Scott Clifton Addresses Speculation Over His ‘B&B’ Future Amid Liam’s Health Battle

Find the Forresters

For exclusive news and updates, subscribe to our The Bold and the Beautiful Newsletter:

The Bold and the Beautiful‘s Liam Spencer has been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, which means his portrayer, Scott Clifton, is smack in the middle of the drama that has fans buzzing about his future on the soap.

Prior to the kickoff of the tale, Liam’s appearances were few and far between for the first time in Clifton’s 14-year tenure at the show, but that was OK with him. “As it happens, I was kind of in the thick of my divorce [from Nicole Lampson], so I had plenty of my own personal stuff to deal with,” he explains. “And then I started going back to work, so the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. I love B&B, and I did miss it.”

So, when the show’s executive producer and head writer, Bradley Bell, reached out to the actor about incorporating Liam back into the canvas, Clifton was ready to return. “He told me he wanted me to start working again, and that was really exciting,” Clifton recalls. “And then one day, he called me up into his office, and he said, ‘Well, I have this idea for a story…’ ”

When Bell gave Clifton the breakdown of what to expect from Liam’s brain tumor journey, he was immediately on board. “When I learned about the intention of the storyline, I was really grateful for the opportunity and really honored to help tell this story, which I think is going to be a good story,” he enthuses.

Howard Wise/jpistudios.com

His first scenes back were with Don Diamont, who plays Liam’s father, Bill Spencer, and Clifton appreciated that he returned to a dramatic set of scenes. “It was really fun to not be working and then suddenly I get this script and it’s a conflict between Liam and Bill,” Scott Clifton relays. “It was like, ‘Whoa. We’re off to the races.’ So that was really fun, because it was left to the audience’s imagination, like, how that fire got sparked and how they got there. But it also kind of reminded you that Liam has been around. Just because you didn’t see him, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t have relationships with these people, including his father.”

Due to the serious nature of Liam’s plight, it was important to Clifton to set the right tone as he tackled the material. “I told myself I was going to do a lot of research on inoperable brain tumors and what they would do to you,” he says. “I’ve been really self-conscious about not, forgive my language, f***ing this up, because this is not some made-up soap opera thing. This is an actual condition that people have, and people die from, and I didn’t want it to be cheesy.”

Related

'Bold and the Beautiful': Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag Had an 'Out of Body' Experience in Soap Debut

Assessing his own performances, however, has been difficult for Clifton, despite the three Daytime Emmy Awards he has earned over the years. “There have been moments that are now starting to air, that I was so convinced that I totally blew it or overplayed it or maybe I downplayed it too much, or maybe it would be more painful than I made it look, and I’m constantly trying to find that balance,” he admits. “But since it started airing, I’ve gotten feedback from people who have either had inoperable growth on their brain or they’ve lost loved ones to the same thing, and they say, ‘Man, you’re nailing it; this is kind of how it looks.’ And I was going, ‘Holy s**t.’ I just got really lucky then, because I was just doing my best to guess what that experience must be like. So, I’m really, really pleased with the reaction to it so far, because I was not confident about that.”

Figuring out how Liam’s appearance would change post-head trauma was also important to Clifton and the B&B crew. “There has been so much conversation, logistically, between the hair department and the makeup department and the wardrobe department about, ‘How are we going to do this?’ ” he shares. “Because on the one hand, Liam doesn’t want anybody to know that he spent some time in the hospital, that he had this really scary fall and hit his head, but he’s got a hole in his head, so how is he going to hide that? So, we have done everything from head wraps to Liam wearing beanies, to us seeing if we could do some prosthetic shaved square on the back of my head. Anyway, it’s been kind of fun and a little terrifying to figure out how we’re going to make this work from a continuity perspective.”

Sharing scenes again with Jacqueline MacInnes Wood (Steffy Forrester) has been another high point of playing out the story. “Jacqui is so easy breezy for me to work with, because we work almost identically,” Clifton notes. “As the actor, I really enjoy that Liam and Steffy have this closeness, this love, this affection, but it’s not a desperation to hook up. Liam’s not trying to get Steffy back or to intervene in her relationship with Finn [Finnegan, Tanner Novlan]. It’s none of that. They’re really good coparents, and they’re really good friends, and they care about each other, and I think that’s all really cool.”

Howard Wise/jpistudios.com

As the drama continues to unfold, Clifton says he is looking forward to seeing what each new script brings. “In my personal life, I’m the least competitive person I know,” he declares. “I don’t care about pushing myself to the extreme or doing better than I did yesterday. I really like my comfortable existence, but when it comes to acting, I really like a scary challenge, and I really like trying to figure out how to imagine being in a position that I’ve maybe never been in. And the nice thing about soap operas is it’s not really immortalized if you screw it up. I mean, yes, three million people are watching you, but they’re only watching you do it once, and then it moves on. You can really feel freedom to try things and fail. And believe me, there have been so many moments on the show where it was this big, emotional or high stakes challenge, and I was excited to do it, and I went for it, and it totally didn’t work, like, it didn’t work at all, but you learn, and then you try again the next time.

“But I’ve enjoyed this storyline, and I enjoy fantasizing about what’s to come, because there are going to be some interesting moments that I’ve never played as an actor before,” Scott Clifton concludes.

The popular star is aware of the fan speculation about Liam’s fate and offers the following message to them: “I’m really excited to be back with you and I’m having the time of my life. Just have faith that this story, whatever it ends up being, is being told with such tenderness and respect and delicacy and reverence for the character of Liam. I’m excited about it, and you guys should be, too.”

The Bold and the Beautiful, Weekdays, CBS, Check Local Listings