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B&B’s Scott Clifton (Liam): Then And Now

CBS Daytime #1 For 30 Years
"CBS Daytime #1 For 30 Years," Scott Clifton, arrives to THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL table read and panel discussion at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, California. November 3rd, 2016. Photo: Sonja Flemming/CBS ©2016 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved Credit: CBS

then: “Going [to Beverly Hills High School] changed my whole persona — it made me realize that rather than be insecure about my quirkiness, I ought to use my quirkiness to make me popular. And it worked!” — 11/18/03

now: “I’m wondering who I was trying to convince, you or myself? In 2003, I would have just turned 19 years old and the prefrontal cortex isn’t even fully formed until 25, so I had no clue what I was talking about. The jury’s in: I’m full of it. What’s interesting is, I look back on myself in 2003 and think, ‘There I was in 2003 going, “Yeah, I learned how to cultivate my awkwardness.” No you didn’t, dude. You’re still totally awkward.’ ”

ABC

then: “For the most part, I’m very disorganized mentally. I have the worst memory of anyone I know. I will forget entire hours of my life that happened last week. I’m really a space case.” — 8/31/10

now: “That’s true. The joke is that I memorize lines for a living but all my mental bandwidth goes to memorization. I don’t know if that’s neuroscientifically accurate or if that would even be a thing, but it is a constant. I constantly tell my wife the same stories. I’m 30 years old! I’m not senile, but I’ll tell Nikki a story and she’ll finish it for me. Other times, she’ll give me every single detail of a story to jog my memory and it’s just gone. There are parts of my life that I don’t just forget, I cannot recover them no matter how much stimuli I’m given. It continues to be a problem.”

then: “If there was going to be any chance of Liam evolving into being like his father, then I had to play the opposite of that in the beginning. Liam had to contrast with Bill.” — 1/11/11

now: “That’s interesting, but it’s not as though the only reason I was playing Liam the way that I was playing him back then was in preparation for this [current] storyline. What’s funny is that I’ve had people coming up to me saying, ‘You’re making me really uncomfortable.’ Normally I get, ‘I like your character,’ or ‘I hate your character.’ They’re not saying that now. They’re saying I’m making them uncomfortable. It’s not a full-scale rebuke of Liam. It’s more like, ‘Who are you? I thought I knew you!’ Which is really rewarding because if it’s making them uncomfortable, I suppose I’m doing my job.”

then: “The trick [to playing the center of a soap love triangle] is you have to make extremely unlikable characters likable and watchable. I think I’m learning as I go. I got a note from Brad [Bell, executive producer/head writer] the other day. I was doing a scene that I was worried was going to make me really hated and he said, ‘Hey, Ronn [Moss, ex-Ridge] did it for 25 years. Suck it up, man!’” — 8/6/12 

now: “I do remember Brad saying that! What I know now that I didn’t know then is that anything can be forgiven on a soap opera. [GH’s] Luke raped Laura and look how that turned out! In fact, evil characters are easier to redeem than good characters because the expectation is so low already. When Bill does something altruistic, you love him. If Liam does something slightly unethical, everybody hates him. So, yes, I may be an ass this week and totally unlikable but if I can keep my job long enough, in a year, it will all be water under the bridge.”

JPI

then: “When I was a kid, I barely watched TV at all but I remember thinking people who were on TV stayed on TV — until I got on GH and within my first month, three cast members were off the show. I thought, ‘Damn, I don’t stand a chance in this business.’ So yes, I am humbled and complimented yearly that the daytime community has seen fit to keep me around this long.” — 4/1/13

now: “Wow, what a measured and diplomatic response. I don’t dispute that. This business has changed enormously and if the odds of coming to L.A. and being a success were one in a million 15 years ago, they’re one in a billion now. And while talent is important, I’ve learned that who you are at work and how you treat people and being kind and being giving really matters. I don’t think any of that was on my radar when I was a kid and it’s one of the things I value most now, not just in myself but in others.”

then: “I am so antisocial. I come home and my wife has to drag me out to be social. I’ll come home from the studio and tell a funny story about Darin [Brooks, Wyatt] and me and she’ll be like, ‘Why don’t you just call him?’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t want to. It’s scary. What if he says no? What if he doesn’t want to get a beer?’ ” — 12/9/13

now: “That’s great! Well, I have since made a friend because Darin and I will go out and have a beer! I am terrible at making new friends. I have the same four friends I’ve had since I was a kid, while my wife makes five to 10 new, good friends every year. I can’t. I won’t. I don’t know how people do that.”

JPI

then: “The biggest thing that I do in my free time is debating. I debate philosophy and religion and other issues.” — 10/27/14

now: “That’s still true. The only thing that rivals it now is time with my kid.”

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