Adam Newman

Adam Newman
The Young and the Restless character
File:MichaelMuhney.jpg Michael Muhney as Adam Newman (2009)
Portrayed by	Celeste and Coryn Williams (1995) Danielle and Sabrina Hepler (1995) Spencer Klass (1995-1996) Hayden Tank (1996-1997; 2002) Chris Engen (2008-2009) Michael Muhney (2009-present)
Duration	1995-1997, 2002, 2008-present
First appearance	April 24, 1995
Created by	William J. Bell
In-universe information Other names Adam Wilson Victor Adam Newman, Jr. (birth name) Occupation Executive with Tucker McCall Unlimited Parents Victor Newman Hope Wilson (deceased) Siblings Victoria Newman (paternal half-sister) Nicholas Newman (paternal half-brother) Abby Newman (paternal half-sister) Spouse Sharon Newman (annulled) [2009-2010] Grandparents Albert Miller (paternal grandfather, deceased) Cora Miller (paternal grandmother, deceased) Aunts and uncles Matthew Miller (paternal uncle ) Nieces and nephews Noah Newman Summer Newman Reed Hellstrom Faith Newman

Adam Newman (born Victor Adam Newman, Jr., also known as Adam Wilson) is a fictional character on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless. He is the younger son of business tycoon Victor Newman (Eric Braeden) and his ex-wife Hope Wilson (Signy Coleman), born onscreen in April 1995. The character came to mainstream attention in May 2009 when portrayer Chris Engen quit the series prematurely, reportedly due to personal objections over his storyline. Within days of Engen's replacement by actor Michael Muhney in June 2009, heterosexual villain Adam engages in an off-screen sexual encounter with another male character. Engen defended his decision in a statement, and co-stars Eileen Davidson and Braeden noted in subsequent interviews that Engen had been unhappy with his character's storyline and villainous actions long before the gay plot twist had come up.

Casting

The character was first played by infant twins Celeste and Coryn Williams, then by Danielle and Sabrina Helper, followed by Spencer Klass, all in 1995. Hayden Tank played young Victor Jr. from December 1996 to August 1997 and made a guest appearance on June 26, 2002. Engen originated the adult role on February 12, 2008, and was nominated for a SoapCentral Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in 2009. On May 21, 2009, it was announced that Engen would be leaving the role, which would be recast with Muhney. Engen's last airdate was June 24, 2009, and Muhney debuted on June 25, 2009.

Controversy

When news broke of Engen's exit, it was reported that he had allegedly quit the series due to personal objections over an upcoming same-sex relationship between Adam and male character Rafe Torres (Yani Gellman). Engen became the subject of some criticism, including a post by celebrity blogger Perez Hilton who wrote "homophobe" on a photo of Engen.

On May 27, 2009, Maria Arena Bell, the co-head writer and co-executive producer for The Young and Restless, told TV Guide Canada's Nelson Branco, "While I won’t comment on Chris’ decision, I will admit I was saddened that we had to recast because Engen was really [gelling] in the role. However, I have no doubt that Michael will make Adam his own." In a subsequent June 10, 2009 interview with Branco, Engen's co-star Davidson (who portrays Ashley Abbott) said of his exit, "Everybody has his or her own demons — and makes their own choices due to their creative process. I can’t judge his decision because it was a personal one." She also noted, "I can say I love working with [recast] Michael Muhney. He’s a terrific actor." In subsequent interviews, co-star Braeden stated his disappointment with Engen's departure. Braeden told Soap Opera Digest that he unsuccessfully attempted to convince Engen to stay. "He was somewhat disturbed by the fact that he was playing this evil character," Braeden stated. "I said, 'Listen, I remember Victor feeding rats to people.' I told him to embrace it because he had the most riveting storyline around, period." In Soaps In Depth, Braeden said, "I'm saddened by the fact that he left ... It was a hell of a role. Whatever personal reasons he has, you've got to respect that. But he was a very nice guy, very professional. We all liked working with him. We were shocked when he decided to leave, but that's his personal decision."

