working tomorrow, so they put my stuff from tomorrow on to today, which is not what they like doing, but I'm going to an adult sports camp tomorrow, so I get the day off.
CHRIS: Wow! So did you get this quite a bit ahead of time? I've also heard and seen you do stuff last minute and actually deal with rewrites as well. JOSHUA: I learned that this morning. It doesn't matter, if I have five pages or thirty five I learn them the morning I get to work. I've been blessed with a pretty good short term memory, but they also trust me if I don't know verbatim the lines. I can fill in the blanks from point A to B and make sure not to disrupt the flow. Yeah, it also comes to a matter of trust. You know this is a collaborative effort. You know they want to do a good show. They're not married to the dialogue at all times. So, if we're getting the gist of the scene and we're speaking clear English, and there's not a light falling down, and they like what we did, they trust the veterans to kind of work our way through it.
CHRIS: Wow, ok that's cool. Any advice to any inspiring actors? I kind of like to think that this is probably one of the hardest jobs. I've worked on film myself but you guys film an episode a day and there are a minimum of two to three cameras running? JOSHUA: At all times, three shooting at all times, but this is hands down the hardest job you could do. I would challenge a lot of people to come in and learn what I did today, and we do most things in one take. It's a format built on speed and precision, so the old adage that maybe, you know, pretty dumb people are on this show is not true. These people are whip smart. There's a lot of pressure to perform but we all trust each other and we knock it out of the park every day.
CHRIS: I've noticed and observed that you guys don't fool around. If somebody doesn't have that chemistry or doesn't seem to have that energy, you hear that voice at the beginning of an episode THE ROLE OF VICTORIA NEWMAN WILL NOW BE PLAYED BY- and they replace people. JOSHUA: Quite often they can, but more, it's more about if it fits within the story, it's not so much about chemistry if you will. But you know there's been people that come on and they didn't work out. Or just kind of, you know pivot to a different story and go a different route, but we try and give everyone the best chance we can if we hired them in the first place. We believe in them. They're obviously talented and we want them to figure out what we're doing. But eventually you're going to have to perform, like if you're just not cutting it, you're going slow, or whatever and it's not working, they will make a change.
CHRIS: You seem to still have chemistry with your long lost arch nemesis Larry Warton aka David Shark Fralick, who is here today operating the camera for this interview. JOSHUA: One of my most powerful love interests was with Larry in prison. (Laughter)
Ronald Regan Art by Chris W. Tutty, in Josh Morrow’s dressing room!
CHRIS: I thought he kept you and Victor out of the showers? JOSHUA: Yes, he did! You know there was a lot of stuff that took place off camera as well. It was aggressive but we fit the story into the medium that we could. But just kidding, and Larry Warton had a long checkered past and I can't speak highly enough of this man.
He did an incredible job. Sometimes it can become a little difficult or cliche to play the role that you did, but you were fantastic in it. And you know you were fucking scary. Can I say that?
TUTTY: Yeah I think you just did.
LARRY: Wasn’t me!
JOSHUA: Anyway, you were intimidating, and also at the end you cut your character, kind of and took a different arc and you kind of became a bit of a good guy, which was really a great journey for him. So I can't speak highly enough about you, man. You're awesome. Actor DAVID FRALICK joins in: Thanks Nick!
CHRIS: That's cool. So we kind of had an off camera interview within interviews, you know kind of, what's it called, breaking the third wall, the fourth wall, because you don't work with three walls all the time. JOSHUA: Correct. Which is insane.
CHRIS: Now how is your relationship with your dad Victor, and is he one of your favorite characters on the show? JOSHUA: Yeah, yeah. Well Nick and Victo's relationship is always pretty checkered too. You know Victor wants Nick to be him. Nick does not want to be Victor. So there's always that kind of, you know colliding between the two.
DAVID, JOSH AND CHRIS AT CBS STUDIOS
CHRIS: And not to interject, but you definitely are that person in real life and with your family and with your children, and I like the role model that they have for Nick. So I don't know if they're going to mix it up or not, but what I really liked is your influence on the character. It's nice to see. JOSHUA: Well you know it's I think when they hire these people to become these characters they really want you to inject a lot of your own personality into it, assuming that's where they want the role to go. So a lot of times I don't feel like I'm acting anymore. They've kind of let me take Nick down this arc that very much resembles my own life. Yes, and my greatest compliment about Nick is, if he was a real person, I think we'd be homeboys. You know I like him. I think he's a good dude. CHRIS: Yeah, so basically what I think you’re saying is that this Baker Mayfield painting by me Chris Tutty is gonna end up on set one day, in a bar or something? You never know! JOSHUA: I think this very immaculate piece that you painted is destined for my man cave room. CHRIS: Well I definitely want to do a picture of you like the one in Victor's office. We gotta make that happen one day. JOSHUA: It's an unbelievable piece and I'm just ecstatic to get it. I'm ecstatic.
