Ahead of his debut on The Young and the Restless, Billy Flynn confirms exclusively to Us Weekly that he is, indeed, Aristotle Dumas.
News broke in March that the actor, 40, was leaving Days of Our Lives after a decade as Chad DiMera to join Y&R.
“There’s a lot of moving parts that were involved,” Flynn tells Us. “It was a whirlwind of emotions — mainly excitement, but there was fear involved. I was leaving something that was very comfortable and seemingly secure. It’s never really in this industry, but it felt like a gamble. I have a wife and two kids. But at the same time, it felt like something I needed in my life. It felt like a serendipitous thing, the way the universe put all these different pieces together for it to align where the opportunity came when it did, and how it did.”
Flynn admits that it didn’t take long for the “fear to kick back in.”
“Before I started, I was nervous to work with all these people. I was comfortable where I was and I had earned trust and in the people who knew what I could do,” he continues. “[But] everybody here was so great. I remember watching the monitor the first day, and was so impressed by everybody’s talent that I started to get really nervous [again].”
Billy Flynn joins Michael Mealor as Kyle Abbott, Zuleyka Silver as Audra Charles, Susan Walters as Diane Jenkins, Peter Bergman as Jack Abbott, Courtney Hope as Sally Spectra and Jason Thompson as Billy Abbott. Bill Inoshita/CBS
Flynn adds that the fact that there has been so much hype surrounding Aristotle Dumas — the soap has been mentioning the character as a mysterious business tycoon for months, but he has yet to appear on screen — makes it even more “nerve-wracking.”
Flynn also teases that there’s more to the story, comparing his character to “the person behind the Great Gatsby.” (Fans can come back after his debut on Friday, June 20, for more from Flynn on that tease.)
“It’s been a dream come true,” he concludes of joining Y&R. “I’m really grateful to Josh [Griffith] and all the people involved who made that decision and trusted me to come over and see me in this part that on paper, I don’t know if it was me or not, but time will tell.”
The Young and the Restless airs weekdays on CBS.
