Y&R Preview: Audra Wants ‘Someone to Blame’ for Nate Breakup, Zuleyka Silver Says (EXCL)

Audra did her best to split up Claire and Kyle on Young and Restless, and when that failed, Claire got back at her rival by sabotaging her relationship with Nate. Other people might have called it even and backed off at that point, but not Audra! “Yeah, no,” portrayer Zuleyka Silver declares to Soap Opera Digest with a chuckle. “Definitely not. She’s petty. But also, I think she wants someone to blame, because then she can dodge accountability. I don’t think a lot of people can sometimes deal with their heinous actions. So it’s easier to blame Claire for breaking up her and Nate than it is for her to sit down with herself and be honest with herself.”

The Next Best Thing

Despite her plans blowing up in her face, Audra remains antagonistic with both Claire and Kyle, delighting in needling them whenever the opportunity arises. Because, as it turns out, they’re a much easier target than the person she’d prefer to go after!

“I think she’s spiraling a bit,” Silver says of her Y&R alter ego. “You know, things did not go the way that she wanted them to go. Because she can’t take out her anger on Victor, right? Because Victor’s not going to give her the time of day, and she’s smarter than to… you know, maybe attack Victor, right? She can’t really go head-to-head with him. Who can?

“I think it’s a bit of projection, also,” she adds. “She’s just really angry that maybe she doesn’t have the relationship Claire has with Kyle. So she’s taking all her anger out on Claire. I think it’s more about that than it is about Claire, specifically.”

The Haves and the Have Nots

But Audra’s jealousy of Claire and Kyle goes beyond just the happiness that the two of them found together. “It’s also the bigger picture of, you know, she doesn’t come from money,” Silver explains. “She feels like her life was tougher. And then when she sees these people in Genoa City, I think she is resentful of everyone in that way. I think that’s what drives her.”

Since arriving in town, Audra has tried over and over again to hit it big, but her attempts to strike deals with Tucker and Victor have subsequently blown up in her face, leaving her frustrated but undaunted. “I feel like she’s had to do a lot of things that she knows are wrong, but she’s also been doing them for so long that she’s kind of lied to herself enough times to where she thinks it’s okay,” Silver muses. “Because she keeps losing. With Glissade… and it’s not her first rodeo with Kyle… and she was so close to success with Vibrante, just to lose it all again.

“I think her antagonizing everyone,” she continues, “even the way she went off on Jack a few weeks ago, I think she was projecting, because it wasn’t necessarily about Jack. It’s what he represents, and how she can’t go to Victor and talk to him like that. So she’s like, ‘Oh, well, I’m gonna go off on Jack. I’m gonna go off on Kyle. I’m gonna go off on Claire.’ And I think she’s losing it a little bit, even though she tries to keep this cool exterior.”

However, the actress previews that Audra isn’t going to be actively scheming against Claire and Kyle in the immediate future. “I think at this point, she’s being reactive,” Silver says. “As far as I know — I haven’t really seen the upcoming scripts yet. But right now, she’s being a bit reactive. You know, Kyle is threatening her, telling her that he’s out for revenge. And she’s kind of like, ‘Okay, yeah, sure.’ But right now, she doesn’t have a plan to continue antagonizing either of them, as far as I’m concerned.”

Of course, who knows what Audra might do if she finds her back pushed up against the wall?