Howard Wise/jpistudios.com
It hadn’t escaped the attention of Bold and Beautiful fans that Scott Clifton, the three-time Daytime Emmy Award-winning actor who has played Liam Spencer since July 19, 2010, hadn’t been the subject of a meaty storyline in quite some time since. But odds are, viewers were not expecting his return to the front burner to occur in the form of Liam learning that he was suffering from an inoperable — translation: presumably fatal — brain tumor. As Liam reels from news of his diagnosis, Soap Opera Digest checked in with Clifton for the inside scoop on the shocking plot twist.
Several months ago, Clifton had what he calls a “really generous and honest” conversation with his boss, Executive Producer/Head Writer Bradley Bell, in which Bell gave him the heads-up that Liam would be “sprinkled in” to the show’s upcoming story, rather than driving it. “I appreciated that,” the actor says, noting that he could understand if Bell felt that Liam’s go-to story function — anchoring the long-running Hope/Liam/Steffy triangle — needed some time on the bench. “That was something that I had worried about for at least the last decade,” Clifton admits. “Like, there’s no way this is sustainable, right? This guy just going back and forth between these two women, never learning his lesson and becoming more and more unlikable to the point where you can’t just say, ‘Oh, his heart was in the right place.’ At a certain point, you can’t even say that anymore about the character! I got exactly where Brad was coming from.”
He continues, “So, after that conversation happened, I didn’t work very much at all for a while. And then, out of nowhere I got this script. I think before I even [read it], somebody from the show reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, you should read this next episode,’ and it was this big confrontation with Don [Diamont, Bill]. And I went, ‘Whoa, where did that come from?’ And so I went to work, and I was grateful to do those scenes, and I saw that Liam has some sort of head injury at the end of them. And a few days later, I got a call: Brad asked me to come up to his office.”
At their meeting, Bell told Clifton all about the brain tumor storyline, and Clifton was thrilled at the prospect of being handed such a powerful acting challenge. He enthuses, “I’m really, really excited to tell this story, because I’ve never been entrusted with something this weighty before. And I’m really grateful to Brad for having enough faith in me to pull this off.”
Expect the story to kick into high gear now that Steffy has broken the terrible news to Liam. “We do, like, a boot camp hell week version of the stages of grief,” Clifton says. “Liam just sort of runs through them all in a matter of several scenes, but I think there are a couple of different flavors for Liam [as he processes his dire diagnosis]. There’s a big chunk of this where Liam is just in denial. Steffy and Finn are trying to get him to wrap his head around this, and he’s not getting it — like, he’s really not getting it, and that was really fun to play.”
Once the truth starts to sink in, the actor previews, “You’ll see a little bit of … I don’t know if it’s anger, but he starts to get a little sharp, you know? And it was fun to kind of go through these different ways of coping, but in a really concentrated, short amount of time. I had a lot of fun on that roller coaster. And yes, eventually he does accept it — and what his attitude is when he accepts it is interesting, and that kind of sets the stage for the rest of story.”
Clifton says that even once Liam has fully absorbed the seriousness of his condition, there is a part of him that is holding out for a miracle. Muses the actor, “I think Liam is kind of torn between two uses of his energy, 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 a sort of 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. 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.’ ”
The star is aware that B&B fans are actively speculating about whether this is truly the end for Liam, or if the character will receive an 11th-hour reprieve akin to the one Eric Forrester got when he was brought back from the brink of death at Christmas in 2023 — but Clifton has made the decision not to dwell on the possible outcome of the storyline. He explains, “They have this adage in acting classes where they say, ‘Don’t play the end of the scene,’ and I think there’s something to that in real life. I’m kind of trying to cross each bridge as I come to it and not think too hard about it. To the fans, I would say, ‘Hey, man, we’re on this trip together! I’m right there with you. I don’t now 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 all really, really care [about telling it right].”
Suffice it to say, the rumors that he might be making a comeback to General Hospital, where he made his soap debut as Dillon Quartermaine back in 2003, are decidedly premature. “No,” he chuckles. “I am not at all thinking about General Hospital or any other show. I’m just thinking about doing the best job I can do telling this story. That is what is important to me. I just want to do right by this show and this story and and this storyteller — namely, Brad.”
Do you think this is the beginning of the end for Liam Spencer, or do you think the character’s life will be saved? Let us know in the comments below!
Howard Wise/jpistudios.com
Ex Marks The Spot: Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) was by Liam’s side during his hospitalization, and ultimately was the one to reveal his diagnosis to him.
