Young and Restless’s Tamara Braun On Sienna’s Drama With Noah, Sharon and Matt: ‘She’s Not Safe’ (Excl)

Sienna Bacall’s life has been subject to an onslaught of drama since actress Tamara Braun made her Young and Restless debut in October. Revealed to be in the throes of an illicit affair with a younger man, Noah Newman (Lucas Adams), Sienna is also reeling from the discovery that her husband, Mitch Bacall, is actually Matt Clark (Roger Howarth), the serial rapist and master criminal who tormented Noah’s parents back in the day — and oh yeah, she barely managed to escape to safety when her hubby locked her and Noah up in a storage room and threatened to have Sienna shot if Noah didn’t take fentanyl! Now, Matt is on the loose and presumably still bent on seeking revenge, not only against her, but against the entire Newman family — whose patriarch, Victor (Eric Braeden), just drained him of all of his assets, which means that Sienna is penniless, too. Her back up against the wall, Sienna somewhat reluctantly agreed to accompany Noah from Los Angeles to Genoa City, where the welcome she’s received hasn’t been universally warm. Against the backdrop of all this chaos, Braun chatted about all things Sienna with Soap Opera Digest.

Trading Places

Sienna clearly had reservations about leaving L.A. for Genoa City, but she did ultimately sign on to heading to Wisconsin. Declares Braun, “What moved the needle is that Matt is nuts [laughs]! I mean, at this point, I think she really didn’t have much of a choice. She’s hoping that it will be a short-term thing where she can figure out what’s next for her and be safe in the meantime. I think she’s incredibly grateful to the Newmans for this safe haven … even though she may not be acting like it!”

While Genoa City might not have been her dream destination, she’s going to have to get used to her new environs — whether she or the extended Newman family likes it or not! As she makes the rounds and meets more of Noah’s relatives, Braun says that the reception Sienna receives “is a little cool, a little chilly. Not only in the winter is it cold in Genoa City, coming from L.A., it’s a little cool inside among the family members.”

And Sharon’s wariness of Sienna only continues once Sienna is on her home turf. “Deep down, she loves Sienna,” Braun teases. “No, come on — she doesn’t trust Sienna as far as she can throw her! She doesn’t like Sienna for her son. It’s a married woman, an older woman with her son, who’s been with Matt Clark. I mean, she wants Sienna as far away from her son as she can get! Look, this has just brought horrible, horrible trauma back into her life. She doesn’t need that. I, Tamara, understand that, and Sienna understands that. Sienna’s not dumb; she totally gets it.”

Which is not to say that it doesn’t sting that the carpet being rolled out for her isn’t red, but “a much darker color,” as Braun puts it. But Sienna is also contending with the sheer culture shock of seeing the ultra-wealthy surroundings in which Noah grew up. “She doesn’t want to let anyone know that it fazes her when she walks into that ranch,” the actress notes. “That’s unlike anything she’s ever been accustomed to. This isn’t her world. She’s out of her element — but she does everything she can to try to cover it up.”

And when mama bear Sharon puts Sienna in the hot seat, questioning her about her intentions toward Noah, Braun says that Sienna does her level best to hold her own. “I think that these are two women who are sizing each other up, who understand they’ve both been through a hell of an ordeal with Matt — for Sharon, both years ago and even recently he showed up at her place in at the hotel in Los Angeles. These are two women who have similar experiences with a particular man who’s done them harm. And two women who have experience with another man, who is Sharon’s son and Sienna’s boyfriend/lover. Sharon is trying to figure out what her intentions are, and Sienna is trying to hold her cards close. I do think Sienna tries to show her respect — but she’s also not going to be told what to do or not do.”

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As for what the future may hold for Noah and Sienna’s fledgling bond, Braun points out that glimpsing the reality of his moneyed home life gives her “a different perspective” on her lover. “She knew that they didn’t come from the same type of background, but to know that and then to see how different their backgrounds are… I mean, this isn’t just someone with means. These are beyond means! These are ‘never have to worry’ means! This isn’t even the 1 percent, it’s the .5 percent! It doesn’t even seem real to her, it seems like something you see in TV and movie land. This is old money, generational wealth, and there’s a game that gets played in that kind of environment that she doesn’t know the rules to. She doesn’t know the game, so she doesn’t know the rules! And there’s no way for her to learn it, there’s no crash course. She’s like a fish out of water, but more than that, she’s like that person who showed up to a costume party and no one’s wearing costumes. She’s standing out, you know what I mean?” All in all, Braun sums up, “It’s got her feeling a little off-kilter, needing a V8 [laughs].”

Given all of this, Sienna may be rethinking the idea of a lasting relationship with Noah, according to the Y&R star. “She’s seeing how different their lives are, where they come from … When you fall for somebody and you weren’t planning to fall for them, you know in your head, ‘Oh, this isn’t going to work out because of X,Y, Z.’ Like, ‘Oh, we’re in different stages of our lives, our age difference, we don’t have enough in common,’ whatever it is, but all you do is see, ‘Oh, my God, we get along, we just vibe, we have chemistry, we connect, we feel so good when we’re with each other.’ You don’t look at all those other things, you just go with the feeling, you go with the moment. But now that she’s in Genoa City, she’s thinking, ‘What was I thinking, thinking this is going to work? I’m not going to be accepted here. This doesn’t make sense. I love this person, but love does not make forever.’ She’s trying to figure it out, but I also think she knows that this upper echelon [environment], this is not her.”

Concludes the actress, “It’s an age-old story — girl from the wrong side of the tracks showing up… It’s a lot to overcome.”

Of course, making decisions about her love life is not Sienna’s top priority at the moment, given the fact that she’s still married to a psycho who, if what people keep telling her is to believed, is likely to track her and Noah down in Genoa City or die trying. “She’s not safe, he’s not safe, and she feels like she’s brought this upon all of them,” Braun says. “She feels that if she is in Genoa City then he’s going to follow her, if what they’re saying is true, and then her being there is a problem for all of them, because if he comes after her, he, in turn, would be coming after the rest of them and she would be putting them in danger — which she doesn’t want to do.”