Hollywood twins leave great-grandparents proud, starstruck

Norman (Norm) and Karen Neiswonger of Pahrump are starstruck when it comes to their twin great-grandsons, Gunner and Ryder Gadbois.

The boys, who recently turned 3, have recurring roles for the last year and a half on the long-running CBS soap opera “The Young and the Restless.”

Being identical twins, the boys take turns portraying the role of Connor Newman, son of Chelsea Newman, portrayed by actress Melissa Claire Egan and the grandson of Victor and Nikki Newman, played by veteran soap stars Eric Braeden and Melody Thomas Scott.

Karen Neiswonger, or “Nana” as the boys call her, said she was “thrilled to death” when she heard about their roles on the program.

“It’s really neat, you know,” Norm “Papa” Neiswonger stated. “You watch the boys when they’re on the show, and I looked at Karen and said ‘are those the same two kids?’ Because at home, they’re hooligans, you know, they’re into something constantly. But when they’re on the set, they’re all nice and neat and their hair’s combed and all that. Not at home, they’re just totally different,” he laughed. “They’re an absolute joy.”

Karen Neiswonger has been a long-time soap opera fan of “Days of Our Lives” since its beginning back in the 1960s, and Norm said he is not a watcher of the soaps, until now.

They record “The Young and the Restless” on DVD so they can watch and replay episodes, especially those featuring their great-grandsons.

The young stars are the only children of their granddaughter and her husband, Nicole and Adam Gadbois, who reside in Southern California. Nicole is the daughter of their daughter Tammy, who also resides in Southern California. The Neiswongers’ other daughter Christina, lives in New York with their other granddaughter, Lauren.

There is no known history of other family members having a theatrical or background in entertainment according to the couple.

Norm Neiswonger said they have “no idea” where the toddlers got their talent to perform.

“They love to sing and dance; they are entertainers,” Karen Neiswonger added. “They use my cane as a microphone.”

“Papa” has another reason to be proud, since Ryder’s middle name is Norman, while Gunner’s middle name is Riley, the namesake of their paternal great-grandfather.

“The Young and the Restless” is not the first Hollywood debut of the twins, who have also starred in three commercials, including one for AAA, a 2015 Skittles Super Bowl commercial called “Settle It,” a Pampers commercial which aired in Russia, a short movie titled “Chimeras,” and close to a dozen television programs including “True Blood,” “The Mindy Project,” “Parks and Recreation” and “The Thundermans” on Nickelodeon.

They have also been included in two recent editions of “Soap Opera Digest.”

The Neiswongers have an iPad full of family videos, photos and memories of the boys and proudly shows them around town to anyone who is interested.

“I would carry this (iPad) down to the bowling alley, and I was showing everybody,” Norm Neiswonger said.

He said he was waiting in a doctor’s office recently and a soap opera was on the television, and Neiswonger asked a woman if she watched “The Young and the Restless,” and she did. He told her that baby Connor is played by his great-grandsons.

“She said, ‘he’s so nice and all that’, and I said you ought to see him at home,” Neiswonger laughed. “It’s really neat, and I’m extremely proud of the boys, you know.”

“There is no getting around it,” Karen Neiswonger agreed. They are “very proud of those boys.”

“And they seem to enjoy it; they really do,” she said. “Boy, they know how to conduct themselves when they’re on the set, you know, they do a very good job.”

They give credit to their granddaughter and her husband for teaching the young stars manners and acting properly.

Nicole Gadbois said her twins have been involved in show biz since they were a month old, the legal working age since they were premature.

She was encouraged by other twin mothers in a group of moms with multiples to sign on the boys with a talent agency since identical twins are in great demand due to labor laws. If one twin cannot perform on a particular day because they are crabby or crying, the other child can be filmed, saving time and production costs.

Gadbois and her husband were not sure if this was the type of lifestyle they wanted for their sons since they didn’t really know anything about it. But, they decided to give it a try.

“It literally was like a floodgate of TV shows and commercials and just all this stuff right when they were able to start working. It was surreal; it still is surreal,” Gadbois said.

She admits that it is hectic being a Hollywood parent.

“But, I mean it’s so worth it for their future. All the money goes into accounts for them when they get older. No matter how hard it is for me, all the driving and all that, when I get to see how much money they’re going to have for their future, it makes it all worth it.”

Under the California Child Actor’s Bill, also known as the Coogan Act or Coogan Bill, 15 percent of any child actor’s salary must be placed in a trust, or Coogan Account, which cannot be touched until the child is 18 years old.

The parents can decide whether to place the remaining sum in savings, a college-savings plan, or a mutual fund to be used only for the child’s benefit.

The twins’ current roles as young Connor on “The Young and the Restless” mean plenty of trips to and from CBS Television City in Los Angeles, and the boys will fight in the back seat about who will be first or second in a scene.

“So, they like go back and forth the whole way to work, and we have to make sure that we split it evenly, otherwise one will get upset,” Gadbois said.

She said the boys usually appear one at a time in an episode, but are switched back and forth between separate scenes since they really like working.

“They love it, absolutely love it,” Gadbois said. “They talk about their TV family all the time. They always say they want to go to work this week, or they want to see their TV mom and their TV uncle and their cousins and all that. It’s literally one big family …”

She said they know everybody from production, hair and makeup, props and the stage manager –“we’re all one big family.”

The boys are typical 3-year-olds. Gadbois said they are “super wild,” sometimes even in the studio dressing room, jumping off stuff and playing with other kids on the show.

“The second they get onto the set, they are like the most well-behaved little boys you’ve ever seen; I don’t even know how they do it, or how they know, but they totally do, and they don’t act like that for me,” she laughed.

She said her husband, Adam, is also so very proud of his sons.

“He brags to everybody,” she said.

“It’s nothing we ever imagined, whatsoever.”

Gadbois said the boys definitely don’t realize how popular they are, but people will come up to them at the mall since they recognize them.

“It’s a little surreal seeing your kids on TV, and through shows they’ve done and commercials, you can literally put a bunch of clips together and literally watch them grow up on TV. It’s really surreal.”

Gadbois was asked about the long-term future acting career of the twins.

“As long as they continue enjoying it, then they’ll keep doing it,” she stated. “But if they start not liking it, and say they don’t want to do it, then we’ll be done.”

The great-grandparents hope that if the twins continue in show business, they stay on the “straight and narrow,” in Norm’s words and don’t get involved with drugs and caught up with some of the negative things that can happen in the industry.

The next appearance of the Gadbois twins on “The Young and the Restless” will be Friday, December 23, the Christmas episode. The program airs weekdays from 11 a.m. to noon on local CBS affiliates, and viewers can stay tuned for their future appearances in the new year. You can also follow them on Twitter and Instagram @gadboistwins.