The Young and the Restless actress Cait Fairbanks plays opposite Camryn Grimes, and the two portray characters Tessa and Mariah, who are in a relationship. Recently, Fairbanks spoke with Soap Opera Digest about working on the show, and she talked about her and Grimes’ real-life friendship that has developed over the past three years.
When she landed the part of Tessa, Fairbanks said that it was her second time auditioning for the CBS Daytime drama. She’d also previously auditioned for other soap operas.
“Wow. I’ve been working here for about three years,” noted the actress.
When she first showed up, Fairbanks’ on-screen alter ego dated Noah Newman (Robert Adamson), who happens to be her current girlfriend Mariah’s (Camryn Grimes) brother. When the two women fell for each other, it caused some problems for Mariah and her brother. Ultimately, though, they worked through things, and after quite a few bumps in the road, the characters seem to be on reasonably steady ground now.
In addition to being co-stars, Fairbanks and Grimes are friends. Fairbanks revealed that her friendship with the Mariah actress was pretty professional at the beginning, but the fun-loving star — who viewers have seen grow up on the show as Cassie and then as Mariah — kept including her in activities.
“I think at first it was pretty professional. I’m pretty shy, so I really keep to myself. But she’s kind of forced me. She was really patient and sweet with me the whole time,” said Fairbanks.
Of course, now that they’ve worked opposite each other for so long, they’ve grown much closer.
“Now I feel like I see her as a sister, which is funny ’cause she plays my girlfriend. But I feel like I can go to her with anything,” Fairbanks admitted.
She also said that she hopes Grimes thinks of her the same way. Then, Fairbanks discussed how they end up approaching their scenes together after all this time together.
“We usually end up singing on set and just being able to joke through any scene. Even if they’re really heavy, we just kind of keep joking with each other so that it just feels more fun,” she said.
For now, Mariah and Tessa are trying to figure things out after Mariah cheated while Tessa was on tour. For the first time, Mariah ended up being the one who did something wrong, and she’s apologizing to Tessa instead of the other way around. Additionally, Tessa is supporting Mariah and her mother, Sharon (Sharon Case), while Sharon fights breast cancer.
When Y&R comes back from the hiatus it took amid the coronavirus pandemic, these two will likely end up working through the trust issues that arose from Mariah’s mistake as well as supporting Sharon in her fight.
