The son of Dr. Taylor Hayes and Ridge Forrester has returned to Los Angeles, and he is already making waves at Forrester Creations. Pierson Fodé has taken over the role of Thomas Forrester on “The Bold and the Beautiful,” and while he may be wanting to be accepted by his father, his attention also seems to be focused on Ridge’s love, Caroline Spencer. Within the short amount of time that Fodé has been on the show, we saw more depth and exploration to the character of Thomas that we never got to see in recent years.
“It’s been a crazy, crazy ride! They really started writing for me heavy since day one. Trying to catch up at the speed in which they shoot was a bit of a mind-blast, at first. Coming from the indie world where we shoot 12 pages a day to now doing 30 to 40 pages a day/3 episodes at that, was a bit overwhelming. Now, I am finally settling into a rhythm, and I feel comfortable with the character. We’re now adding some deep, dark layers to him. There are some human concepts that he is struggling with, as well.”
Fodé continued with speaking about taking over a role from two known recasts and making Thomas Forrester his own:
“It’s always an uncomfortable position to be in when you had someone do the role before you, and you will be compared to them no matter what. Some people will say, ‘You are hotter,’ or another will say, ‘They were hotter. Get this one off.’ They get very topical with their conversation. Ultimately, it comes down to a portrayal and truthfulness to the role. These two guys held down the reigns for a long time. Drew (Tyler Bell) won an Emmy for his performance. You just want to do a good job. Actually, I made sure I didn’t watch any of their performances. It’s part of an actor’s craft. We go in and want to make sure we are authentic to the role, and not authentic to an idea we have about the role. I went in and read about all of their performances. I read about the history of the character. If you are sitting there trying to emulate someone the entire time, you’re going to lose.”
One of the most jaw-dropping scenes that featured Thomas was when he went to his father, Ridge, about a design he drew up. Looking for support from his father, Thomas gets a shock when Ridge when he tears up his designs in his face. We spoke with Fodé about filming that scene alongside Thorsten Kaye:
“It was utter shock and pain! We get into these situations where we want somebody to say, ‘Wow, that was really great!’ We have our expectations. There’s a beautiful scene in ‘500 Days of Summer’ where it has the expectation versus reality. It’s side-by-side, playing out. It shows Joseph Gordon-Levitt walking up to this girl’s apartment that he is in love with. It shows the expectation of what is in his mind of the girl coming to the door, and he has these flowers. It plays out like a romantic scene. In the reality scene next to it, it’s not her, but her friend that comes to the door, and she is with another guy that she is actually into. His heart is broken, and it’s kind of like that. We want this approval and love from someone you admire and respect, especially my father on the show. He wanted his dad to say finally, ‘I’m really proud of you.’ It was handled in such a different way. Instead of saying, ‘You can do better than this. Why don’t we work on it together,’ Ridge tore it up. That left a deep, deep wound.”
We spoke with Pierson Fodé about Thomas’ relationship with Caroline, and how history is repeating itself with the father, son, and the other woman!
Also, Fodé talked about the indie film he did last year, entitled, “Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List.” The story centers around two best friends, Naomi and Ely, in New York, who both eventually fall for the same guy! It may turn out that guy may not be as interested in one of them as they really choose to believe. The film is set to premiere exclusively on iTunes on September 18, 2015, and folks can pre-order the movie now at http://nokisslistmovie.com. 10% of the proceeds will go to the Trevor Project.
Watch the official trailer for the movie below:
You can download the full podcast with Pierson Fodé at the top of the page, and make sure you follow him on Twitter at: @PiersonFode.
“The Bold and the Beautiful” airs weekdays on CBS Daytime and weeknights on Pop.
