For Haiduk, who had recently been put on pause at Days of Our Lives in the roles of Kristen DiMera and Susan Banks, the invitation to return to Genoa City arrived at just the right moment. “I just finished my stuff on Days, and I was like, ‘Oh, gosh, what am I going to do now?’” she recalls. “And then, I got the text from Josh [Griffith, executive producer and head writer] and he’s like, ‘Are you available? Would you want to play Patty again?’ It couldn’t have been more perfect timing. I was very giddy and excited because I’ve been wanting to play Patty. It’s been a decade since I’ve been on the show, so I was really, really thrilled to be a part of it again.”
Having spent the past several years at Days — where she has been a fixture since 2018 — Haiduk admits she felt a few jitters before reporting for her first day back at Y&R. “I’m always nervous when I’m starting something new,” she explains. “I was like, ‘Can I do this?’ Even if I know everyone, it’s getting into the groove of how another set works. They’re a little more relaxed than at Days, which is just like, ‘Go, go, go.’ Here, you get a little bit more rehearsal time, and they’re not doing as many scripts in a week as they do on Days.”
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Fortunately, those nerves quickly faded once she stepped back on set. “It was like the first day of school,” she relays. “They asked, ‘Do you know where you’re going?’ And I said, ‘I do.’ It’s quieter now because The Bold and the Beautiful is not there, and ThePrice Is Right isn’t, either, so it’s just Young and Restless. But it was just like a big family again. It was wonderful getting to see Peter [Bergman, Jack Abbott], and getting to work with Peter again was just absolutely wonderful. I mean, I was like a kid in a candy store.”
In addition to reconnecting with familiar faces from Y&R, Haiduk was also thrilled to find several actors she knew from Salem now working in Genoa City, including Billy Flynn (Cane Ashby; Days’ Chad DiMera), Lucas Adams (Noah Newman; Days’ Tripp Dalton), and Tamara Braun (Sienna Bacall; Days’ Ava Vitali). “It was really, really cool,” she enthuses. “When I came in the first day, Billy was there, and Tamara was there, and Lucas was there, so it was just so weird for me. I walked in, and I’m like, ‘OK, this is a different place, but the same people.’ But it was really fun to see them. I was really, really happy.”
Stepping back into Patty’s complicated psyche proved easier than she expected. “The first day, it was a little like trying to find her again, but as soon as Peter and I ran lines together, she was right there again,” Haiduk reports. “I was like, ‘Oh, there you are, my little Patty cakes.’”
Still, viewers shouldn’t expect Patty to be exactly the same as before. “She has changed,” offers Haiduk. “Changed in the sense that she can be in society, but she still has that lust for Jack and will do anything to get him. So, that probably hasn’t changed. But she’s walking around Genoa City, and she’s very confident in who she is. She’s worked very hard to become the woman that she is today.”
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One thing, however, remains constant. “Patty just thinks she gets to be with Jack again,” notes Haiduk. “I can’t go into too much of the story, but she’s back in Genoa City, and I’m excited to see where it all goes.”
Looking back on her previous runs on Y&R from 2009-2016, Haiduk still marvels at everything she got to do, which included not only playing Patty and alternate personas Emily Peterson and Mary Jane Benson, but sharing scenes with an unusual costar. “I had Mr. Kitty, a taxidermy cat!” she muses. “I got to play such an array of characters, and I had a ball doing that. I remember working with Doug Davidson [Paul Williams, Patty’s brother], and I remember going, ‘Oh, my God, I don’t know where I’m going,’ and then, all of a sudden, you just kind of leap off the cliff as an actress and you find the characters. So, I’m looking forward to playing something a little bit new, but still something that I’ve done before. It’s like an old friend, I guess.”
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Of course, Haiduk hasn’t fully left Salem behind. Regarding her status on Days, she says, “They put my characters to rest sometimes, and I’m always sad because I love that show and my characters so much. When they did it in January, I was disappointed. But when this came up, it couldn’t have been more perfect to just roll into another character that I love very much.”
Even so, Haiduk says she will happily reprise those roles if the opportunity arises. “
Oh, of course,” she clarifies. “Look, I’m an actress. I love acting, so, yeah, absolutely, I would. I miss the characters when I’m not there. It’s like how I’ve wanted so much to be back on Y&R at some point in my life because I missed the people and I missed the character of Patty.”
Thanks to Days’ unique production schedule, viewers will be able to see Haiduk on the soap through the end of the year. “I hope the fans will watch double duty of Y&R and Days,” she shares. “They can watch Kristen and Susan, then come on over and watch a little Patty. I’m really excited for them to watch all of the characters.”
And with Patty’s reign of terror just kicking off, things are about to get very chaotic. “She’s going to wreak a lot of havoc with the love of her life, Jack, and with some of the other characters,” Haiduk teases. “She will make some new alliances and some new friends that won’t be a taxidermy cat.”
The Young and the Restless, Weekdays, CBS, Check local listings
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