On May 26, 2009, Engen released a statement on his Myspace page where he denied accusations of homophobia as well as reports that he "stormed off set."

"I felt generally unhappy about my contribution to the show, and had greater and greater difficulty making any sense of the challenges they were asking me to face ... I was allowed ONE meeting with Maria Bell, and I called in sick ONCE in my 16 months on the show. In the end, I didn’t feel that decisions were being made in my best interests, personally or professionally...Ultimately, the producers were very understanding and amenable and I, in fact, worked until they told me they didn’t need me anymore."

—Engen, MySpace

Addressing the accusations of homophobia against Engen, Davidson told Michael Fairman of The Advocate, "He was having problems with the character long before this homosexual thing came up... I think it was a series of events with Adam killing Ashley’s baby that got to him much more than the gay thing...I believe Chris was having a hard time wrapping his head around where the character was coming from and where it was going."

Engen's last airdate was June 24, 2009, and Muhney appeared the following day. A day later on June 26, 2009, a storyline twist evolved in which heterosexual Adam seduces male lawyer Rafe to distract him from discovering Adam's criminal activities. Some fans were upset that Adam and Rafe's June 29, 2009, "sex scene" was implied rather than shown onscreen; Nelson Branco of TV Guide Canada made the point that "Filming a sex scene between a straight and gay man could come off as offensive. Firstly, Adam would have to appear uncomfortable in the situation which could anger gay right groups, etc." Muhney also approved of the choice not to show the sex scene. "For me, the way it was done was tasteful and it almost makes the audience wonder what exactly happened," he said in an interview with The Advocate. "You can create that in your head and try to interpret it by how the characters reacted afterwards."

Characterization and portrayal

The Young and the Restless creator William J. Bell created Adam (then known as Victor Newman, Jr.) in 1995 as part of a social issue storyline. The plot involved Hope Adams's decision to carry Victor's child to term despite the possibility that he could inherit his mother's blindness later in life. Adam departed the series in 1997 and returned in 2008, portrayed by Chris Engen. Adam's off-screen background was established to reflect his father's, with the character making his own way in the world by putting himself through college and beginning a career in finance. The first adult to play Adam, Engen told CBS Soaps In Depth, "Luckily, I'm not going to be compared to anyone else ... anything I do and anything I try to project, and [the] kind of ideas that I have to influence the character are okay." Engen stated his intent to portray Adam as a "rich, three-dimensional character" with ambitions, flaws, and the positive qualities of his mother Hope.

File:Chrisengenpromotional.png

Chris Engen as Adam (2008)

As the character's story progressed, he ultimately became "one of the most devious characters on daytime" as part of a gothic plot in which Adam secretly torments Victor's love interest, Ashley, to get revenge on his father. Since the story called for Adam to be blind with ambiguity surrounding whether or not the disability is fake, Engen said he was not sure how to portray the impairment. "I didn't want to nail it on the head completely with the blindness, because I wasn't sure if the blindness was real]," Engen said in an interview with CBS Soaps in Depth. "Signy [Coleman, Hope] won awards for her portrayal of retinitis pigmentosa, and I thought it would be a dishonor to that if I came too close to the mark." Engen said that in regards to his character he thought that Maria Arena Bell, co-executive producer Paul Rauch, and the writers "know what they're doing, and right now it would seem like Adam is instigating more ... drama." He worried about the character's actions leading to him becoming irredeemable, but also said he took it as a challenge for him to make what Adam does "interesting and human."

In May 2009, Engen departed the role in the middle of his contract because of his objections to the growing darkness in the character. Bell recast the role with Michael Muhney. In interviews, the actor said the darkness of the character did not make him hesitate to take on the role. He instead embraced the prospect of taking on such a character. Muhney said the plot point of seducing Rafe broadened Adam's horizons. "What it did was move a character who represents a person who lives in Genoa City and moved him outside of a box that you can neatly check off," he said. "'He is straight, he is this, or he is that,' and the fact that some lines are blurred makes him more real ... When they did that with this character, I loved the opportunity to play into a different realm which is usually not touched upon on television." Muhney described the character as a "puppeteer" with "survival instinct", but also someone with a conscience.

