The sudden passing of Cassie Newman in 2015 stands as one of The Young and the Restless’s (Y&R) most defining moments of the 2000s. But if viewers were shocked by the turn of events, imagine how shocked portrayer Camryn Grimes was!
Grimes recently spoke with Soap Opera Digest about how that moment changed her entire life.
“I knew it was coming but I was 15,” said the Emmy winning actress. “You can’t emotionally prepare for something like that even if you think that you can. There’s nothing that can prepare you for that at that age.”
Keep in mind that Grimes wasn’t just any young actor, losing a cherished role. Her first “stint” with Y&R had lasted a full decade, and she was also the youngest actor to ever win a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Younger Actress In a Drama Series.
The emotional scenes of her character’s demise, while surrounded by on-screen parents Nick (Joshua Morrow) and Sharon (Sharon Case), were so difficult to watch, even people in Grimes’ real life had trouble separating fact from fiction.
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“People were treating me like I was dying,” Grimes reflected. “In all fairness, that’s what it felt like to them. I’d been on the show for 10 years at that point. I’d grown up with these people.”
Trying to acclimatize to a regular adolescence without the limelight was a difficult task for Grimes, who had been performing since the age of 7.
“I was completely in disarray,” she admitted. “I had essentially a midlife crisis at 15. I really had to reckon with, ‘Do I want to do this? Did I just stumble into it? Am I any good at it?’”
During the period that Grimes considers “a very traumatic and chaotic year”, she tried to take advantage of her new freedom—with mixed results. She even sabotaged her trademark red hair after being inspired by an episode of The Ashlee Simpson Show.
“I realized I’d never dyed my hair in my life,” she remarked. “Not a good look. Dark hair, super pale, lots of freckles… doesn’t work.”
Nowadays, Grimes can shake her head with a smile, knowing that she does want to do this for a living. In fact, she’s since won her second Daytime Emmy Award by playing Cassie’s twin, Mariah, on the same CBS program.
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