Jordi Vilasuso Opens up About the Challenges of Playing Rey on THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS (EXCLUSIVE)
It’s been about six months since Jordi Vilasuso snagged the role of Rey Rosales on THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS, but he still can’t stop smiling. “I’m over the moon to be on this show,” he admitted to Soaps In Depth. “It’s been very exciting. Careerwise, this is the first time I’ve played a cop on a soap. I feel Rey has this heroic quality to him. He has a very strong moral compass and an integrity that I try to live by in my own life. But he’s human, too, and there are going to be times when he falls down as he navigates obstacles and challenges.”
Of course, there have been no shortage of those for the detective! Since hitting the scene, he’s investigated J.T.’s disappearance/murder, which has had him butting heads with Genoa City’s most powerful denizens, not to mention battling his attraction to Sharon. Adding to the drama has been the arrival of his estranged wife and his complicated relationship with his siblings. “Rey has a lot of difficulties, but… if he didn’t have anything to deal with, then you are going to go along with nothing but that heroic quality!” laughed Vilasuso. “And that would be boring!”
The Rosales siblings are just as tight as the actors playing them! (Photo Credit: Howard Wise/jpistudios.com)
Even though Rey came to town after Arturo and Lola, Vilasuso said that he is aware of how important it is to ground characters with a family, especially in daytime. “I can’t even tell you how appreciative I am that Rey has a family and that it’s a Hispanic family!” he declared, clearly delighted. “With everything going on in society today, where there’s a push to be all-inclusive and show off different colors in the American culture, it’s truly an experience that I will never take for granted! Rey is a paternal brother, really, because he raised his siblings after their father left,” he continues. “One of the reasons he came to Genoa City is because he wants to look after them, be close to them. In a lot of ways, that’s true to Cuban-American families. They tend to be pretty tight- knit. It’s nice to be able to show that!”
It’s also nice for viewers to be able to relate to a clan that doesn’t have a private jet waiting to whisk them to Paris. “That’s kudos to [former executive producer/headwriter] Mal Young, because it was very important to him to highlight that [working-class] slice of life,” the actor revealed. “Rey is living above the coffee shop with his wife, trying to make it work instead of living in one of the mansions in Genoa City. Although all the rich people in town seem to live together! There is only so much studio space at CBS!”
Rey has clashed with Genoa City’s upper crust on more than one occasion! (Photo Credit: XJJohnson/jpistudios.com)
Where Rey lives isn’t as important to Vilasuso as how he lives. And in that regard, the Miami-born actor hopes his alter ego will be up to his earlobes in the messier side of Genoa City life, including taking a hard tumble into an emotional abyss! “Rey has fallen before when the affair between Arturo and Mia happened. He will always crawl out of the hole and return to the place he is now — because that’s who he is,” he suggests. “But I think it would be very interesting watching how he deals with that fall!”
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