Background
Daniel Romalotti and Lily Winters were written as star-crossed young loves in a Romeo and Juliet style storyline. Both her parents, Neil Winters and Drucilla Winters, and his mother, Phyllis Summers, tried to keep them apart. This was partly due to Drucilla and Phyllis's animosity towards each other. They were put up against further obstacles with Daniel being wrongly accused of driving under the influence and killing Cassie Newman. His imminent arrest sent Daniel and Lily on the run. They traveled from the Young and the Restless setting, Genoa City, Wisconsin, to Los Angeles, California. For the story, the show went on a location shoot to the beaches of Malibu. The actors on the shoot were Daniel and Lily's portrayers, Michael Graziadei and Christel Khalil, respectively, as well as Kristoff St. John (Neil), Michelle Stafford (Phyllis), and Joshua Morrow (Nick, Cassie's father). Graziadei felt that going on location added to the scenes in the story. "t's just so much more involved," he said. "You're actually out there."
Originally, the Daniel character was introduced as a bad boy. His relationship with Lily was used as a way to show a different side of the character. In that way, the Lily character was said to have "tamed" him.
The romance was put on hold when Khalil chose to exit the role of Lily in late-2005. In the storyline, Lily's parents sent her to boarding school in an effort to keep her and Daniel apart. After the actress's departure, the series continued Lily and Daniel's interactions through a letter and communication over the internet. The website, SoapCity displayed the letter and the emails. The character's email addresses reflected the continued Romeo and Juliet theme by featuring the names of those Shakespearean characters as Lily became Ibejuliet and Daniel took on the name Iberomeo. Two months after Khalil's departure, the Young and the Restless attempted to convince the actress to come back to the role. Those attempts failed. The show's then head writer and executive producer John F. Smith planned to recast the role and promised to "bring an entirely new level" to Daniel and Lily's story. Davetta Sherwood was hired as the Lily recast.
Sherwood expressed unconcern in taking the place of an actress who took part in creating the popular Daniel and Lily romance. "It's okay, because she wanted to leave," she said, "she was ready to move on, which is always a good thing. I haven't gotten any Lily versus Lily, or Christel verses Davetta mail." Daniel and Lily's popularity continued with Sherwood in the role. The way Sherwood portrayed the character was with more feistiness, though the character was never written as timid. Sherwood's take on the part brought on comparison's to the character's mother, Drucilla. That new "fire" was brought into the Daniel and Lily relationship. "Dru can be a little dramatic," Sherwood said. "And I think sometimes when Lily is facing issue with Daniel, she's not going to remain calm. She's going to do what she saw her mother do." The actress praised the couple's story for not focusing on the differing races of the characters.
In September 2006, Sherwood was replaced in the role by Khalil. Former Young and the Restless executive producer and head writer Lynn Marie Latham said, "Davetta did a fine job, but shows generally prefer to have original players back when they can get them." Upon her return Khalil was surprised by the advancement of Daniel and Lily's story and with the Lily character as a whole, particularly the new development of the characters being married.
An obstacle written into the couple's story was Daniel's addiction to Internet pornography. "My initial conflict was that Daniel has had so many problems with his wife that I couldn't figure out why he'd be doing this," Graziadei said. The actor worried that his character might be seen as "lecherous and creepy". Viewers instead sympathized with the character. This addiction and the lies surrounding it ended the Daniel and Lily romance.
Lily next moved on to a controversial pairing with Cane Ashby, disappointing Daniel and Lily fans. "I think with Daniel it was kind of a first love thing," Khalil said. "Daniel will always be in her heart, but with Cane, it's a more mature love." She asserted that Lily and Cane were true loves.
Read more about this topic: Daniel Romalotti And Lily Winters
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