JPI
While Eric’s fate remains a question mark after the character’s collapse on Friday’s B&B, the show took pains to ensure that portrayer John McCook’s own health wouldn’t be compromised when acting out Eric’s collapse. “They protect me!” McCook assures. “We had a stunt guy there, and they have me wear knee pads if I’m going to, you know, make a drink [laughs]! They protect me like crazy, even if it’s just a simple collapse on the floor. And we had a stunt guy there in case they wanted to do something a little more violent than it said on the page. You never quite now how we’re actually going to shoot it [when you read a script].” On this particular day, “The stunt guy did it, and I did it, too, and I didn’t know which part, which footage, they were going to end up using. It doesn’t matter to me, as long as it looks good!” The actor reports that all the on-screen coughing he’s done in recent months as Eric has likewise had no ill effect on him. “It doesn’t hurt,” he says. “The kind of coughing you do [on camera] is not the kind that hurts. Otherwise I’d say, ‘My God, won’t be doing that again!’ “
