When Tamara Braun was introduced to Young and Restless viewers earlier this month as Sienna Bacall and referenced her husband, Mitch Bacall, viewers speculated that Mitch was the role designated for soap vet Roger Howarth. Those suspicions were confirmed when the show released a video titled “Meet the Bacalls” teasing Howarth’s imminent debut. But in true soap fashion, there’s a twist — and it’s a doozy! On the Friday, October 31 episode, fans learned that Mitch is actually Matt Clark, Nick (Joshua Morrow) and Sharon’s (Sharon Case) back-from-the-dead tormentor. Howarth opened up exclusively to Digest about his return to the daytime scene and his juicy new role.
The Stars Align
Howarth, a 1994 Daytime Emmy-winner for his breakout role as One Life to Live’s Todd Manning, is also well-known to daytime fans for his long-running stint as Paul Ryan on As the World Turns (2003-10) and his trio of characters on General Hospital from 2012-2023 (first Todd, then Franco Baldwin, then Austin Gatlin-Holt). The actor first collaborated with Y&R’s Executive Producer/Head Writer Josh Griffith when Griffith was co-head writer at OLTL in the early 1990s and says, “I trust Josh completely.”
So, when he and Griffith first conversed about the possibility of Howarth coming to the show to play Mitch-but-really-Matt, the actor reports, “It was really flattering and so nice to be thought of. He told me that it’s a great part and that I’d be working with great people and both of those things turned out to be true. What’s not to be excited about?” he grins. “Matt Clark is an awesome character!”
Just how awesome became clearer to Howarth when he made his first trip to the Y&R studio, which was for a wardrobe fitting with the show’s costumer extraordinaire, Mandi Line. “Mandi is really, really talented and hard-working and dedicated and detail-oriented,” the actor praises. “She thought of it all, man. She made me feel like it was going to be easy to slip into the character because visually, so much of it had been taken care of. I mean, when you see the jewelry that he has on you kind of know who the guy is! And that’s really helpful for an actor.”
History Channel
Of his four major roles on daytime, two — ATWT’s Paul and GH’s Franco — have been recasts, so Howarth is no stranger to slipping into the shoes of a character who has a lot of on-screen history that he didn’t play. He familiarized himself with Matt’s backstory “with the guidance of the writers, who took some time and care in kind of educating me about where he’d been and what he’d been up to and how they wanted and needed for him to present within the larger picture of how everybody in Genoa City interacts,” Howarth explains, adding, “I think that in his time away from Genoa City, he had developed an entire life, and then it changed over the years into the vision of what he is now.”
For Howarth, that was another way in to understanding the character. “If a person is pretending to be another person, you kind of know everything about that person,” he reasons. “Like, if they are lying about who they are, what else are they lying about? Matt, on some level, really believes in the life that he has been living all these years as Mitch — and the great thing about that is that it kind of guaranteed that the current Matt Clark was going to be very similar to the way he had been written [previously].
“They’re honoring his history, but I think they want him to present in his current form,” continues Howarth. “Josh was really clear about what he needed from the storyline that includes Mitch and Sienna and Noah — it all got very spelled out for us. They were very mindful of letting everybody know what they wanted us to do, so, again, I felt really well-taken care of.”
Fans should expect Matt’s true colors to become obvious quite soon, as Howarth teases, “The ramp was short — Matt gets up to no good very, very quickly.”
Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid
Given the nature of the story, Howarth will be working closely with the veteran Genoa City stars who bring Sharon and Nick to life, Joshua Morrow and Sharon Case. When he arrived at Y&R, Howarth enthuses, “I was super-excited to get to meet Josh and Sharon and they’ve been wonderful. Lucas [Adams, who debuts next week as Noah Newman] is a really sweet kid. Everyone’s been super-sweet. I mean, if I were a dog, I’d be wagging my tail!”
But don’t expect to see those good vibes on display when the cameras start rolling. Howarth is no stranger to playing baddies on daytime, but Matt Clark might just be the baddest one yet. “I’m really thankful that I get to play a character with mischief and devious and villainous qualities,” he smiles. “It’s super-fun. It’s always been something I enjoy watching, something I enjoy being a part of, you know? Those characters are near and dear to me and it’s always the rule to find out why they’re being that way, and the answer is always something to do with loving something, or a need to be loved — I think all really good TV villainy is rooted in a deeper emotional need.”
The actor assures, “With this character, you get to see what supports his villainy, and in terms of his past, the villainy was turned up pretty high the last time Matt Clark was in town! Faking your own death to spite someone else,” as Matt did in an effort to frame Nick, “is not a small or insignificant thing! It’s a big, bold move.”
Bacall Me Maybe: Mitch is eager to keep his past as Matt Clark hidden from his wife, Tamara Braun’s Sienna.
And the passage of time hasn’t softened Matt one bit, to hear Howarth tell it. “He’s had a long time to kind of ruminate in that and stew and if anything, I think his maliciousness has gotten louder and deeper,” the actor warns. “Yeah — this is a true bad guy. I feel like I have some understanding of why he’s behaving the way he is, and that, to me, is part of the story that you’re going to have to tune in for and watch.”
Fans can expect Matt to try to keep his Mitch persona going as long as he can, even as Sharon suspected he was a highly unwelcome blast from her past from the moment she laid eyes on him. “It’s important for Matt for people to continue to think that he’s Mitch,” explains Howarth. “He’s built a life as Mitch. He values the life he has as Mitch. And it’s very disruptive to Mitch’s life that the Newmans seem to think that he’s another person and he does everything he can to convince them that what they’re seeing is not the truth!
“What I like about it,” Howarth continues, “is that there’s this kind of added layer of him being deceptive and manipulative and so committed to his deceptions and his manipulations that they become a level of truth in his own reality. I think he’s a little lost, and I find that to be a compelling character trait. He’s been telling the same lie for so long that he thinks it’s the truth, and I think that’s a beautifully human and broken thing to investigate through story.”
The actor is deeply appreciative of the splash news of his casting made among Y&R viewers and fans of his from other shows. “It makes me really happy,” declares Howarth. “I’m really touched by the support. The whole point of doing what we do is so an audience enjoys it. That’s what we’re all here for!” To the Y&R audience, he says, “Thanks for watching, tune in and I hope you enjoy it. It should be fun!”
