The Young and the Restless' Eric Braeden (Victor Newman) and Justin Hartley (ex-Adam Newman) were a dynamite father/son pair in Genoa City, but would they remain a dynamic duo if they were thrown into a new project together? Like, say... Hartley's new primetime dramedy, This Is Us?
Let your imagination run wild for a minute then come back to us to find out what Hartley had to say about the possibility of his former TV dad joining him on the hit freshman series.
"He could be my dad's dad!" the actor excitedly told Glamour. "He would do it probably, [Eric]'s a good guy. We hit it off right away. I think I made him laugh, which he wasn't expecting. Our characters hated each other and Adam wanted to dethrone his father. He wants all the power. We would go at it in scenes together. He gets loud and I do, too. And then afterwards we'd laugh and tell jokes. [Eric and I] got along great. He's got to come on This Is Us. He should watch it and do commentary! He should live tweet our show. That'd be awesome!"
"It's interesting because I'll be out, and someone will say, 'I just loved you on Passions! Did you just quit acting after that?'" he says with a laugh. "I don't know what to say, so sometimes I'll just say yes."
On the other hand, he also gets a lot of fans (and well-meaning friends) that subtly shun soap operas. But the actor has a respectable attitude about it, saying the brush-off title of "soap opera actor" doesn't annoy him. "[Although], I have friends that [that term] really annoys," he says. "People will come up and say -- and it is insulting -- 'Do you ever want to do anything else? Like some real acting? Or a real show?' Here's the thing: You can either get upset about that, or you can realize that that person isn't trying to offend you. They're literally interested, and they're asking you a question. I know when people are trying to insult me. That's not an insult. That's just someone being ignorant -- they don't know. They're being sweet... But no, I don't get upset about it. It comes with the territory, and there are worse things. I love acting, and so whenever I get the opportunity to act, I'm happy. I'm easy to please when it comes to that kind of stuff. I don't know what I'd do without it."
To catch more of Hartley, be sure to tune in to NBC's This Is Us Tuesday nights at 10/9C.
Would you love to see Eric Braeden make a cameo appearance on This Is Us? What do you think about Hartley's attitude toward people who brush off the importance of soaps? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
