B&B’s Scott Clifton On Playing Liam’s Brain Tumor: ‘I’ve Been Really Self-Conscious’
Scott Clifton — who recently opened up to Soap Opera Digest about his character’s battle with an inoperable brain tumor — has won three Daytime Emmy Awards for his portrayal of Liam Spencer on Bold and Beautiful. But despite the accolades he’s received, the actor has been nurturing major anxiety about his portrayal of Liam’s health crisis. In an interview with TV Insider, the actor explained, “This is an actual condition that people have, and people die from, and I didn’t want it to be cheesy.”
Keeping It Real
As a result, he revealed, he’s been feeling “really self-conscious” about whether his performance is staying true to the physical effects a brain tumor has on a person. Indeed, after Liam’s collapse and subsequent hospitalization, where he underwent emergency brain surgery, Clifton wasn’t at all confident about his acting choices. He admitted to the outlet, “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.”
Since the scenes in question began airing, he’s been gratified by the response he’s received from people who’ve experienced brain tumors themselves, or who have loved ones who received similar diagnoses, assuring him that his performance was believable. Clifton marveled, “I just got really lucky [because] I was just doing my best to guess what that experience must be like.”
The actor, along with the behind-the-scenes team at B&B, have also taken great care to determine how to alter his appearance to reflect Liam’s recent head trauma and surgery. Points out Clifton, “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?” He reported that the show has employed “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” in an effort to make the visual component of the story as realistic as the emotional one.
While he does feel an internal pressure to portray Liam’s health crisis with authenticity, Clifton is embracing the opportunity to push himself as an actor. “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,” he noted. Not only that, but he gets to work closely with one of his favorite co-stars — Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, who plays Liam’s ex-wife, Steffy — as the story unfolds. “Jacqui is so easy breezy for me to work with, because we work almost identically,” he enthused.
But viewers have no reason to fear that Steffy’s involvement with Liam’s health journey will spell trouble in her relationship with husband Finn. Clifton offered assurance to “Sinn” fans, saying, that the closeness Liam and Steffy share is “not a desperation to hook up. Liam’s not trying to get Steffy back or to intervene in her relationship with Finn. 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.”
Hat Trick: Clifton’s Liam (pictured with Sophia Parras as Kelly) sported a beanie in the wake of his emergency brain surgery.
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