Daytime TV Performer of the Week: Michelle Stafford Takes Phyllis to Wickedly Delicious New Heights on ‘Y&R’

Phyllis Summers, played by three-time Daytime Emmy-winner Michelle Stafford, has used an Artificial Intelligence program to wrest control of Newman Enterprises from the Great Victor Newman (Eric Braeden) himself on The Young and the Restless.

Would lawyers be all over this move in real life? Probably. But in the words of Joy Behar (The View), “So what? Who cares?” The show’s current story dynamics have placed Phyllis where she’s always wanted to be — on top of the business world in Genoa City and making everyone see her.

Stafford has immersed herself in this tale as Phyllis lords over everyone around her, while also exhibiting moments of great vulnerability. TV Insider is bestowing our Performer of the Week honors on the actress for her continued performance in this AI tale.

“Welcome back to Summers Conglomerate,” Phyllis snarked to Victoria Heinle (Amelia Heinle), who paid a visit to her father’s former office. The heiress spied Phyllis’s portrait on the wall, where her dad’s once was, and Phyllis reveled in Vicki’s incredulous reaction.

Stafford never fails to miss a beat as characters around Phyllis marvel at her audacity. Her looks say, “Don’t like it? Tough. I’m in charge.”

Stafford aligned herself in the foreground of her portrait on the wall perfectly so that Vicki would get a good look at both of them. “It’s beautiful, don’t you think? I remember when you had your portrait on the wall during her very brief tenure here,” Phyllis pointedly told Vicki, putting emphasis on the word “brief.”

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Stafford brilliantly finds moments in lines of dialogue that enable Phyllis to twist the knife.

As confident as Phyllis appears when facing her adversaries, the mere mention of either of her children — Summer (last played by Allison Lanier) or Daniel (Michael Graziadei) — allows viewers to see the character’s vulnerability. Phyllis may be steamrolling over folks in Genoa City, but she deeply cares about her children and she wants their love.

Alone, Phyllis read the note from Summer that Victoria gave her. Summer’s chastising words were like a kick in the gut. Stafford chose to have Phyllis sit down as she needed all her strength to process her child’s condemnation of her actions. After finishing the note, the look of being strong and in control on Phyllis’s face was gone. Instead, we saw a vulnerable mother, fearful that she might never bridge this gap with her daughter.

Next, Phyllis met with Daniel, hoping to find an ally and someone who’d want to take advantage of her newfound position. “Why all this vitriol from you and your sister?” Phyllis genuinely asked Daniel, as if she’d done some mild parental helicoptering, and not gone after Summer’s grandfather financially.

She was disappointed as Daniel matched his sister’s stance. Sitting across from her son at Society, Phyllis’s face froze at the moment that he told her that they weren’t a family anymore.

On the heels of feeling a pain sharper than a serpent’s tooth not once, but twice, Phyllis bumped into Sharon Newman (the always sensational Sharon Case) at Chancellor Park Café. The two made a pact to not be bitter enemies following their kidnapping ordeal last year. The battle for Newman Enterprises has put a strain on that cordial dynamic, but Stafford brought vulnerability — not animosity — to her meeting with Sharon.

Sharon’s both an unlikely and likely person to reach Phyllis, who has more walls up than ever. Because they’d nearly lost their lives to evil Martin Laurent (Christopher Cousins), Phyllis and Sharon know there’s an unbreakable bond between them.

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Sharon brought Phyllis up to speed on the problems her daughter, Mariah (Camryn Grimes), was facing, as she had hallucinated Ian Ward (Ray Wise) appearing to her, planting bad thoughts in her mind.

“Well, the monsters keep ‘monstering,’ don’t they?” Phyllis rhetorically replied with a knowing tone.

As a therapist, Sharon was able to speak to Phyllis not only as a fellow survivor of Martin’s attack, but also as a trained counselor.

“You know it’s been a year? Last month marked a year since we were in that cell and left to die. Not a word from you,” Phyllis told Sharon, the hurt evident in her tone. “Nothing. It’s like it didn’t happen at all.”

Phyllis wondered if she and Sharon had truly won or if Martin was sitting in a cell, laughing at them. It’d be easy for Phyllis to lash out at Sharon, given how much she’s been hurt by her kids, but Stafford finds levels to scenes that make them more interesting and fascinating to watch.

Losing her kids might have given Phyllis cause to rethink her goals, but she’s not bending. Phyllis’s constant resolve is a big reason fans have loved her from the start.

Gently asked by Sharon what Phyllis truly wanted in life from going down her current path, the fiery redhead took a beat and replied, “I want it all.”

And that is what Stafford gives each and every time she’s on-screen. Her all.

The Young and the Restless, Weekdays, CBS