Meet the Real Damian Kane: ‘Y&R’ Newbie Jermaine Rivers Opens Up About His Big Debut

Stephanie Sloane February 3, 2025, 1:30 pm

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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoiler for the February 3 episode of The Young and the Restless.]

Jermaine Rivers, who made his debut on The Young and the Restless on February 3 as the real Damian Kane, was very familiar with the soap before he ever stepped on set. “My mother is a die-hard Young and the Restless fan, which makes me inherently a die-hard fan as well,” he explains. “I basically grew up watching the show.”

So, when he booked the role of the mysterious newcomer, his mom was one of his first calls. “My mom and I have the best relationship, and I call her every day,” Rivers says. “Now, my mother doesn’t do social media at all, so I felt it was safe for me to give her a little crumb of, ‘Hey, Mom, I’m on the show, but you’re gonna have to keep this classified.’ She was like, ‘Are you gonna be the new son?’ She follows it! She doesn’t miss an episode.”

Growing up as a viewer wasn’t Rivers’ only tie to Genoa City and its denizens — he had met one of the show’s superstars on a previous project. “Fun fact: In 2017, I was working on a film called Den of Thieves with Eric Braeden, who plays Victor Newman,” Rivers relays. “It was directed by his son, Christian Gudegast. Eric and I would have conversations, and I would ask him questions and he was so gracious.”

Showing up on the first day was “a very surreal moment,” describes Rivers, who had to put his personal ties to the soap to the side to focus on his job. “I had to compartmentalize pretty quickly because it can mess with your head,” he confides. “I walked around and was like, ‘I recognize this set. I recognize the coffee shop,’ so it was kind of like, ‘Wow, I’m here,’ but then I thought, ‘Okay, now it’s time to do your job, have fun, enjoy the moment and make it real.’ ”

Nathan Owens, Sean Dominic on 'Young and the Restless'

Howard Wise/jpistudios.com

Rivers initially worked with Nathan Owens, who has been playing Fake Damian, and they quickly found common ground. “We hit it right off,” Rivers reports. “We had nice exchanges during filming. He’s a good guy and I see him as a friend.”

The two had crossed paths before in 2016 on Devious Maids. “We were on the same episode together. I saw him in passing, like, ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ and in hair and makeup. I think when you’re on your intended path, and you’ve been doing the work that’s putting you on a certain trajectory, you will meet the same people. He was pleasant then, and he’s even more pleasant now.”

As for what viewers can expect from Rivers’ version of Damian, the actor previews, “He’s a very cerebral, cautious man. He’s very strategic and plays his cards close to the vest. He’s a very successful businessman who is managing and overseeing a couple of companies, so he doesn’t have time for a lot of games or drama. With that level of anonymity comes mystery, so it’s going to be fun for everyone to see him initially, in contrast to what they’ve already been acquainted with with his proxy. You will see a contrast.”

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Rivers had an unconventional path to soaps. After 20 years of active-duty military service, he was set to retire in 2013 and had to figure out his next move. A chance meeting in Savannah, GA changed the course of his future. “I was at a hotel bar and long story short, I met my former agent at the bar,” he shares. “I bumped into her, accidentally, and she spilled a drink, so I bought her another one and apologized. I walked out the door to the balcony and she came out a few minutes later and was like, ‘Thank you for the drink, and you have a great look. What do you do?’ I told her I was currently processing out of the military, and she said I could be an actor or model. I blew it off, but she gave me a business card.”

Rivers ended up signing with her and mere months later found himself working on a movie called Killing Winston Jones with Danny Glover and Richard Dreyfus. “I don’t think they released it,” he recalls. “Something happened in the distribution or whatever, but my first experience on set was as a featured extra on Killing Winston Jones and I got the bug. And then two months after that, I had a principal role on a movie called The Sacrament. By the time I was officially out of the military on June 31, 2013, I had about three or four regional commercials under my belt and a couple of films, and I was gaining a little ground. I knew it going in that it’s a game of inches and it’s going to be a slow grind, and I was okay with it.”

Many of his early roles had a similar vibe to them. “I played a cop on Law & Order: SVU, and I played an FBI agent on The Resident,” he lists. “I think I was just emanating law enforcement after 20 years of military, and then I said, ‘OK, now let me rebrand myself and try to find my way into being a love interest or whatever,’ and then I ended up being a Marvel superhero on The Gifted, playing Shatter.”

Jermaine Rivers and Stephen Moyer on 'The Gifted'

Annette Brown / ©Fox / courtesy Everett Collection

Booking that role was a dream come true for Rivers, who grew up devouring comic books. “I was such a comic book geek as a little Army brat in Germany,” he muses. “It was so deep for me that I would spend my lunch money to buy comics, so to be able to step into the shoes of a Marvel character that I was familiar with was another surreal moment.”

But his focus now is doing the most he can with Damian. “I’m excited,” he enthuses. “It feels like it’s been a long wait and I’ve been sitting on that secret but I’m excited for the world to meet the real Damian and to see the story progress. It is an absolute pleasure and a privilege to be there, and I have to honor it. It feels like the universe conspired for me to be at the right place at the right time to be placed where I am right now.”

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