For years Victoria Rowell entertained audiences around the world as Drucilla Winters on The Young and the Restless, a role she played from 1990 to 2007. Now the Daytime Emmy nominee is reflecting on her time on the CBS soap and sharing the surprising story of how she first joined the show.<\/p>\n
In a recent interview <\/a>on Alan Locher\u2019s popular YouTube series, The Locher Room, where the former soap publicist interviews daytime stars. Rowell opened up about her early days in daytime. When asked if she had to audition for the part of Drucilla, she confirmed, \u201cI did.\u201d<\/p>\n As it turns out, Rowell wasn\u2019t even in L.A. to audition for The Young and the Restless. She had flown out to test for a new ABC primetime series. \u201cI was flown to Los Angeles by ABC to test for a series,\u201d she recalled. \u201cI tested. Then they wanted to retest me, and I didn’t get the part.\u201d<\/p>\n That was when everything changed. \u201cI was packing to go back to New York,\u201d Rowell said. \u201cI get a call from my agent Harry Abrams. He says, \u2018Vicki, before you get on the plane, I want you to audition for a soap.\u2019\u201d Abrams explained that the show, then the Number 1 soap in the country, was holding callbacks \u201cHe told me, \u2018You have nothing to lose.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Rowell was nearly out the door, literally, \u201cI also didn’t have any more clean clothes,\u201d she laughed. \u201cI went into that audition looking completely goth. I went in with black tights and my black wool striped shorts. I was kind of New York goth and black shirt. I had a black tam on with a vintage black tam with a copper emblem and my big hair and black flat shoes. I was getting on the plane. It was whatever was at the bottom of the suitcase.\u201d<\/p>\n As soon as she arrived, Rowell admitted she felt completely out of place. \u201cI walked into that audition room and everyone was all done up and looking fabulous and it was filled,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n Eventually it was her turn. \u201cI went into this beautiful office and behind the desk was this arctic eyed man. really elegant sitting behind a desk and that was William J. Bell.\u201d Rowell said of The Young and the Restless creator. \u201cIt was just Bill Bell and me. I walked in, he read the lines, I replied to them. I had nothing to lose. I had a cold read because I got the material and I had to go in and do it.\u201d The actress channeled the emotions she had for the day into her work, sharing, \u201cI also used my disappointment in not getting the series that I’d come out to get, in the scene which required some frustration and upset.\u201d<\/p>\n The emotional cold read changed her life. \u201cMy agent got a call that day and said I got the part,\u201d she said. \u201cBill had the power to pick. So, it was great,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Rowell spoke fondly of her relationship with Bell. \u201cHe was such an ally, such a champion,\u201d she shared. \u201cWe just gravitated towards each other. That’s someone that really let me fly. He trusted what I did with his words. We had an open door policy, if I had ideas not to hesitate to share them. I just loved him. I love him to this day. And he didn’t hold back saying out loud how much he loved me. And you know like in any family that can draw some attention you don’t want. So, but I just I just loved him and he really made a mark on my life and you know how I would take care of my children and gave me a security I couldn’t have imagined having come out of foster care.\u201d<\/p>\n The Young and the Restless airs weekdays on CBS and streams weeknights on Paramount+.<\/p>\n This story was originally reported by Parade<\/a> on Oct 25, 2025, where it first appeared in the TV<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For years Victoria Rowell entertained audiences around the world as Drucilla Winters on The Young and the Restless,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[74567,156,74569,111,139,69,74568,437,74566,74570],"class_list":{"0":"post-102098","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-drucilla-winters","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-harry-abrams","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-the-young-and-the-restless","15":"tag-tv","16":"tag-victoria-rowell","17":"tag-william-j-bell"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}