CHRIS: Thank you so much. You've been so generous to bring us down to the set. Is there anything you want to tell I'm Here With Magazine, powered by Zomongo fans? Anything
you want to add to your viewers in Canada? I know you've been to Calgary a lot.
JOSHUA: You know I love Canada. We're big there and it means a lot that you guys treat us so well. I haven't been in a while but it's a fantastic country with beautiful cool people. Americans could learn some lessons from Canadians sometimes. It's an awesome country ruled by a great dude, Justin Trudeau. Yeah, I mean he's a pretty good guy, it's an awesome country and I've had nothing but a great time. I'm Here With magazine, thank you very much.
Following our interview, we moved to the incredible CBS set contained in a massive building called Television City. To say that this studio was legendary or massive wouldn’t do it justice.
Outside Television City is a stark modern architecture consisting of black and white planes meeting razor sharp corners.
INTERVIEW BY CHRIS W. TUTTY
Currently this studio houses a total of eight separate studios. At Studio 33 they film The Young and the Restless, The Late Late Show with James Corden and The Price Is Right. Apparently actors have been known to spin The Price Is Right wheel to see who buys drinks after work.
After the 500th episode of The Price Is Right, CBS named Studio 33 the “Bob Barker Studio” in honor of the man who once beat up Happy Gilmore. The whole studio has now been declared a historical landmark, and has been sold back to the City of Los Angeles, protecting it indefinitely.
CHRIS AND JOSH
Wow guys, now I’m sitting at the most powerful desk in daytime TV. I’m at the office of Victor Newman at Newman enterprises, and across from the desk is the iconic painting of the man himself (Man I wish I painted it). This show spares no expense for details or set building and although there are only three walls on a massive sound stage you really do feel like you are a part of the Y and R world. Next up is the Crimson Lights Coffee House, where we find veteran actresses Sharon Case and Kate Linder (respectively, Sharon Newman and Ester Valentine on the show). Kate does Y and R events all over North America for different charities, and one of the nicest and most generous people I have ever met.
CHRIS W. TUTTY
I then head to the make up room to say hi to the crew there who do an amazing job, Emmy winning make up artist Susan Cabral-Ebert and hair stylist Robert Louis Stevenson are on site for a quick touch up and a hair styling. Afterwards, we met with Summer Newman (aka Hunter King) and Michael Mealor (aka Kyle Abbott), the show’s new favorites and top dogs on the set. Lots of laughs again, and admiration can be felt from these stars towards the veteran presence of Josh as we joke around and share stories.
David Shark Fralick
After an amazing visit with the newbies (okay they're not that new), we hear calls for “quiet on the set”. We now go to the control room, where a director is going back and forth from camera one, to two, to three; much like the Superbowl, this is all live and the scenes are being directed and edited on the spot. Suddenly we hear a cellphone ring, and the director turns to look at all the strangers in her booth with a little bit of a frown. Oh lord, please don’t let it be me or Dean or Shark, Josh told us to turn off our phones! The frown is soon replaced with a smile as the director realizes it’s Josh’s phone, she shakes her head a little and says back to work. Wow, that was a close one.
Dead Eadie, David Shark Fralick, Josh Morrow and Chris W. Tutty visit to set in LA.
Our journey was about to end on the set of The Young and The Restless, truly an enlightening and memorable experience. Josh is an amazing man on and off camera, he has very little social media due to “the trolls” as he puts it, but he is a hardworking family man; just like Nick Newman, family is everything to him. Back home now, as I sit in my office, I get a request from my good friend Jesse Modz, a morning D.J. for CJAY 92. Jesse tells me his grandmother (who raised him as a kid) is not doing well, and he wanted me to contact her favorite character on The Young and The Restless, Nick Newman and see if he could send Grandma Anne a special message to lift her spirits. Having met this amazing lady a couple of times, I called Josh. Without hesitation he sent one of the most heartfelt messages to Grandma Anne, lifting her spirits. Just goes to show you how much Josh not only loves his job, but also his fans.
Listen to Josh’s Interview on iTunes or Spotify
Courtesy of Chris. W. Tutty of I'm Here With and CBS