The Young and the Restless Michael Mealor made a big change to further his acting career

The Young and the Restless Michael Mealor made a big change to further his acting career

The Young and the Restless' Michael Mealor (Kyle Abbott) opens up about going to speech therapy in order to lose his Southern accent and further his acting career.

You won't catch a Southern drawl coming out of Atlanta native Michael Mealor's mouth. The Young and the Restless actor, who plays Kyle Abbott on the CBS Daytime drama, admits that he went to speech therapy to get rid of his natural accent.

In a recent interview with CBS Los Angeles, Mealor said that he "spent quite awhile" working toward having a neutral accent in order to help his acting career.

"I worked with a speech therapist to get rid of the Southern accent. I didn't want it to have to be a thought on top of my acting, to make sure that my accent doesn't come through," he shares. "So, I worked with an actual speech therapist who retrained the muscles in my throat so now I don't really have to think about anything -- it's just the way that I talk now."

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However, Mealor admits that while you can take the boy out of the South, you can't take the South out of the boy -- and he slips back into his Southern accent from time to time.

"When I'm tired, or when I'm around my dad," he says of when slip-ups happen.

Check out Mealor's full CBS Los Angeles video interview below and let us know what you think in the Comments section at the end of the article.

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Edited by SC Desk