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Who shot Bill Spencer? That's the question on everyone's lips on The Bold and the Beautiful season 31 on Eva (DStv 141).
While Bill (Don Diamont) is recovering after his ordeal his son Liam (Scott Clifton) has been by his side, for now, because we all know in the world of soapies it probably won't stay this way for long.
Scott, who has been playing Liam for ten years now says during a telephone interview that he has a love-hate relationship with the character.
"He is a character that I love, but he's a character that's so, so different from me. I mean, he's romantic and idealistic. I'm practical. He doesn't know what he wants in life. I know exactly what I want in life. He waffles between several different ladies, I've been with the same woman for fifteen years.
"In terms of his ethical choices, I could kill him a lot of the time. Sometimes I get a script and I go, 'Oh my God, what are you doing, Liam?' I wish I could step into the world of the show and shake him and say, 'Are you kidding me? You can't do this!' But it doesn't work that way."
Liam has certainly come a long way since he first made his appearance in season 24 in 2010.
(A LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP: Scott as Liam Spencer. Photo supplied)
From the Midwest, Liam made his way to the City of Angels to search for his father. He ends up working as technical support at Spencer Publications, where it turns out by coincidence, that his father is the CEO of the company he's working for.
"Bill Spencer, who is the CEO of this company, is kind of Trump-like except a far, far more intelligent corporate raider. Take no prisoners, just like Darwinian kind of thinking, meat-eating, scotch-drinking jerk.
"He is everything that Liam despises in a human being. He seems unkind, and he seems mean spirited, and he makes fun of people. You later find out that he kind of has a heart of gold. But these two are like oil and water," says Scott.
And although the character has gone through several love triangles, Scott believes that Liam's true love story is between him and Bill.
"It's about a grown man getting to know where he came from and who he really is. They have respectively changed one another. And I just think it's a really beautiful story and a really lovely relationship between those two characters."
'THEY COULD BE REAL PEOPLE'
The long-running CBS soapie with its family, relationship, and business drama has kept viewers glued to the small screen for years - 32 to be exact.
Asked why he thinks the show still resonates with viewers Scott says he has a couple of theories.
"The Bold and the Beautiful is the only soap opera that takes place in a real place, Los Angeles. If you were to travel to L.A., you would find these people there.
"You would find these people having problems. Despite their glamour and their prestige and their wealth and their resources, they have problems that everybody has. And these people are just as dysfunctional and messed up, and they make just as poor choices as everybody else.
"And I think there's something I don't know; schadenfreude is the right word for that. But there is something very satisfying about knowing that no matter what someone's status in life is, they are still liable to make terrible life choices. To me, that seems like something very appealing there. These are real people over in that real place over there."
(THE LOVE TRIANGLE: Jacqueline MacInnes Wood (Steffy), Scott Clifton (Liam) and Annika Noelle (Hope). Photo supplied)
The Bold and the Beautiful has suspended filming due to the coronavirus global pandemic.
While Scott has been in lockdown with his wife and four-year-old son, we're wondering, which characters in the show would he want to be in lockdown with?
"Probably Wyatt and Bill. Wyatt is Liam's half-brother. So, he's another young man who Bill fathered and didn't know about it until he was grown up. Wyatt and Liam have been enemies at certain points, but they've also been best friends at other points. At this point in the show their relationship is really good.
"I have the most fun when I'm doing Spencer brother scenes. I would think those two guys if I had to be stuck in lockdown with two other characters on the show."
The Bold and the Beautiful airs Monday - Friday at 17:30 and an omnibus on Saturdays at 16:00 on Eva (DStv 141)
