Beyond the Gates welcomed many soap opera newcomers to its cast when the show was assembling its players. Some actors on the show came to Fairmont Crest with soap opera experience. One of those performers is Clifton Davis, who plays patriarch Vernon Dupree, whose first credit is the soap opera Where the Heart Is.Beyond the Gates, from Chicago to Fairmont Crest!Vernon and Anita on Beyond the Gates | Image: CBSA World Apart was created by Katherine Phillips, daughter of Irna Phillip, the woman who essentially invented the soap opera genre. Davis appeared on the short-lived series as Matt Hampton. At a press conference in January for BTG, Davis was asked what it was like to return to genre after having worked in other mediums, including sitcoms."Well, nerves," Davis said about what he was experiencing. "I was nervous about this, not from an actor’s perspective or point of view. I was nervous because I didn’t know if I felt like working this hard."I remember how hard it is, how difficult it is, to do the studying, to do the work, to be prepared," he continued, "and kind of film every single day, a totally new episode. And sitcoms, you of course have a week...and it’s only 43 pages or so. Clifton Davis, Beyond the Gates View this post on Instagram Instagram Post"And then on dramas you work, you know, 8 to 12 hours a day, five days a week," the Amen actor added. "But a soap, you’ve got to study on your weekends. Your weekends are no longer your own. You have a couple of hours you can spend with your family, but the rest of the time has to be, as I told my wife, 'This is a lifestyle, baby.' "This stuff is so into you. You get so into it, and it becomes a part of you, and it eats up your days," Davis said. "So that’s where the nerves came, but I wasn’t nervous about the work, the acting. In fact, I got kind of excited about being challenged every week to feel something different, to have a new storyline, to have an emotion come alive that hadn’t been alive in a while, or that we hadn’t seen. "And so all of that is very fulfilling to me, and it’s very fulfilling to discover I can handle the workload," he added. "It’s not killing me, and I’m, in fact, having a great time because of the writing. It’s so brilliant. The actors I get to play with are just wonderful. "And the top of the list, of course, is Tamara Tunie [Anita], who is just an amazing human being and a wonderful, quiet director, too," he says. "That’s right. She yells suggestions that make sense all the time. She’s wonderful, and I’m thrilled to be playing, you know, her husband and the head of this family."Catch all-new episodes of Beyond the Gates on CBS and Paramount Plus.