After working on The Young and The Restless for more than four decades, Kate Linder still hopes one Oscar-winning actress will appear on the soap opera.

“You know what would be really neat? Oh my gosh. I can’t believe I just thought of it,” Linder, 77, exclusively told Us Weekly at Habitat for Humanity Los Angeles’ 2025 Builders Ball on Thursday, March 20. “It would be Meryl Streep. Can you imagine? Can you imagine [my character] Esther and Meryl Streep? That would be so good. I would love that.”

Linder said Streep, 75, wouldn’t even have to play a character. Instead, she could portray herself and make a splash on CBS’ long-running soap.

“I know!” Linder said before revealing a possible story line. “Because Esther is the manager of Crimson Lights now, Meryl Streep walks into Crimson Lights Cafe and I go, ‘Excuse me. What can I get you?’ And then I look up and realize it’s her. ‘Meryl Streep, you want coffee?’ Could you imagine? Esther would go crazy! I would love that.”

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Later this month, Linder will celebrate 43 years of working on the soap opera. (The Young and The Restless has been on the air for 52 seasons.)

To this day, the actress can still recall her first day on set and meeting costar Jeanne Cooper for the very first time.

“I remember going in there and going up to the hair and makeup room and introducing myself,” she told Us at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. “I introduced myself and I said, ‘I’m playing your mate today.’ And [Jeanne] said, ‘Oh, it’s about time.’ And I loved her after that.”

In May 2013, Cooper died peacefully in her sleep at the age of 84. She was best known as matriarch Katherine Chancellor on the CBS soap opera.

More than 10 years after her costar’s death, Linder said she still feels a connection on the set.

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“I miss her, but I still feel her presence,” she told Us. “Sometimes I’m in her dressing room. I get her dressing room, and that’s really special for me because I feel her in there.”

When Linder showed up for her first day of work on The Young and The Restless, she was initially hired for one day. To still be acting on the same show and seeing CBS premiere a brand-new soap in 2025 is something she never could have predicted.

“I’m thrilled for Beyond the Gates,” she said. “It’s so good for the genre. It’s so good for all of us. You can’t tell me that soaps are dead when they’re bringing on a brand-new show, and it’s great.”