Soap stars have extra time on their hands now that production on the daytime dramas has stopped due to the coronavirus pandemic, so Scott Clifton (“The Bold and the Beautiful”) and Maurice Benard (“General Hospital“) joined Nancy Lee Grahn and Kaore Bonell for episode two of “Soaps in Quarantine” to ride out the storm with each other and their fans. They discussed memorable storylines, coping strategies and more. Watch them above.
Clifton confessed to his ambivalence about his character’s bed-hopping from one love interest to another over his decade-long stint on the CBS drama. “My character Liam on ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ is a whore,” the actor joked. “I’ve made the joke that I’m the Sonny Corinthos of ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ because I’ve impregnated so many of the girls on the show, and I’m constantly going back and forth.”
He actually brought his concerns to “B&B” executive producer and head writer Bradley Bell: “How am I supposed to do this? I look like an asshole. I look like I’m so disingenuous,” he told the showrunner. “[Bell] said, ‘Listen, man, you have one job. All you have to do is love the one you’re with.’ … That worked on me. That made me click, and I’ve been able to do it without too much cognitive dissonance.”
Specifically, Liam has ping-ponged back and forth between Steffy Forrester (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) and Hope Logan (previously played by Kim Matula, currently played by Annika Noelle). He has been married to both of them and fathered children with both of them. Oh, and he was also briefly married to Steffy’s cousin Ivy (Ashleigh Brewer).
On the plus side, though, Liam’s indecision has paid off for Clifton. Grahn embarrassed him by asking how many Emmys he has: three, which is one more than Grahn and Benard have. Clifton won Best Younger Actor in 2011, Best Supporting Actor in 2013 and Best Lead Actor in 2017, which makes him the only male actor to date who has won Daytime Emmys in all three categories.
Loving the one you’re with is easy when you can fall in love with Steffy and Hope and still hook up with Emmy every once in a while.
