‘The Young and the Restless’ Legend Reveals ‘Dark Days’ With Beloved Co-Star originally appeared on Parade.
The Young and the Restless stars Peter Bergman (Jack) and Eric Braeden (Victor) have played on-screen rivals for decades. Victor and Jack will never be friends, even though they have occasionally called a truce.
While Braeden and Bergman have a friendship off-screen, there was a time when life imitated art for the two actors: they didn’t always get along, especially when Bergman first stepped into the role of Jack, taking over for Terry Lester.
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During an interview with Questions for Cancer Research’s YouTube channel, he recalled a time when he and Braeden were far from friends.
“We did not like each other at the beginning. We did not like each other, and we found our way to a friendship and a respect for each other that I am also very proud of. But we had some very dark days on this show, he and I, and I’m very proud of the fact that we found our way past that and now probably have the oldest rivalry in television,” he expressed.
Bergman explained that when he first came on the show, he would constantly be in Jack mode even when he wasn’t filming.
“I kind of just stayed in character in my first year there, just trying to… when I am there and I got that suit on, I am Jack, and I tried to build a certain pomposity, a certain swagger. And Eric, who’d been there for some time, probably looked over and said, ‘Who does this guy think he is?’” the actor dished.
Their acting styles also didn’t help them in the beginning on the CBS soap, either. They have very different processes for approaching their work.
“We’ve had to learn how to work with each other. So all this is to say, things were strained at the beginning, and it made this rivalry so rich, so powerful, so easy to play,” Bergman shared.
The Victor and Jack rivalry is one for the books, and as Bergman said, there is no other one like it on TV. Y&R fans know the two enemies are back in the thick of it as Victor plans to destroy Jack because of how he helped Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) get sober.
Luckily for fans, this feud isn’t going to be squashed anytime soon because it’s as good today as it was in the ‘80s.
The Young and the Restless airs weekdays on CBS.
‘The Young and the Restless’ Legend Reveals ‘Dark Days’ With Beloved Co-Star first appeared on Parade on Aug 6, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Aug 6, 2025, where it first appeared.
