NEED TO KNOW
\nTracey Bregman opened up on the Soapy podcast about playing the “mean girl” during her character Lauren Fenmore’s debut on The Young and the RestlessShe said she received “death threats” due to a plotline where her character bullied Beth Maitland’s Traci AbbottThe actress explained why she never asked producers to change the plot<\/p>\n
Sometimes playing the bad guy can get you into serious real world trouble.\n<\/p>\n
Tracey Bregman<\/a>, who has played Lauren Fenmore on The Young and the Restless<\/a> since 1983, opened up about playing a \u201cmean girl\u201d opposite Beth Maitland\u2019s Traci Abbott on the Tuesday, Aug. 26 episode of CBS\u2019 Soapy<\/a> podcast, hosted by fellow Y&R alum Greg Rikaart<\/a> and The Bold and the Beautiful<\/a>\u2019s Rebecca Budig<\/a>. Bregman, 62, was joined by Christian LeBlanc, who plays her on-screen husband, Michael Baldwin, on the series (Michael and Rikaart\u2019s Kevin are brothers).\n<\/p>\n Bregman, LeBlanc and Rikaart\u2019s Y&R characters all started out with villainous streaks before slowly becoming fan favorites, and Bregman said the path she followed as Lauren was initially a bumpy one. Budig, 53, asked if Bregman got \u201cblacklash\u201d during the years where Lauren bullied fan-favorite character Traci.\n<\/p>\n \u201cOh, yes. I did,\u201d Bregman said. \u201cAnd then having to be mean to Beth Maitland, I mean, come on.\u201d Maitland, 67, has played Traci since 1982.\n<\/p>\n Beth Maitland as Traci Abbott (left) and Tracey Bregman as Lauren Fenmore on ‘The Young and the Restless’ in 1984.<\/p>\n CBS via Getty<\/p>\n Rikaart, 48, then asked how Bregman would process the scripts when she saw how mean Lauren needed to be to Traci.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThat was very, very difficult because Beth is one of my best friends for 42 years,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I knew, because we were so close, how she was really feeling about a lot of things.\u201d<\/p>\n In one plotline, Lauren bullied Traci about being \u201ca little overweight.\u201d\n<\/p>\n