‘Y&R’ Reveals Its New Cane Ashby! Billy Flynn Talks the Surprise Recasting

Billy Flynn, who made his debut on The Young and the Restless as the mysterious Aristotle Dumas on June 19, has now been revealed to be Cane Ashby.

For the actor, who has played Chad DiMera on Days of Our Lives since 2014 and will continue airing on the soap for months to come, switching shows wasn’t an easy choice. “There’s that old saying you never get the job you want by staying at the job you have, but it felt like a huge gamble,” he allows. “If it doesn’t work out here, then I have a family to provide for. So, my wife and I talked, and I made the decision to take the jump, and I’m really glad I did.”

Flynn reveals that he was in the dark about the new gig when he had his initial discussions with the show’s executive producer and head writer, Josh Griffith. “I didn’t really know what I was going to be doing at the time,” he shares. “Josh gave me the breakdown of character, and I was like, ‘Yeah, that sounds awesome. Let’s do that.’ And then it wasn’t until a little bit of time later that I was like, ‘Can you tell me more?’”

After discovering he would be Cane Ashby, the role Daniel Goddard [Henry Dalton, General Hospital] played from 2007-2019, Flynn began doing his research. “I started watching old stuff, but that was really hard because I’m not Daniel,” he points out. “So, I read Wikipedia pages and fan pages. I have 25 pages of Cane and Lily’s entire history printed out. I keep it in my bag. It starts with, ‘Lily Winters, who divorced Daniel Romalotti, and Cane Ashby, recently divorced from Amber Moore, first met in 2007, to an instant chemistry.’ So, it goes way back. I did that just to know what significant moments were, to know that Valentine’s Day is very significant for them. You’re a new person, and you’re going to be playing a different written version of that person, but I wanted to have that history.”

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Flynn quickly recognized the inherent challenges of assuming the role. “Cane and Lily were already a big thing,” he notes. “So, I come in and not only do I have to have that [connection] with Christel [Khalil, Lily Winters] but I’m not Australian and I’m a bit younger. What Daniel did was amazing — he was great as Cane — and obviously, the relationship that Cane and Lily had is a testament to their work. Cane is a fascinating character. Essentially, we’re going to rebrand it a bit, so they have a closer age range, and I don’t have a sexy accent. I can’t replicate it, so I’m going to do my thing. When people see this Cane and the relationship that I have as Cane with Lily, I think they’ll be happy.”

But being a recast wasn’t Flynn’s only hurdle. “The hard part was the idea that I’m playing Aristotle Dumas, this refined businessman who Cane created,” he explains. “And ultimately, the conversation I had with Josh when I first found out about it was that it was like The Great Gatsby. Cane created Aristotle Dumas the way that James Gatz created Gatsby. Lily is Daisy. He created this world to prove to her that he’s good enough for her, and that is a beautiful story to me.

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“There are a lot of things that are going to be different, but Lily is Cane’s one true love, and I know how to do that,” he continues. “And Christel makes it very easy. She’s incredible, she’s beautiful, she’s really talented, and she’s got a great personality. When we did our first scene, there was a chemistry that I was like, ‘OK, it’s gonna be good.’ That connection was there for me.”

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Flynn was immediately impressed by his other new castmates, too. “Everybody here is amazing,” he raves. “You’re sitting in your room watching the monitor, and you’re watching Jason Thompson [Billy Abbott] and Michelle Stafford [Phyllis Summers] and Christel Khalil and all these people and they’re doing such good work, and it made me want to raise the bar. I think I needed that in my career and in my life, and I’ve been feeling like I’m trying to stretch a little bit. I played Chad for 11 years, and now I come in and I’m playing two different [characters].”

Leaving Days after over a decade of playing Chad was a bittersweet experience, Flynn reports. “It was pretty emotional,” he says. “The Friday before my last day was my goodbye scene with Susan Hayes [Julie Williams] and Chad’s kids. My last scene as Chad on camera, I was super emotional, especially with the kids, because I’ve known them since they were so little, and now having kids of my own, I felt a good bond to them and to Susan. Then my last day was with Greg Rikaart [Leo Stark; Kevin Fisher, Y&R], and it was nice to go out with Greg. It was like a passing of the torch since he came from [Y&R]. Eleven years there, and I changed a lot as a human being during that time. I built trust there, and they trusted me to play that part and do the work.”

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He will carry many fond memories of his time in Salem, both personal and professional. “Other than being employed, if I had not gotten that job, it might not have led to some of the things that happened,” Flynn reflects. “But because it did, I became who I am now, and I met my wife, Gina [Comparetto]. We started dating when I found out I got Days of Our Lives, and the fact that I was going to have a paycheck gave me the courage and the ability to even say, ‘Will you go out with me?’ because I could afford to take her out.

“And the Chad and Abby relationship was really special to me, as were my relationships with Kate [Mansi, ex-Abigail Deveraux; Kristina Corinthos, General Hospital] and Marci [Miller, ex-Abigail],” he shares. “I spent probably the most transformative years of my life there, and then the fact that I’ve done the work over the years that even put me in a position for Josh [Griffith] to go, ‘Let me call Billy,’ makes me feel really proud and happy.”

Now, his focus is fully on Genoa City. “I’m still figuring out who this version of the characters I’m playing are,” he says. “It’s the introduction phase. I didn’t originate Chad, obviously, and I forgot what that’s like, and how much work that is, but I’m great. I love everybody here. People couldn’t be kinder to me, and everybody has done everything they can to make me feel as at home as I can be.”

The Young and the Restless, Weekdays, CBS. Check Local Listings.

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