Billy Flynn has officially been revealed as Aristotle Dumas — and Cane Ashby — on the Young and the Restless.
“Aristotle Dumas is my version — or Cane’s version — of The Great Gatsby with Lily being Daisy,” Flynn, 40, exclusively told Us Weekly. “In my mind, it was about a guy who felt an incredible amount of guilt and shame in his life and wanted to create a new version of himself that would be worthy of the woman that he loves and the people that know him from Genoa City.”
Cane was last seen on Y&R in 2019 and portrayed by Daniel Goddard at the time.
“He’s still somebody who is trying to figure out who he is,” Flynn continues. “He’s vulnerable, and he’s in love with one woman. There’s aspects of him that are broken, and he’s doing his best to put all those things together to be this version of himself that would make these people proud.”
Flynn reiterates that a major motivation for Cane is his love for ex-wife Lily (Christel Khalil).
“It’s the reason Gatsby threw all these parties — to reveal this new version, to show off [and he’s thinking], ‘Can I throw this elaborate party in hopes that Lily’s gonna show up?’” he explains.
Following the big reveal on the Friday, June 20, episode of the soap, Flynn says it’s time for “the work” to begin.
“I think there’s an idea of how Cane thinks this is all going to go, and then there’s how it goes,” he tells Us. “This was always even a question that I had, like, ‘What did he think people were going to think?’ Because people are going to know who it is right away. So, some [characters might be] overwhelmed or underwhelmed. It’s going to be like, ‘Cane? What?’ And then there’s other people, they’re going to be like, ‘Damn, OK Cane.’ Because this version of himself that he created — Aristotle Dumas, the alias — was somebody that everyone wanted to be a part of.”
Flynn points out “the history” that is involved with Cane’s character. “He still has all these carrots that he can dangle but [now the question is], ‘Is there resentment you have toward me worth you not getting what you want?’ He has these bargaining chips,” he says.
Flynn hasn’t been shy about his nerves to join Y&R after a decade on Days of Our Lives. He acknowledges it’s “very scary” take on a “rebrand of a character” — especially when a beloved couple, Cane and Lily, is involved.
“People are going to have their opinions about that. There’s nothing I can do or control about that. I was hired to play a part, so I got to do that the best that I can, and part of that is that love story and their history. I did the work. I did as much preparation as I could, and that’s about 10 percent of what you can do. The other 90 percent is whether or not you have ‘it’ with the person,” he says before confirming the chemistry with Khalil is “great.”
He adds, “After that very first scene, I was like, ‘This thing is going to really work.’”
The Young and the Restless airs on CBS weekdays.