Photo: Sonja Flemming/CBS
The Young and the Restless' Michael Mealor Previews Kyle Squaring Off With Ashland
The Young and the Restless' Michael Mealor (Kyle Abbott) has grown into a leading man on our screens, and he's thrilled with Kyle's mature storylines. Mealor chatted to Soap Opera Digest about the Abbott heir squaring off against crafty businessman Ashland Locke (Richard Burgi).
Ashland recently confronted Kyle over sleeping with his wife, Tara (Elizabeth Leiner)...although he doesn't appear to know that Kyle allegedly fathered his son Harrison! Kyle is dealing with the conflict like a man, Mealor explained:
It’s made me rethink how I play Kyle. A lot of the storylines in the past have been arguments and misunderstandings that have led to Kyle coming from a place of selfishness, which turns into a whiny kind of response. So now I have to consider another approach because there’s a child involved. How is Kyle going to handle this? He can’t be a jerk because he has to think about other people outside of himself for the first time in a long time. Now, he’s coming at this from a man’s perspective.
That means that Kyle won't back down, even when confronted by the formidable Ashland. Mealor dished:
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Right, and whenever Ashland and Kyle are in scenes together, Ashland is always trying to knock Kyle on his heels but there’s stuff coming up where Kyle’s confidence begins to shine through, and he gets to go head-to-head with Ashland. It’s a really fun change of pace. As father and son, Jack [Peter Bergman] and Kyle only see each other as equals in the moment, so having that same man-to-man dynamic with Ashland has been really cool for me to play.
Meanwhile, Kyle won't have an easy time giving up on the idea of being a dad to his kid. Of Kyle's approach to fatherhood, Mealor noted:
I believe it’s something that still seems surreal to Kyle. He hasn’t met or even seen the kid in person and he hasn’t seen a DNA test proving he’s the dad, so there’s got to be an aspect of, ‘Is this really true?’ I think he wants it to be real, but I’m sure there’s doubt in his mind, that Tara could be wrong. Still, Kyle does have a big sense of family and he’s thinking, ‘I’ll fight for anything Abbott and this kid is Abbott,’ so this will be an ongoing struggle for him.
