Bryton James Looks Back at 20 Years on The Young and The Restless

The actor reflects on two decades in Genoa City

Author:
Daytime Confidential Staff
Publish date:
May 31, 2024

On June 1, Bryton James will celebrate 20 years of playing Devon Winters (né Hamilton) on The Young and the Restless. In an interview with TVInsider, the Daytime Emmy winner reflects on this major milestone and the relationships he's built on- and off-screen.

In particular, James has forged strong bonds with the actors who've played the other members of the Winters family. In particular, he cited the late Kristoff St. John (ex-Neil), Victoria Rowell (ex-Drucilla), and Christel Khalil (Lily). He mused:

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Well, it started with Christel because I met her when she did an episode of Family Matters when we were, I think, 9 and 10 years old. We worked together for a week and then I didn’t see her again until my screen test for Young and Restless. I found out that after the screen test, she advocated for me to get on the show. She became my best friend very quickly. She’s a sister that I never had and probably the closest person in my life to me. And then coming on the show and learning that my story was inspired by Victoria Rowell’s real life and real life experiences? What a gift for any actor coming into a new environment to have someone to give you the tools and direction of where you need to be going in scenes and in the storyline. She was an amazing mentor. It was the same thing with Kristoff. His mentoring was showing me that even in this serious, fast-paced environment, there’s always levity to bring to the stage, which is what we all remember him for, his balance of fun and being professional. They were incredible to me.

Asked whether he'd ever made a conscious decision to stay rather than leave the soap, James replied:

What have been some of the most memorable things Devon has been through? James recalled:

I think definitely Devon losing his hearing. I mean, you can’t really truly understand what it is like to lose a sense unless you actually go through it, so you study as much as possible and do your best. The challenge of it was a lot of fun, and getting to go on the journey with the rest of the cast who were in my story and learning sign language was a great experience. And it also brought one of the best moments off stage. I was out having lunch and a fan came by my table and just left a note on the table that they had written on a napkin and walked off without saying anything. They wrote that they were deaf and they lost their hearing at a very young age and they grew up watching The Young and the Restless and how much they admired my performance and how I was portraying losing my hearing on the show. To hear that from someone who was actually experiencing it was everything to me.

Bryton James Looks Back at 20 Years on The Young and The Restless

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