Storylines

Hope Adams gives birth to Victor Adam Newman, Jr., in April 1995. Hope and Victor divorce that year and she later returns to Kansas in 1997, with Hope insisting that Victor stay out of his son's life. Hope later marries ex-fiancé Cliff Wilson. Victor has limited contact with this son over the next few years, until June 26, 2002 when Victor made a visit to Hope who allowed him to spend time with an excited Victor Jr.

In February 2008 Victor visits Hope, who is dying from pancreatic cancer. Their son, who is now known as "Vic," arrives and is shocked by his mother's dying admission that Victor is his father. A Harvard-educated Wall Street stockbroker, Vic thinks of Cliff as his father and is resentful that Victor would "abandon" his own child. However, Hope's dying wish is that her son get to know Victor. Soon accepting Victor's offer to return to Genoa City with him and work at Newman Enterprises, Victor Jr. – now going by "Adam Wilson" – insists that it is merely a career decision and keeps his distance from Victor. Adam receives a lukewarm reception from Victor's wary other children, Victoria (Amelia Heinle) and Nicholas (Joshua Morrow), who resent him for their parents break-up when Victor had gone to Kansas. Adam's conflicts with Nicholas and Victoria strain each of their relationships with Victor. Adam and Victor's own relationship improves, in part due to Victor's girlfriend Sabrina Costelana's (Raya Meddine) urging, and Adam soon meets and becomes romantically involved with lawyer Heather Stevens (Vail Bloom). They keep the romance secret because Victor holds a grudge against Heather for previously attempting to prosecute him for murder, and Heather's father Paul Williams (Doug Davidson) disapproves because he fears Adam will hurt Heather the way Victor hurt Nikki.

Sabrina later dies in a car accident, and a distraught Victor leaves home to go to Mexico to find and confront the men responsible for her death. Victor disappears and is presumed drowned. Adam assumes the surname Newman, moves into Victor's ranch home and soon asserts control over Victor's company. The rest of the Newman family is powerless to stop him as he gets rid of Victor's personal belongings, fires Victoria and longtime employee Neil Winters (Kristoff St. John), and rehires Victor's long-time nemesis, Brad Carlton (Don Diamont). Nicholas and Victoria's hopes for a turnaround are dashed when Victor's will leaves most of the company and ranch to Adam, thanks to their difficulties with Victor before his death. Victor eventually turns up alive and returns to his ranch and is shocked by Adam's actions. Victor fires and disowns him, once again referring to his son as "Adam Wilson."

Seeking revenge, Adam plots with Victor's longtime enemy Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman) to use a forged diary to frame Victor for murder. When Victor is exonerated, Jack subsequently frames his co-conspirator Adam for the plot, and Adam is arrested. Later in jail, Adam beaks down in front of Victor, saying that all he ever wanted has been to be Victor's son. Victor tells Adam to prove he is a Newman by being strong. Later, visiting Adam on the anniversary of Hope's death, Victor sees a positive change. During a jail house visit, ex-girlfriend Heather, Genoa City's prosecutor, notices that Adam's eyesight is beginning to fail; Victor is at first suspicious, but soon realizes that Adam's condition is real. Adam's mother Hope had also gone blind and the doctors warned the couple when Hope was pregnant, that the baby might inherit this blindness gene as well. When Adam is brutally beaten by another inmate, he tells his father that as Victor's son he is a target there. Victor finally agrees to get the charges dropped and have Adam freed if he agrees to certain terms. Released into Victor's custody and eventually reunited with Heather, Adam also befriends Victor's current girlfriend and ex-wife, Ashley Abbott (Eileen Davidson).

