Matt Cohen’s new Y&R role as Detective Burrow is anything but angelic — and the actor hints that the drama is only just beginning.
In October, General Hospital alum Matt Cohen made his big debut on The Young and the Restless, where he plays the shady and mysterious Detective Burrow. So far, viewers have seen the cop take orders from Mitch/Matt Clark, and his presence at the hospital raised red flags for Nick and Sharon as they looked after their then comatose son, Noah. Burrow is a piece of the puzzle that the exes don’t understand yet.
They are too distracted by the fact that their devious enemy, Matt Clark, is back. But there’s a reason why a police detective carries out a club owner’s bidding, and it’s not for fun, and it doesn’t seem like it’s just for money. Cohen recently talked to Soap Hub about his return to the daytime arena.
Key Takeaways
- Dark Detective: Matt Cohen returns to daytime as Y&R’s shady Detective Burrow — a far cry from his General Hospital days as Dr. Griffin Munro.
- Drama Ahead: Cohen teases chaos, complicated alliances, and moral gray zones as Burrow’s motives unfold.
- Full-Circle Moment: Despite a real-life ankle injury, Cohen calls his Y&R role a “homecoming” and credits soaps for sharpening his craft.
Welcome, Matt
“I am here to deliver the drama,” Cohen says about Detective Burrow, who, unlike his GH character, Griffin Munro, has a darker, shadier vibe. “Some would call him a good guy, and some would not call him a good guy. That is to be determined and left up to the audience. But he is into some stuff, and you’re going to see it unfold. He is making choices that might not be the best choices for him or the people around him. But he’s got a reason for making them.”
The show is taking a slow-burn approach to peeling back the layers of his character. However, the Entertainment Tonight and Supernatural alum promises there’s much more to come. “Stay tuned because it’s going to get chaotic for Burrow. He’s going to get all up in the mix of it.”
Detective Burrow isn’t the sole reason why Cohen is happy to be back on soaps. “It’s been a homecoming that I didn’t know how bad I needed,” he explains. And he has come to realize that soaps have made him a better actor. “I wish I did soaps earlier in my career because you really have to take advantage of your opportunities to study your material, make your decision, commit to the decision with complete conviction, move on, and let go.”
Playing Through the Pain
Cohen appreciates the fact that this second daytime experience has been so welcoming from the cast to the crew, even though he had to play through the pain of a busted ankle on his very first day of taping. He injured it while playing with his son. “You know what it did for me? It made my character have a foundation. I kind of made the pain of my legs fit into my storyline.”
Cohen teases that the relationship between Burrow and Roger Howarth’s Mitch/Matt Clark is “a complicated one.” Playing the cop “gives me the opportunity to be naughty in a world where all I want to do is be nice. When you get to play characters that challenge your true beliefs, you really get to examine humanity a little bit through the eyes of that character.”
Friends — Old and New
Howarth and Tamara Braun (Sienna) are just two of the Y&R cast members whom Cohen counted as friends before he ever stepped onto the Y&R set. “Roger and myself, and Tamara have…we’ve done stuff together previously. There is a connection Roger and I have, a deep, deep connection, off set by just having conversations with one another.
“Tamara is a very, very vulnerable, available person,” Cohen continues. “So she right away can connect with anybody.” Years ago, Cohen’s two worlds collided when he introduced his Supernatural friend, Adam Fergus (SPN’s Mick), to his friend and onscreen love interest, Hayley Erin (Claire, Y&R, Kiki, GH), once upon a time. “Now they have children together. It’s kind of one of the most amazing things I’ve ever been part of in my life. I love those two to the moon.”
“My very first real friend in Hollywood — Michael Graziadei (Daniel). We worked on Boogeyman 2 together, and then we produced our very first film together, and played best friends in that movie.”
Additionally, Cohen is enjoying working with new costars Joshua Morrow (Nick) and Sharon Case (Sharon). “Josh and I have so many things in common. Being dads – aging dads. The first thing we talked about was, ‘Oh, my ankle hurts.’ ‘My arm hurts.’ It’s nice to have a connection with a person seconds before you start a scene. Both Josh and Sharon — they’re not here to judge what I’m doing. They’re here to try to uplift everything that I’m doing, and therefore I want to uplift everything they’re doing.”
Being Proactive
Away from Y&R, Cohen is taking a proactive approach with his career. He’s really excited about a movie that he stars in and directs called Exes. The “wild action comedy should be rolling out first quarter worldwide for everybody to see,” Cohen excitedly reveals. The movie features a few of his Supernatural alums, including Brianna Buckmaster (SPN’s Donna), Mark Shepherd (SPN’s Crowley), Ruth Connell (SPN’s Rowena), and Felicia Day (SPN’s Charlie). Ricky Whittle, who has starred in shows like The 100 and American Gods, also appears.
“When I walked away from [soaps], it was to make sure I could do some other things…direct and write and produce. And I did those things. Y&R came up at such a unique time in my life, and I was like, ‘Is this somebody telling me what I always wanted to hear?’ Soaps are the most welcoming in Hollywood, and at 40 years old, you want to feel like you’re welcome every day when you go to work.”
