It’s been two years since Y&R fans have watched you portray angst-ridden teen Fenmore Baldwin. Catch us up on what you’ve been doing since your last episode aired in May 2015.Â
A lot is happening. I was on the Stephen King/Stephen Spielberg series Under The Dome for two years and then I was on the series The Path—I played a heroine addict on that, which is different because in Under The Dome I was playing a computer hacker. And then I was playing a sociopath on a MTV show called Sweet Vicious. Right now I’m doing another TV project that I can’t disclose yet, but I’m working on music with some really cool artists like Bella Thorne and Conner Maynard and I’m super excited.
Ok, so I have to admit I wasn’t really aware of your musical background until I did some research on you. When you started out in your career you were always singing, dancing or acting—out of the three what’s your favorite, do you have a preference?
Honestly it depends on the day. Depends on the project. I would say just music and acting. I play the piano and I’ve been songwriting for ten years. So most of my stuff is singer/songwriter [genre].
Tell us about your new play, The Last Breakfast Club. You’re playing the character Andrew, how did you make the transition from doing mostly TV work for over a decade to theater? Have you done any theater work prior to this production?
I grew up doing theater. I have a love for theater. It would have to be a really great role to step into. Like this particular project, and Brad Bredeweg I love and we’ve been wanting to work together so this just made sense.
Did you have a choice in which character you played and if so what about that character drew you or made you want to play him?
I just love this movie so I just wanted to be in it and [Brad Bredeweg] told me I was going to be playing Andrew. I didn’t know much about the character in this particular version, but I was just excited to be a part of it—something that had to do with The Breakfast Club and working with these people.
The Last Breakfast Club bills itself as “A Musical Parody†which immediately got my attention. Speaking to  someone who loves parody and grew up on John Hughes films, how would you say the play compliments the movie?Â
I think we pay homage to it but we have definitely modernized it. We have a lot of messages that we want to get out there and I feel like we’ve taken a film that during that time I don’t know that some of the subject matters that we’re talking about would really be accepted. So, I think we’ve married the two worlds.
You got your first big break at 13 years old, when you landed a role in a 2004 short film called, One Easy Job. Are there plans down the road to do more films?
Yeah. I’d love to, yeah. I just feel like…you know it’s so interesting—of course actors say, ‘I want to do films’ and of course if there’s an awesome film I would love to be a part of it, but I also think that right now television is in an amazing place. There are amazing people attached to television work. I feel like there used to be a big divide between a film actor and TV actor. Now I think you go in and out. You see people like Kevin Spacey in House of Cards and academy award winning actors and actress in TV.
Recently you sang at the 2017 Daytime Emmy Awards. What was that like and do you perform live often where fans can come out to see your shows?
That was an amazing experience and a huge honor and I will never forget that experience because I had never done a live broadcast like that. Like singing to a live audience that’s filmed…so many people saw it. For the future, definitely! Once I put my music out there I’ll be performing live all the time.
Going back to Y&R for a bit, your current status is listed as “recurringâ€, are there any plans in the near future to reprise the role of Fenmore now that his older brother Scott has returned to the fold?
Yeah, if works into the storyline and it makes sense for everyone then sure. After I performed at the Daytime Emmys the producers and network executives were like ‘We would love to have you sing on the show…come back’. If it all makes sense then sure.
You once mentioned in a interview that you have a lot of respect for the daytime soap genre because of the fast-paced demanding schedule required to shoot an episode in one day with very little opportunity to do retakes. Can you give fans an idea of what sort of preparation goes into memorizing a script for say, a front burner story, like for example when you worked with Melissa Ordway (Abby Newman), Summer (Hunter King) during the who-killed-Austin murder mystery in the cabin.
That was the craziest thing; I was filming Under The Dome during that time. I literally filmed Under The Dome on a Monday, had to take a red-eye that landed Tuesday morning. I had to learn my lines on the flight (two episodes in one day) for Tuesday and another episode Wednesday and then I fly back to North Carolina to film Under The Dome. So to learn those lines…just repetition. I have some techniques that I’ve acquired and I feel like you have to really be present with your scene partners and commit to listening and responding.
Do you get dry runs and then shoot the scene?
One camera blocking; they tell us we have to stage it once: talk through it with our script in our hands and then they just film the scene.
I often wonder when you’re doing emotional scenes how do you disconnect? When you walk off the lot how do you become yourself again?
I feel like everyone has their own techniques. For me listening to music. If I’m doing a really emotional scene, either I’ll like feed that emotion or I’ll listen to really cheesy pop music and just go to a completely different level. You just have to find techniques. You could talk to someone that will pull you out of it. Yoga and meditation helps me. And good food.
Okay and now for the fun part. Quick 5 questions. Say the first thing that comes to mind:
If you could play the role of Victor Newman for a day what would you do?
My mind just went to a really dark place. I would just cause chaos. Just use that power and go on a bender maybe just drink too much and f*cking go for it. I don’t even know what that means, but yeah. Haha.
If you could play a movie role past or present it would be…
I would probably play the Matt Damon role in Good Will Hunting.
The top three songs you have on repeat in your playlist are…
Drake’s “Marvin’s Roomâ€, Khalid’s “American Teen†and Khalid’s “Locationâ€
If you weren’t an actor what would you be doing right now?
Singing!
You are most happiest when you are…?
Singing! Like, the piano and working with creative people.
Tell us what you think? Would you like to see Fenmore return to Genoa City? What do you think about him singing at open mic night at The Underground. Leave your comments below.