In April 2009, a pregnant Ashley begins hearing a baby crying on the ranch, and begins finding objects seemingly left for her by Sabrina, who was pregnant at the time of her death. The housekeeper Estella Munoz (Anne Betancourt) is blamed and arrested, but a vengeful Adam is secretly the one gaslighting Ashley, injecting something into his eyes to simulate blindness before medical exams. Nicholas and Victoria's mother Nikki Newman (Melody Thomas Scott) voices her suspicions that Adam is involved, but Victor and Ashley dismiss her. Adam dresses up like the late Sabrina to frighten Ashley, who tumbles down the stairs, is knocked unconscious, and miscarries her baby. Adam attempts to cover up the incident by placing a knocked-out Ashley in her bed and burning her bloody nightgown. Ashley wakes up screaming, but Adam convinces her that she just had a bad dream. He then blackmails Dr. Charles Taylor into convincing Ashley that her baby is still alive.

Victor becomes increasingly suspicious of Adam while he is living at the Newman ranch; subjected to a surprise eye exam at Victor's request, Adam is shocked to discover that even without his secret self-injections, he is now really losing his eyesight. When the doctor also notes that Adam has punctures in his eyes, a quick-thinking Adam "confesses" that he had been attacked by inmates with hypodermic needles and was too ashamed to speak up in jail. Estella's nephew Rafe Torres (Yani Gellman), Adam's friend and former court-appointed defense attorney, becomes suspicious of Adam. Rafe goes to Adam's room to investigate and nearly stumbles upon evidence of Adam's guilt; to distract Rafe, Adam seduces him. Getting dressed after an offscreen sexual encounter, Adam sends Rafe away, and the heterosexual Adam, disgusted by what has just happened with Rafe, summons Heather, and has sex with her as well. After Victor asks Rafe about Adam's prison attack with needles, a suspicious Rafe comes to see Adam on July 8, 2009. Though Adam intends to put a quick end to his "relationship" with Rafe, he immediately reverts to his seduction tactics to deflect Rafe's questions; Rafe initially resists, but gives in when Adam says, "I thought I found someone that I could be 'me' with." A shocked Nikki stumbles upon the men kissing, but leaves unseen. She later reveals what she saw to Victor and Nick, while Adam "breaks up" with Rafe, only to be confronted by his father moments later. On August 7, 2009, Heather sees a note left from Nikki, revealing that Adam is "gay." Heather confronts Adam about his relationship with Rafe, and despite Adam's denials she breaks up with him.

Sharon Newman (Sharon Case) is pregnant by Nicholas, her ex-husband and Adam's half-brother. Ashley still believes she is pregnant. When Sharon goes into premature labor and Ashley believes that she is as well, Adam steals Sharon's baby and passes it off as Ashley's. Adam elopes with Sharon on December 28, 2009. Suspicions about Adam arise as his connection to Dr. Taylor is revealed. Enemies Nicholas and Jack, both previously married to Sharon, believe that Adam stole Sharon's baby and team up to find out the truth. Sharon breaks it off with Adam and begins to remember things that contradict what she has been told about her baby's death. As everyone confronts a captive Adam, Nicholas's wife Phyllis Newman (Michelle Stafford) finds a note left by the dying Dr. Taylor saying that Ashley had miscarried. The group realizes that Ashley's baby is really Sharon's missing daughter. Victor, Jack, many of the other Newmans and Abotts, Heather and Rafe used Sharon as bait to lure Adam to the Abott cabin in order to confront him of his crimes but Adam didn't talk, so they put the pieces together using trails of evidence Adam had left behind. Adam subsequently escapes and disappears on March 12, 2010. Adam didn't get very far as he went unconscious after he fell into a nearby wooded ravine as Victor caught up with him giving him CPR before Adam was taken to the hospital where he regained consciousness and was handcuffed. In the next few days, Adam unsuccessfully tried to fake being unstable so he wouldn't be found fit to stand trial, but he was and Heather announced that Adam would be jailed on April 2nd, but in order to not go to jail, Adam had a nurse to get Patty Williams to the hospital whom Adam blackmailed as he confronted her about knowing her true identity. With Patty's assistance, a disguised Adam escaped police custody and the hospital and made his way to the masquerade ball at the Genoa City Athletic Club.

