Bold & Beautiful Exclusive: On the Anniversary of His Debut as Liam, Scott Clifton Talks Everything From His Character’s True Love to ‘the One That Got Away’
If he’s being honest — and you quickly learn that he is always honest — Scott Clifton doesn’t really remember much about his first day on the set of The Bold and the Beautiful. “I think I only had to shoot one scene,” he tells Soaps.com. “One of the things I loved about the way they introduced Liam is that they didn’t shove him down the throat of the viewers. It wasn’t like, ‘Here is our new contract player, and you have to pay big attention to him because he’s going to be a big deal!’”
In fact, he says that during those first few episodes, “I had fewer lines than an under-five. I was just a tech guy in the background, so there was nothing that implied in any way I was someone you should think twice about.”
So fans can be forgiven if they didn’t realize on June 19, 2010, that they’d just met a character who would have a huge impact on the future of the soap. (Savvy viewers, however, picked up on the fact that Clifton — at that point a veteran of both General Hospital, as Dillon, and One Life to Live, as Schuyler — was probably not who you hire to play a glorified extra.)
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Even Clifton himself didn’t realize quite how central Liam would become. “When I met with Brad Bell,” he says of the soap’s executive producer and headwriter, “he told me that I was going to be the son of Bill Spencer, and he explained to me who that was and what that meant. But he never once said anything about a love triangle.”
While many think of Liam’s perpetual ping-ponging between Steffy and Hope as the character’s primary storyline, Clifton sees things differently. “To this day,” the actor reflects, “I like to tell myself that the triangle is sort of a fun gimmick, it’s something that has kept my character busy, but the real love story for Liam has been the relationship with his father.”
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Over the years, Liam’s had his fair share of adventures — mostly of the mis- variety — and he’s occasionally earned the ire of the audience. For his part, Clifton understands why viewers sometimes get annoyed with his alter ego. “Hell, he ticks me off sometimes,” he laughs. “But here’s the thing: I’m kind of a hired gun. My philosophy is that my job is to make it work, no matter what the storyline is. So if you have Liam go to a club the night before his wedding and show up the next day with blue hair and fake tattoos doing a whole Romeo & Juliet scene in his underwear, I’m going to find a way to make it work.”
Meanwhile, Clifton has a message for fans, and it’s a simple one: “We know how smart you guys are,” he says. “We know you guys are paying attention and that you know the show and the storylines better than most of us. You have long memories, and you remember things that maybe sometimes the show would rather you forget. I am a fan of this show, and like you, I’m a fan of other shows. I know what it’s like to look at a show with scrutiny and joy and frustration and all of the other things we, as a community, feel.”
In other words, “Whatever you’re seeing and thinking and feeling when you watch the show? I feel it, too, good and bad. Because that’s what being a fan is all about!”
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Now, why not take a moment to share your favorite Liam story — and perhaps what you’d love to see for the character in the future — in the comments section below. Then, visit the gallery below and join Clifton as he shares tales from behind the scenes, including what he was (and wasn’t) told about Liam when he took the role, which scenes were his all-time favorites and who in the cast he’d love to work with more.