Interview with "Young and the Restless'" Kate Linder

Romantic Movies Guide Rebecca Murray shares her recent interview with Kate Linder (Esther, Young and the Restless.)

Tell me what’s happening with your character on “The Young and the Restless.”
 
There are all kinds of great things happening in Chancellor house. My boss, Mrs. Chancellor – played by Jeanne Cooper – has just had a stroke, a really bad thing, and Jill who also lives in our house just found out that she is adopted. And it turns out that she finds out that Mrs. Chancellor is her mother, after all these years. We didn’t know this. They hate each other so this is going to be very interesting.
 
My character however does not know yet that Jill is Mrs. Chancellor’s daughter.
 
Do you ever get the scripts and say, “Wait a minute. How can we do this?”
 
You know, the writers are so great; they are so brilliant. I keep trying to think of what they’re going to come up with and I’m always wrong. I never guess. They are so amazing. They are brilliant.
 
Is there anything they haven’t done to your character yet that you want them to?
 
Well, there are a lot of crazy things… Actually, my character gave birth in the middle of a storm - she’s had that. She answered an ad in a singles magazine and then married the guy but it turned out that it wasn’t really a real marriage. He was a bad guy, see, and my boss Mrs. Chancellor didn’t trust him so she hired an actor to play the minister so I wasn’t really married. He turned out to be a bad guy – he killed my boss’ husband so you can’t get much worse than that.
 
Do you ever get to have any input into your character?
 
No, I don’t. The writers are so incredible and it’s my job to bring that character to life, what they write, and that’s what I do. I wouldn’t even think of trying to change what they do. They do it day in and day out – and they are amazing. I don’t know how they do it. I’ve been on for 21 of the 30 years the show has been on and it’s just amazing to me what they do.
 
Any surprises coming up for your character that you can hint at yet?
 
I don’t know what’s going to happen. I think something is in the works but they just told me something is going to be happening, but I don’t know what it is. So you and I are going to find out on the same day (laughing). I can’t wait to get the scripts and just plow through them and say, “Oh my gosh! I can’t believe it.”
 
Do you ever get tired of the amount of work you have to put in to be on a soap opera?
 
No. You know what? I didn’t have anyone in my family that was in the business. It was the kind of thing that I had to do for myself. I just feel so honored and so blessed to be working in my field. This is what I trained for and what I wanted to do, and then to be on the number 1 show on top of that, that’s just icing on the cake. I sometimes have to pinch myself. I can’t believe it’s been 21 years. I can remember my first day and I remember my first line, “Dinner is served,” was my first line, which is something my family never hears at home so I was really acting (laughing). I’m so thrilled that I’m able to do that.