Team Spirit

Y&R’s Greg Rikaart & Elizabeth Hendrickson Are Thrilled To Call Genoa City Home Again

- Devin Owens

Soap Opera Digest: First of all, how does it feel to be back together on Y&R?

Greg Rikaart: You go first, Lizzie.

Elizabeth Hendrickson: Oh, thanks, Greg! Greg and I always have a great time together. No matter how long it’s been, we never skip a beat and we just fall right back into place. It’s just always so refreshing. It always feels the same. It always feels like home, it feels comfortable, it just always feels right. This time back feels just like that all over again.

Rikaart: Yeah, I think because of the fact that we left together, it would have felt a little incomplete if we didn’t get to come back together. You can imagine how hard it must be to have to live sort of off the grid with fake identities, away from people that you know and love.

Digest: Before you were officially asked to come back, was there a point when you had an inkling it would happen?

Rikaart: I got invited to Melody’s [Thomas Scott, Nikki] 40th-anniversary celebration, and that was right after Josh [Griffith, head writer] and Tony [Morina, executive producer] had taken over. It was my first time back in the building in quite some time. It felt really great to be there and everyone seemed really happy to see me. People were asking me if I was coming back and I was saying no, that I was just there to celebrate Mel, but I sort of left feeling like it was in the air a little bit. Josh had been asking how my experience was going on DAYS [where Rikaart played Leo] and I let him know that I had wrapped. While nothing was official, it sort of felt like, I don’t know, that something was in the air. Maybe it was just me “Secret”-ing it because again, with Josh and Tony at the helm, I really wanted to go back.