Adam made one final attempt to reconcile with Sharon and finally fessed up about having taken her baby to give it to Ashley and a non-forgiving Sharon asked him to leave just as Nick arrived. Adam escaped the room by jumping out Sharon's room window then later called Sharon to meet him in the Athletic Club basement, which Nick, Victor, Jack and several others went instead when they detected a gas leak before the building exploded. After the explosion, a burned body beyond recognition was found and was presumed to be Adam and later it was learned that the person was dead before the explosion. Days later on April 8, 2010, Detective Phillip Chancellor IV informed Sharon and the Newman's that the deceased corpse was positively identified as Adam.

However, it has been determined on the May 27th episode of the Y&R in Canada, (May 28th in the U.S) that Adam faked his own death and is indeed alive and living at an undisclosed location. He apparently did this by using a man named Richard Hightower whom he gave a bone marrow transplant to give him his DNA. Since he looked like Adam and has some of his DNA, he is the real body that was discovered in the basement of the Athletic club. Adam has recently been shown taking up residence in Brazil with a female accomplice, later confirmed as his old Harvard girlfriend Skye Lockhart. The two have recently been plotting a huge (but unspecified) con.

Reception

CBS Soaps In Depth reported that Engen gained fan support quickly after joining the cast as Adam, as did the character's romance with Heather. "I thank God for that aspect of my storyline," Engen said of the romance. "I really do feel that he genuinely loves her. Heather has been the only light in this world of darkness that the character has lived in since I started. She's probably responsible for me still being on the show." As the character took a dark turn, fans continued to root for him. "To think there was any likability left in the character baffles me!" Engen said. "I'm very grateful to the fans ... they've been so supportive." He said fans wanted Adam either redeemed or turned into a gray character. Davidson credited the characters likability with Engen's looks. "[H]e really nailed this character," she said. "Chris’ all-American looks add another layer to this story: he looks like he regrets being so evil, but he can’t help himself. When Chris informed me he was leaving, I told him he really accomplished something by being so likable playing this villain." TV Guide Canada's Nelson Branco repeatedly praised Adam's storyline with Ashley and Victor and Engen as an actor. "The Haunting of Ashley is fast becoming one of my favorite all-time soap storylines ever," Branco said. "It's so 1970s. I have no doubt former Another World master scribe and Paul Rauch BFF/frenemy, Harding Lemay, is freaking if he’s watching this gothic, macabre and super-creepy mystery. Moreover, camp-ilicious Chris Engen (Adam) is stealing the story with his very bitchy, and sexy performance of a deranged son scorned." CBS Soaps In Depth also commended Adam's stories. The magazine named Engen a gold star for playing Adam as a gray character with "sardonic humor." Soap Opera Digest named the actor performer of the week for his work in his final scenes as Adam. The magazine said, the actor "gave a performance that elevated Adam from an average villain to a complex mastermind." The story of Adam causing Ashley's miscarriage was named editor's choice by the magazine.

Branco referred to Muhney "as the most-talked-about recast in Y&R history" and praised his performance as he debuted on the show. TV Guide Canada's Denette Wilford also complimented the actor's portrayal of Adam, saying, "Viewers aren't supposed to empathize with him, but his portrayer managed to make it happen – a testament to Muhney." AfterElton.com's Michael Jensen reported that viewers enjoyed the character as portrayed by Muhney. The actor said he received both positive and negative reviews from online fans.

External links

• "The Young and the Restless Cast: Victor Newman Jr./Adam Wilson". Soaps.com. Retrieved July 9, 2009.