‘Y&R’ Alum Daniel Goddard on His Return to Daytime—and Why He Was Afraid to Come Back (EXCLUSIVE)
The soap hunk opens up about his fear of failing, aging and the mysterious Dalton, his new ‘GH’ role
With the Metro Court Pool open for summer and Emma, the WSB, and Anna eying Professor Henry Dalton with suspicion, General Hospital newcomer Daniel Goddard considers just how villainous his character might be. The soap vet who played Cane Ashby on The Young and the Restless for over a decade also gets candid about why he was nervous about returning to daytime TV and how his new gig at General Hospital compares.
Plus, as Goddard prepares to turn 54 in August, the soap opera hunk who was also the star of the TV series BeastMaster reflects on how his perspectives on gratitude, life and body image have shifted with age.
Why Daniel Goddard feared returning to soaps
During his run as The Young and the Restless’ Cane Ashby and evil twin Caleb Atkinson, Daniel Goddard was a fan favorite. In fact, when the show killed off his character in 2011, viewers got so riled up that they paid an airplane to circle the studio flying a banner calling for his return—and it worked, keeping him on the soap until 2019!
When the Aussie-American actor was invited to read for the role of Jack Brennan on General Hospital earlier this year, however, he was focused on business ventures like Under the In, his branding and digital marketing company, and Dysko, the networking app he’s currently rebuilding with his best pal and former The Young and the Restless costar Bryton James.
Having stepped away from acting, it took a beat for Goddard to get on board with the idea of auditioning.
“I had a lot of hesitation because I had a lot of fear,” he admits. “Fear of not being good, of failing, of letting down a fanbase. And in a bizarre way, it felt like those 12 years or so on Y&R amounted to nothing, because I was back to auditioning.
“But the goal is to let that kind of fear empower you to be the best version of yourself you can be—and then once you’ve gotten to a place where you don’t have that fear of failure, you can go have fun,” adds Goddard, who did indeed have a blast auditioning. “When I left, I thought, ‘Geez, I missed that!’ Because I hadn’t auditioned in four years. I had no intention of going back to acting, but it was a moment of awakening for me.”
Daniel Goddard reveals how he got the ‘GH’ role of Dalton
As viewers know, that role ultimately went to daytime vet Chris McKenna; however, a few weeks later, Goddard received another call. General Hospital executive producer Frank Valentini wanted him to play the mysterious and seemingly nefarious Professor Dalton.
“I said, ‘Wait, wait, you mean I’ve got another audition for it?’” he recalls. “But no, it was an offer. I couldn’t believe it. I’ve never got an offer for anything! I’ve had to fight an uphill battle for every acting role I’ve ever gotten.”
Goddard, who broke into acting via the Australian soap Home and Away and is a firm believer in predestination, traces his success back to one crushing personal blow.
“I was 19 and I had multiple groups of friends, but my core group of friends from high school had a falling out, which meant that I ended up not going out with them on Friday and Saturday nights,” he recounts. “Instead, I got a job working in a club on weekends and that led me to the next fork in the road, which led me to the next…
“If I hadn’t had that fallout, I wouldn’t be where I am now. I wouldn’t have met my wife, Rachael. I wouldn’t have my boys (Ford, 19, and Sebastian, 16). Everything happens for a reason.”
Daniel Goddard on how his perspectives have changed in his 50s
Having now been in the business for over three decades and spent more than one of those on The Young and the Restless, the 53-year-old reveals he’s returned to daytime with a new mindset.
“If you’re not grateful for something, you’ll lose it,” he maintains. “But when you’re younger, you always feel like there needs to be more. ‘I got this job, but I want more.’ It’s like sitting down at a nice restaurant and the appetizer comes out, but you think, ‘Well, dessert is going to be tasty. I can’t wait to have dessert.’
“Now, I am more in the mindset of staying in the moment—of enjoying that beautiful appetizer and looking at what’s around me,” he says. “I’ve reached a place in my life where I have gratitude, and I feel blessed. I’ve also allowed myself now to realize that change, flux, and uncertainty are a great thing, because with that discomfort comes new beginnings.”
With General Hospital, his latest “new beginning,” he says it also feels a bit like a do-over.
“It’s like one of those time travel movies where you get to go back and do it again,” he explains. “I clearly remember driving to Y&R on my very first day, almost running out of gas, and shooting my first scene with Adrienne Franz (who played Amber). Going to GH on my very first day was cosmic in the sense that I felt like I was doing it all over again, but now I get to do it differently—because I was a different person back then.”
The soap hunk talks body image in midlife
On a superficial note, Goddard—who spent his entire run on BeastMaster shirtless—was more than ready to take it off for this week’s Metro Court Pool scenes on General Hospital. The soap opera hottie also isn’t past sharing the occasional shirtless shot on Instagram, as seen above, but he reveals his relationship with his body has also shifted with age.
“I broke my elbow in 2015 on the set of Y&R, and my arm’s never been the same,” he says. “So I can’t train the way I used to—but what’s interesting is, I wouldn’t want to, anyway. When you’re young, there’s a lot of, ‘I’m a man. I want to look strong and powerful!’ You attribute your masculinity to your physique, and then you realize it doesn’t have to be that way.
“I’m not as obsessed about the physical side and once I got my mind out of that, I was able to place more brain power in other areas,” he adds.
Daniel Goddard compares working at ‘GH’ to his time on ‘Y&R’
Now focusing his brain power on the General Hospital drama, Goddard’s experience of getting to know his character is an interesting one.
“At Y&R, you get the whole script, so you can read what other people are saying about you,” he explains. “At GH, you only get the pages you’re in. So this week on the show, Brennan meets with Anna Devane to discuss Dalton and Jason Morgan talks to someone about him—and I didn’t have any idea that was happening!
“At Y&R, I was also always going into the writers’ room to read scripts four weeks ahead, so I’d know where the character was going,” he adds. “I wanted to control the process, but in real life, you wouldn’t know who is talking about you behind your back or what was coming. It’s taught me to let go. Now, I’m trusting the process and allowing it to play out.”
It helps that he’s not the only one who’s made the jump between General Hospital and The Young and the Restless.
“I ran into Steve Burton on my first day, and Genie Francis and Tristan Rogers are my Y&R character’s biological parents,” he says of the General Hospital icons who play Jason, Laura, and Scorpio. “There’s all these deep connections that make it feel eerily comfortable, but at the same time eerily surreal.
“I even read for the Patrick Drake character back in 2005,” he adds. “Jason Thompson, who now plays Y&R’s Billy, got it, but the fact I read for GH before I even read for Y&R… it feels like everything’s coming full circle.”
What makes a great soap villain? Goddard weighs in
Since Henry Dalton sauntered into Port Charles, we’ve mostly learned about him from others—which leaves us wondering if General Hospital’s new professor is as shady as the WSB, Emma, and Anna believe.
Goddard isn’t sure himself, but with Dalton now tied to Sidwell and seemingly interested in young Emma, the actor tells Woman’s World he hopes there’s more to this story.
“I think having a character that can be villainous is great… as long as he’s not evil,” Goddard says. “Victor Newman and Sonny Corinthos are great villains, because they’ll do horrific things to people, but at their cores, family comes first. You know who they are and why they are the way they are, and that’s the anchor we can cling to in the turbulent seas of betrayal and all the different things that can happen, storyline-wise.
“So I like the villainous idea, and I also like the idea that we’re going to start to discover more about Dalton, his past, and how he ended up who he is,” he concludes. “I think I’ve played every soap opera trope there is, at this point, so I’m just enjoying the ride and being at General Hospital.”
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