Flames of Love: “Soap operas make topics unknown to the general public possible” for Christian LeBlanc

In 1991, Christian LeBlanc joined the cult series “The Young and the Restless” in the role of ruthless lawyer Michael Baldwin. More than thirty years later, the actor is back in the credits of fiction, which will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary in 2023!

In this regard, AlloCiné had the opportunity to talk to the actor. He shared his memories with us and revealed the impressive evolution of his character…

AlloCiné: Tell us about your beginnings in “Fire of Love”…

Christian LeBlanc: My casting went very quickly. I was told that my character would be a villain, I met with our producers and presto, I got the part! I was surprised because it’s usually longer. Anyway, my first day was off the set. This was when everyone came together for a group photo with all the cast members of the series!

This is an important day because it is held only once in 4-5 years. Everyone is there, glamorous, in costumes! I was very worried and when I am: I talk. Lauralee Bell said at the time:This guy talks a lot!(laughs) I thought:I’m at home, they understand me!“It was brilliant and depressing at the same time.

Michael was a manipulative and violent character in his early days. Did you feel scared about it?

I had only played good guys before… Michael was complex and it was a real challenge for me. He was a genius as a lawyer and that must have attracted Christine in the first place. To establish his status, I had a lot of scenes in court to show that Michael was a good speaker. I had pages of speeches to study and I loved it because I love great texts like Shakespeare!

On the other hand, I, Christian, have never had violence in me. Laurale and I had to do some difficult scenes where I hurt and hurt her… and she was perfect. I always wondered if he was comfortable as a woman. If it wasn’t for that, I would never have gotten this far in my acting career, it’s a gift for an actor.

Anyway, I don’t like defining Michael as good or bad, there are gray areas. He did bad things for good reasons and vice versa. He’s basically human! I shouldn’t have stayed on the show long to begin with… and here I am 30 years later, thanks to the fans.

Would you like to see your character become evil again?

It might be interesting! My hero’s story, with his difficult childhood, will make this possible. Michael is a pit bull in court and we get to see his dark side…

Michael and Lauren (Tracy Bregman) have been married for years and have never divorced… which is very rare in TV series! Do you think they will be together?

The writers know they are a popular duo. I think we are the longest married couple! They met teenagers and each of them had a busy past. So this type of couple has many problems.

They almost broke up when he had an affair. They certainly had arguments, but it wasn’t new couples’ fights. Divorce was not an option after 15 years of marriage!

When Michael had cancer, they also had a discussion from a couple who had known each other for years. You don’t trust someone you don’t know in the same way. It was very interesting to show how these crises were overcome.

Michael always had a difficult relationship with Gloria (Judith Chapman) and Kevin (Greg Ricciarti), his mother and his brother. where are they today

This family remains complex. Gloria is a complicated person and Kevin still has his old demons. So, sure, they’re all better together, but they’re still the same as they were when they started. Their past still defines them today.

A few years ago, Michael had cancer, but the story ended very suddenly. do you regret

Unfortunately, this scenario happened when we were changing management and some people didn’t want to hear about this story that was already in progress… It was disappointing that they only talked about it enough to end it. It ended suddenly. Prostate cancer is a huge topic that can be explored further. I love it!

In the United States, Fen (Zack Tinker) returned to Genoa with her boyfriend to everyone’s surprise! Do you think there should be more LGBTQ+ characters in the series?

absolutely. People need to be educated, and soap operas, thanks to their long arcs, make it possible to deal with subjects unknown to the general public. We can, for example, tell complex plots.

The Young and the Restless was one of the first pieces of fiction to talk about AIDS, Christina’s mother died. There was sexual harassment, interracial marriage, alcoholism… these are topics that prime-time soap operas found controversial.

Going back to Fenn, at first I thought we were going to address homophobia or violence, but actually there was a lot of backlash from people who said:These are the scenes I wanted to see: a boy takes his girlfriend home and it’s normal“. We did not make this event. Hopefully, we will learn more in this more subtle way.

What’s your favorite Michael storyline on “The Young and the Restless”?

My favorite is when I can embody something when I don’t think I can. It happened often! I loved when Michael and Lauren almost lost Fenmore when he was born, when Gloria first came back…

But my favorite is when Kevin gets beaten up and ends up in the hospital. Michael was looking at the operating table and collapsed. I remember waiting for the buzzer to play and I was like “Oh my god, it’s mine!“.

Then I asked the producer to hold my hand for a minute and he did so immediately. Then he left me and I was ready when we said “stock“. If we can interpret something once, we can do it again the next time!