Exclusive: B&B’s Rebecca Budig And Thorsten Kaye On Taylor And Ridge 3.0

Last year, Bold and Beautiful reignited the long-running romance of Ridge Forrester and Taylor Hayes when Rebecca Budig became the third actress to assume the role of Taylor. One chakra realignment and Brooke/Ridge blow-up later, the on-again, off-again duo of “Tridge” is back on. Soap Opera Digest checked in with the two actors for an occasionally unruly and frequently hilarious Q&A about their on- and off-screen dynamics.

 

Soap Opera Digest: The two of you first met back in 2004, when Thorsten joined the All My Children cast as Zach Slater; Rebecca, you were already on the show as Greenlee Smythe. Thorsten claims that on the rare occasions you did share scenes, he couldn’t even really see you because Cameron Mathison (ex-Ryan; Drew, General Hospital) was usually there, too, and because of how tall he is, he blocked you.

Budig (scoffs): He was distracted by Cameron’s pecs! Because he was probably shirtless, as well.

Kaye: Put a shirt on that boy!

Budig: You know what I love? I love when there’s a potential love scene for Ridge and Taylor, and Thorsten is like, “Listen. Nobody wants to see the two of us.”

Kaye: That’s not what I said! What I said is that no one wants to see me do a love scene. I’ll watch you do one! Just not with me!

Budig: Anyway, I do remember working with Cameron and Alicia [Minshew, Kendall] and Thorsten — and all we would do is laugh! But I never had one-on-one scenes with him. That was with the other Greenlee [Sabine Singh, who played the role in between Budig’s stints on AMC].

Kaye: I don’t really think I had scenes with her, either.

Budig: Yes, you did! I remember because I was really upset about it, because I really wanted to work with you! She fell into a pit and you had to get her out or something.

Kaye: Ah, that pit! It’s still there, you know. Right there in Llanview [One Life to Live’s setting].

Digest and Budig (in unison): Pine Valley!

Kaye: Ah! The Pine Valley Pit would be a great name for a bar. Bring back All My Children and bring back the Pine Valley pit! If they brought it back, maybe we’d have a chance [to work together as Zach and Greenlee]. Or would Cameron come back, too, and still have his shirt off?

Budig: Cameron still has his shirt off, so nothing’s changed [laughs]. But I’m telling you, I always wanted to work with him —

Kaye: So let me ask you this. Now that you’ve experienced that, and fulfilled one of your wishes —

Budig: One of my dreams?

Kaye: Yeah, of your lifetime. Was it everything you dreamed it would be?

Budig: More. More, Thorsten!

Kaye: You gotta dream bigger, honey!

Budig: Listen, at the end of the day, he’s an incredible actor, so it’s been awesome. But we do laugh a lot. When I’m with him and Jacqui [MacInnes Wood, Steffy], something really comes over me and I laugh a lot.

Kaye: It might be nerves, just because of the talent. Could be that.

Budig: All I know is, when I look at Thorsten, he’s very authentic and he’s very honest and —

Kaye: Super-handsome?

Budig: Strikingly handsome. It’s hard to avoid his gaze.

Kaye: I wasn’t fishing, those are your words — but now that you bring it up, if you were to create the perfect being, which 20 things of mine would you include? [They both cackle.]

Digest: When you began working together as Ridge and Taylor, a couple with so many decades of history, how did you go about trying to create a believable dynamic on screen?

Budig: Well, I feel really fortunate because there is a history with Thorsten that we just inherently have because we had worked together and spent some time together. I think that really helped inform the relationship between Taylor and Ridge. There’s too much that happens in, like, a month on these shows to try to figure out all the complexities and all the stories and all the different things that have happened. I think I just sort of had to trust and rely on Thorsten and Jacqui and the other people around me to sort of fill me in.

Kaye: Mostly me. [Budig laughs.] I think there is a real danger of going down that rabbit hole [of watching other actors’ interpretations of your character] and maybe then playing somebody else’s version of the character, right?

Budig: That’s true.

Kaye: But I agree with you; sometimes you just have to go out there and know what the relationships are and play them the way you would play them. In daytime, you have to bring a lot of who you are to the story, I think, because there’s no time to build this outrageous character that doesn’t have pieces of you in it. It just moves too fast.

Digest: If you’re prone to giggling on set, Rebecca, I gotta know: how hard was it for you to get through the chakra-rebalancing scenes?

Kaye: First of all, the woman we worked with in those scenes was so lovely.

Budig: She was awesome! Her name is Manita Ghandi and she played Shandra. She does [energy work] in real life, so she was just a natural at it.

Kaye: But there was something about — look, did you ever play this game with your kids where everyone lays down in a line and the first kid puts their head on the second kid’s stomach and so on? There’s no way not to laugh! It’s just something about the ridiculousness of it, and when little Rebecca, who’s like 4’2” or whatever she is —

Budig: I wear stilts on the show, by the way! I could go join the circus after this!

