Fans were stunned when it was revealed that Liam was suffering from an inoperable brain tumor on The Bold & The Beautiful, and portrayer Scott Clifton was just as surprised when executive producer/headwriter Bradley Bell told him about the powerful new storyline.
“I’m really, really excited to tell this story, because I’ve never been entrusted with something this weighty before,” the actor told Soap Opera Digest. “And I’m really grateful to Brad for having enough faith in me to pull this off.”
Over the course of his daytime career, playing General Hospital’s Dillon Quartermaine, One Life to Live’s Schuyler Joplin, and B&B’s Liam Spencer, Clifton has earned 10 Daytime Emmy Award nominations, and has taken home three — one each in the Younger, Supporting, and Lead Actor categories. And this upcoming storyline will give him plenty of material for another potentially winning reel as Liam comes to terms with his potentially terminal diagnosis.
“I think Liam is kind of torn between two uses of his energy,” the actor previewed, “of which he has very little because this [tumor] is making him lethargic and exhausted, and it’s making it difficult for him to do things, so there’s sort of this triage of his attention. But there are also moments where Liam is inquiring, ‘Okay, what do the new scans say?’
“Finn kind of becomes a really good friend to Liam, which I think is kind of cool, given their history,” Clifton continued. “And there are moments where Liam consults with him and says, ‘Do we know anything else? Is there any chance?’ Liam does keep checking in about his mortality, about whether or not there’s any hope here, but he can’t put all of his eggs in that basket. The other half of Liam’s brain is going, ‘Okay, I have to assume that there’s no hope here. That’s the most pragmatic thing to do.’”
He also has a message for his fans as they watch this heartbreaking storyline unfold. “To the fans, I would say, ‘Hey, man, we’re on this trip together!’” Clifton said. “‘I don’t know exactly where this is going. I’m only like, a couple weeks ahead [in terms of episodes he’s shot]!’ I also want the fans to know that whatever happens, this story is being told with such thoughtfulness and delicacy and generosity and love, from the top down. We really, really care [about telling it right].”
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