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‘Guiding Light’ alum Marcy Rylan replaces Hayley Erin as Abby Carlton on ‘Y&R’!
The shakeups continue over at The Young and the Restless. On Wednesday, the long running series fired Vail Bloom, who’s portrayed the role of Assistant District Attorney Heather Stevens since March 2008, and recast the role with All My Children alum Eden Riegel (ex-Bianca, AMC). The Emmy winning Riegel will begin taping on March 15. Now comes word of yet another recast, this time with popular Guiding Light alum Marcy Rylan taking over the role of Abby Carlton from Haley Erin in early May.
Haley Erin joined the cast of Y&R in 2008, replacing the adorable Darcy Rose Byrnes when the soap decided to age the character to a teenager. Abby, the daughter of Ashley Abbott and Victor Newman, has had a rough time since the death of her adoptive father Brad Carlton (Don Diamont) in February 2009. Her acting out and rebellious attitude only grew when Ashley decided to divorce Victor. In recent months, she’s taken to flirting with the much older Ryder Callahan and drinking illegally.
TV Guide Magazine‘s Michael Logan reported Abby will be aged to her mid-20’s upon Rylan’s debut. The 29 year-old Rylan is no stranger to recasts, as she took over the role of Lizzie Spaulding on Guiding Light in February 2006 from Crystal Hunt (ex-Stacy, OLTL). Rylan begins taping next month and first air sometime in early May. When the actress went in to meet with head writer & executive producer Maria Bell, she had no idea it was for the role of Abby. “I went in to meet with Maria Bell—who is just awesome—but I thought I was just having a general meeting. I didn’t realize there was a part to discuss, so it was a huge surprise when she brought it up. I couldn’t believe it! I went out to the parking lot and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, I think I’m going to be on Y&R!’ In my mind, this was always the soap I wanted to be on.”
Rylan’s casting makes the third high-profile recasting in recent months and the fourth overall. In November, it was announced Darius McCrary would assume the role of Malcolm Winters vacated by Shemar Moore’s exit in 2005. In December, soap veteran Stephen Nichols (ex-Patch, DAYS; ex-Stefan, GH) replaced primetime star William Russ as Tucker McCall.
For more of Marcy’s interview with Michael Logan visit TVGuideMagazine.com.
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