Y&R stars make short film with show's writers

Writers from The Young and the Restless recruited Christian LeBlanc (Michael Baldwin), Cait Fairbanks (Tessa Porter), Tyler Johnson (Theo Vanderway), and Zach Tinker (Fenmore Baldwin) for a short comedy film called Across the Room.

The cast and crew of The Young and the Restless have so much fun bringing the magic of Genoa City alive each day that several of the show's cast members decided to keep the talent-momentum going and create a short film.

Called Across the Room, the comedy short was written by Y&R writer/script editor Matt Clifford, directed by Y&R associate head writer Mellinda Hensley, and stars Y&R actors Christian LeBlanc (Michael Baldwin), Cait Fairbanks (Tessa Porter), Tyler Johnson (Theo Vanderway), and Zach Tinker (Fenmore Baldwin), along with actress Karisa Tate.

Writes Hensley about the creation of Across the Room, "A few months ago, my fantastic writing partner had an idea, one I completely fell in love with. A few weeks later, he finished the script, and I immediately jumped at the chance to make it. And last night, we did."

Hensley shares that it took 47 takes to film twelve pages -- which they were able to do at Los Angeles restaurant Maggiano's in just four hours, thanks to extremely talented, giving people and lots of wine.

"Thank you to everyone who came out and worked tirelessly on making #AcrossTheRoom happen," she writes. "From our DP to sound to talented cast to the incredible staff at Maggiano's, you all helped make this shoot so much fun and pretty damn beautiful."

Shortly after sharing news of the film and the above behind-the-scenes shot, Hensley was thrilled to announce that she received some stills from the short film that she promptly added to her Instagram page.

"Woke up to some absolutely gorgeous stills in my inbox -- I can't get over this absolutely stunning lighting," she writes. "I mean, it also helped that our entire cast are total knockouts!"

Mellinda Hensley has been with CBS since 2016, when she signed on to be a production assistant in the writer's room at NCIS: New Orleans. She became a writer's assistant at Y&R that same year and was bumped up into the role of Y&R associate head writer in January of 2019.

Matt Clifford worked on shows like E-Ring and The Big Bang Theory before joining Y&R as a script and story coordinator in 2015. He now works on the show as a writer/script editor.

Keep checking back to Soap Central for updates on Across the Room as they come.

What do you think about some of the cast and crew of Y&R coming together to shoot a short film? Judging by the cast and the filming location, what do you suppose is the storyline for Across the Room? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.