When Matt Cohen took the role of Detective Burrow on Young and Restless, he knew that he would be running into some familiar faces around the studio. But he was surprised to see former General Hospital co-star Roger Howarth, who had also recently joined the soap’s cast to play a recast Matt Clark, now going by the name of Mitch Bacall. During Cohen’s 2016-19 run as Dr. Griffin Munro on the ABC soap, he and Howarth — who was playing Franco Baldwin during that time — forged a close bond.
You’ve Got a Friend in Me
“Roger and I, we got to cross paths at General Hospital,” Cohen shared with Soap Opera Digest, “and for whatever reason, we’re just two guys that connected, kind of, emotionally, call it. And we didn’t get to spend a lot of time together, but we did work together a bit, and we chatted a lot on set. He was one of the people that reached out to me when I left there, and the way he reached out to me was really sweet. He was just a kind guy.”
Eventually, life got in the way, as it does, but the friends were pleasantly surprised to be able to reconnect at their new job. “So we kind of lost touch [during] the pandemic time like everybody else,” the actor explains. “And then here’s Y&R, and I get this opportunity, and I’m on my first day on set, and I’m walking through the hallways and I find him. And I couldn’t have felt more unbelievably happy and at home to see his face. I had no idea at that point, on that day, that our storylines would even cross. There’s so many characters, I had no idea.”
XJJohnson/jpistudios.com
But reading his scripts, Cohen discovered that his character, Detective Burrow, would actually be working undercover, pretending to be a dirty cop in Mitch’s pocket in order to investigate the club owner, meaning that the actors would be working closely together. “Lo and behold, here we are,” he happily declares. “We’re deep in it together. We’re in each other’s dressing rooms trying to challenge, like, how can we lift this material in another direction? How do we find another dynamic to it?”
Already having that personal bond gave the two performers an advantage when it came to establishing the characters and their connection to each other. “There’s a big-time comfort with him and I,” Cohen says. “Roger and I have a real comfort. We’ve done a lot of, call it, men’s spiritual talk behind the scenes together. So we have a real connection as two guys making it through the world. So when it comes to acting together, there’s a whole other piece there. There’s another part of it, and that’s really fun to offer to a show. You know, we really didn’t get that chance at GH.”
Old Friends and New
After moving from Port Charles to Genoa City, Cohen found himself in familiar company. He’s also working with Tamara Braun (Sienna) again, years after doing so on GH, where she played Dr. Kim Nero. Plus, former castmates Michelle Stafford (Phyllis; ex-Nina, GH) and Hayley Erin (Claire; ex-Kiki, GH) are also in the Y&R cast alongside another actor whom Cohen has known for quite some time.
“My very first friend that I kind of ever met in Hollywood, I met on the set of Boogeyman 2,” the actor shares. “His name was Michael Graziadei (Daniel, Y&R). We became the closest of closest friends. Him and I would live together, we’d surf together every single day, we produced our first movie together with the pennies that we had early in our career. So when I got the chance to come to Y&R and knew I’d be on his set, that was amazing.”
XJJohnson/jpistudios.com
Unfortunately, at this point in time, Cohen has only shared scenes with Howarth and Braun, not any of his other pals. “Of course I want to cross paths with them,” he says. “I don’t know where my story goes, and the same thing with theirs, but just knowing they’re around and getting to go watch them rehearse and give them hugs… I want to feel the good in people, and you can’t feel the good in people if you don’t see them. So, just going to work with their friends, even if you don’t work with them in the scenes, it’s just nice to be there with them.
“And you got to shout out,” he continues. “It’s not just the actors there. I mean, the producers and everybody that I’ve met, from wardrobe to hair and makeup, it’s a bunch of nice people, everybody looking out for each other. You want to go to work. It’s a fantastic experience.”
