Y&R's Colleen Zenk Dishes Playing a Villain and Wearing Wigs
Colleen Zenk
In pursuit of vengeance, Jordan (Colleen Zenk) is wreaking havoc on the Newmans on The Young and the Restless. Her latest misdeed? Killing Seth (Brian Gaskill) after using him to get to Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott). Zenk chatted with Soap Opera Digest about the villain's crimes and disguises.
How was it working with fellow soap vet Gaskill? Zenk said:
He’s so sweet. He was on AS THE WORLD TURNS [as B.J.] for a little bit but I don’t even think we ever had a conversation. The minute he spotted me at the [Y&R] studio, he was talking to me like I knew him, and I said, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t know your name.’ He was like, ‘Brian Gaskill’ and I went ‘Brian Gaskill!’ I hadn’t seen him in so long. I remembered the blond-haired kid, but he looked great. He’s aged beautifully. He’s very thoughtful. He’s introverted in a way and he’s a real thinker when it comes to a scene. He has a different kind of work style than a lot of other actors have, but I enjoyed it. I thought that our scenes went really well.
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Ms. Howard hasn't stinted when it comes to wrongdoing, and Zenk has been fun to watch. She said:
Well, that’s lovely to hear because you don’t know how far you can actually push a character like this before it tips into either comedy or parody or a clownish kind of criminal, which is the last thing I want her to be. I want Jordan to be absolutely terrifying and dangerous. As an actor, if you push a character too far and you cross that line, you lose all credibility for not only the character but for the storyline. Everybody involved is so invested in the storyline that it makes it work. And if I push Jordan too far into that parody territory, it will not work, and making her a cartoon villain has been my fear all along. If the fans are buying it, I’m okay.
Meanwhile, Jordan's various wigs are helping keep the character in disguise. Zenk explained:
The first wig, the blonde one, was from the studio. The red wig is mine from when I did Looped and played Tallulah Bankhead. I did the regional premiere on the East Coast after Valerie Harper did the Broadway production, but she couldn’t do the tour because she got ill. Stefanie Powers went out on the tour in it and then I did the regional. This was about 10 years ago. It’s a lovely wig but I felt that they overstyled it a little bit [on the soap], so it was too much volume for my little face. When I wore it as Tallulah, it wasn’t quite as bouffant-y.