Kaye: When I had Rebecca sitting on me, it reminded me of that, and she’s got a really great laugh, but it’s an infectious laugh, and when she started laughing, I was like, “Here we all go!” Rebecca and I laughed, but Manita did not. She stayed in character better than us!

Budig: When we actually had to film it, we were fine, but it is kind of silly — and every time I had to say “broken heart syndrome,” I started laughing. I don’t know why! It’s a real thing, but I just kept saying it and looking at Thorsten [she chuckles at the memory].

Kaye: Well, you’re cured now, so that’s good news.

Budig: Yep. You healed me! It was all him.

Digest: So, outside of all this laughter, what would each of you say is your favorite thing about working with the other?

Kaye: If I have scenes with Rebecca, I know she’s going to be prepared, but I also know that if I say something different [than what’s in the script], she’s not just going to keep going with what she had practiced at home. She’s open to wherever the scene is going. It’s not always the right way, but you will never leave me hanging, which I appreciate.

Budig: You’re very sweet. No, wait, don’t say that I said that; I don’t want to ruin his reputation. There are a lot of things that I love about working with Thorsten, but I would say it’s his generosity. He’s always  looking out for everybody and he’s there for you in a scene, and I really appreciate that. He surprises me and he just makes things interesting, even if it’s kind of a nothing scene. I always know that we’re going to have fun and I always walk away from set feeling really good when I work with him. My days are joyful when I leave after working with him.

Kaye: That’s sweet. [To Digest] Please make sure you print that. Otherwise, I’m gonna print it.

Budig: It’s truly how I feel.

Kaye: Listen. We’ve all done this for a very long time and it could get stale very easily. I think we’re both committed to not making it stale and to try to find something new for us and for the audience.

Digest: Ridge and Taylor’s history is one of breakups and makeups, reuniting and then being torn apart again. As you understand it, Thorsten, why can Ridge not seem to ever quit Taylor for good?

Kaye: First of all, I can’t defend this character. But why is there always a way back to this particular woman? Because she fills a place in his heart that no one else can. And this Taylor [Budig’s version], the one that’s on stilts in front of me, has never slept with my brother [Thorne and Rick] or my dad [Eric], which is always nice. Makes Thanksgivings less awkward.

Digest: Rebecca, same question for you. How do you understand why Taylor has never been able to get over Ridge?

Kaye: Come on. Have you seen Ridge?!

Budig (laughs): From where I stand, they have children together, and I think he’s just the love of her life. I think it’s hard for her to move on to anyone else. Ultimately, in her head, I think she’s always seen her future with him, the rest of her life with him.

Digest: Do you feel that in the minds of your characters, it’s going to work between Ridge and Taylor this time?

Budig: I do. She’s done. This is it!

Kaye: I think so, too. These two characters definitely want to make it work.

Digest: To what extent do you think Taylor is harboring anxiety over the Brooke angle, Rebecca?

Budig: It’s interesting. I think this whole thing with her heart made her take stock and say, “I don’t want to live my life this way. I don’t want to worry about that.” I think that it was a turning point. It’s soap, so it may be written a different way, but what I’m thinking is that she’s got to move on from being threatened by Brooke. And I think she’s feeling more confident about who she is and what she brings to the table and what they share together, the history they share together.

Kaye: I like that about your Taylor, Rebecca. She’s not begging; she’s like, “This is me. Take it or leave it.” There’s nothing less attractive than a needy woman, or a needy man.

Digest: Thorsten, a lot of fans were cheering when Brooke went off on Ridge a few weeks back. Did you feel like Ridge had it coming to him?

Kaye: Oh, yeah. The writing was on the wall! Listen, there’s no way to defend this man who can’t make up his mind about what woman he wants to be with and thinks that they all need to be with him. But you’ve still got to find a human way to play it. But in any story, you can pick a character out and go, “Well, he has this flaw and he has that flaw.” Good! You want to have flaws and try to work through them.

Digest: In honor of the holiday, what do you think Ridge and Taylor’s ideal Valentine’s Day would be?

Kaye: These two people are not in their 20s anymore, and I think they look at life a little differently. This version of Ridge and Taylor are a little more mature, I think, than they were with each other before, and I think their perfect Valentine’s Day would be just the two of them, hanging out and spending time and asking questions and answering things that they haven’t talked about it in a while.

Budig: I would agree with that. [She pauses for effect.] And also doing other stuff that you can’t print [laughs].

The Way We Were: Kaye and Budig as Zach and Greenlee, respectively, in a scene with Alicia Minshew (ex-Kendall) and Cameron Mathison (ex-Ryan) on All My Children in 2011.