Last Updated on March 23, 2018
An actor on daytime TV’s number one soap opera, The Young and the Restless has allegedly quit the show because he refused to kiss another man in a scene…at least, that’s the way his critics are spinning it.
Chris Engen, who portrayed Adam Newman, quit before his contract was up because he didn’t like the “dark direction”  his character was going in on recent episodes, according to various reports.
Gay groups, as you might expect, are furious over the actor’s actions and are attempting to label him as a homophobe. Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t. Maybe he just wasn’t comfortable with the idea. Or the other actor.
Fans of the show, and of Engen specifically, are applauding the actor for sticking to his guns. Many of them, pointing out that Engen himself is straight, say it was the right thing to do to stand up for his moral or ethical beliefs about homosexuality.
I find this the most laughable argument of all. He was an actor on a soap opera, for heaven’s sake: it’s not like he sought out work on a television program that happened to be any paragon of virtue.
As for characters taking “dark directions,” there aren’t many who manage to stay on a show for a long time without taking some level of a evil turn or two. And the particular dark direction his character was headed in was getting his storyline a front-burner status.  Because, well, it’s a soap opera!
Gay storylines aren’t that particularly new to daytime soaps, although there have been very few over the years since the first gay character, a lesbian, was introduced in 1982 on All My Children.  It would be another six years before the first gay male character was introduced on As the World Turns.  Since then, there have been gay characters on One Life to Live, General Hospital and the now-defunct Passions.  Even Guiding Light, which is set to go dark in September, is featuring a storyline between two women that broke up a marriage just before it was to happen.
It’s a curious double standard that anyone who portrays a gay character must automatically be assumed to be gay in real life.  Some soap opera characters are murderers, but I doubt many working actors are getting away with having killed anyone.
Actor Michael Muhney, formerly of Veronica Mars, was quickly recast and will take over the role in late June. (‘Y&R’ tapes roughly one month ahead of schedule.) You can see photos of both actors, if you care, at the link above.
As for Engen, whatever his real reasons for leaving his role so abruptly, in this economy and in an industry where you don’t just walk out on a contract before it’s up, he may have a rocky road ahead.
