Michael Muhney of "The Young and the Restless" on Playing Heteroflexible, Machiavellian and More!

AE: You described Adam as Machiavellian, and I think is very true, but the way he immediately jumped in the shower, and then called up his girlfriend to have sex, he's not just an utterly ruthless character able to do what he has to do and disconnect from his feelings. It seemed like sleeping with Rafe had a kind of emotional impact on him, on his self image.
MM: Right. Well, the way that I played this, and I guess if done or interpreted by someone else it could have been done differently, but the way that I wanted to bring a truth to it, he did something that he felt was necessary, but upon doing it, and several other things, Adam is finding after he's done it, he says to himself, perhaps he could have gone about that in a different way.

He questions himself about why he does the things he does. In that moment, there was a tiny, microcosmic coming out of the closet moment. In doing that I think he was mixed with a lot of emotions, and almost needed to remind himself of who he is, or trying to remind himself if who he's trying to be.

I think perhaps, you could just chalk up the shower to him being well-groomed? I don't think it was on such a grandiose scale as Jim Carey in Ace Ventura when they're playing The Crying Game and he's in the shower. [laughs] I think it was more that he's constantly trying to cleanse himself of the lies he's dishing out. In a way, this was a literal and figurative way of cleansing himself of a lie he'd just thrown out there.

AE: Now, I hadn't seen it this way, but you said something that made me wonder if you might see if differently: Is Adam sort of curious about this experience, or was this just something he did just because he needed to do it to further his schemes?
MM: I think primarily what makes him tick is self-preservation, so yes, first and foremost, the initial reasoning for doing anything is "How am I going to get out of this scot-free?" It's like act now, think about it later. He doesn't put his emotions first, he puts his motives first.

However, upon doing something like that, I feel as though wouldn't anybody question yourself? Even if the answer to yourself is, "No. No I'm not," aren't you going to at least question it?

Einstein said, "There's no such thing as a stupid question, only stupid answers." He can ask any question he wants, and question that moment as deeply as he might want, and wonder why he did that and why he followed through all the way. Depending on how he can come up with an answer, that's how he's going to be able to handle that situation and digest it and move forward.

I think it would be a natural process to question a situation like that, questioning your sexuality, questioning just how detestable and despicable of a person are you for trying to fool other people into thinking you're someone that you're not. I think if you're not a sociopath, you're gonna question things.

E: Do you and Yani get to discuss the scenes before hand, or have any rehearsal, and what did you talk about if you did?
MM: Well, I told him I wanted to make out in his dressing room for a little while just to get all warmed up. [laughing] He didn't know me very well at first, so I had explain that it was just an attempt at humor.

What I like about Yani is that he was very open to it. In this moment, he has to be the puppy dog that is being seduced. I say puppy dog, but he's going to be this person who is vulnerable and he's going to be more honest in that moment then of course Adam is being. The seducer is the aggressor and the alpha.

I told him physically, "There might be certain things I want to do, or if I want to approach you a certain way, are you comfortable with whatever it is I might throw your way." He was completely wide open, which made for a great rehearsal process in the dressing room where we just kind of running through lines and feeling it out, walking it out the scenes leading up to it so there would be chemistry there leading up to the moment.

Then when we finally started, I think we were at a good full speed. I feel we put our best foot forward. I'm a perfectionist, so I'd like to take twenty-five takes of anything, but the take that we took, I was very pleased with.