Photo Credit: Gilles Toucas
While Susan Flannery is garnering all the attention as she and her long running character, Stephanie Forrester get set to depart The Bold and the Beautiful after 25 years, its time to shine some light on the other half of the duo that will remain behind!
TV Guide spoke to John McCook (Eric), one of the core four of B&B, to discuss life post-Stephanie for the patriarch of the Forrester clan. Plus, how with Flannery’s exit (which will honor the character in a profound way), it will push McCook in new story directions, which indicate that exciting times are ahead as an actor for this soap veteran. But before any of that occurs, circle November 9th, 12th, and13th on your soap viewing calendars, as that is when Stephanie’s big goodbye party comes to fruition on-air! Here now are a few excerpts from the interview below with John McCook!
John weighing in on how Stephanie’s imminent death is also Eric’s story too: “It is! When I first heard Susan was retiring from the role, I went to executive producer Brad Bell and said, “What will we do? How do we handle this? What’s going to happen to me?” (Laughs) Because, as an actor, it’s all about me, of course! But Brad is using this great loss to refocus B&B in a new, really exciting direction. Of course, right now everyone is watching how Stephanie deals with this as the days tick down but in time it very much becomes Eric’s story and I’m really excited to have it. This is a huge change for our show and for me, personally. Eric has kind of been in Stephanie’s shadow in recent years, even in business. (Laughs) Even in mourning! She won’t even let him grieve the way he wants to grieve. She’s running everything from the catbird seat, telling everyone how to be sad! But, yeah, Eric will be getting his power back.”
John on how it was to film his final scenes with Susan Flannery: “She’s been my TV wife for 25 years, almost as long as I’ve been married to my real wife (actress Laurette Spang), so we couldn’t help but go to a really emotional place. After all, we’re not only losing each other as characters but as actors, too, and we indulged all those feelings. As usual, Susan was a titan. It was huge thing to play. It was dramatic. It was beautiful. Eric and Stephanie are just so wonderfully amused with each other because they’ve survived as a couple. They’ve hurt each other, offended each other, stepped in shit together all along the way, but somehow they’ve managed to build a wonderful life and create a marvelous family. And their love endures, stronger than ever. It’s such a dark and awful thing to have Stephanie die but we’re bringing the light to every scene. Usually on soaps, you’re pulling up a chair at the hospital bed. This is so much better than that. There will be no deathbed for this exit!”
Are you looking forward to seeing the final scenes between B&B’s Stephanie and Eric? What would you like to see happen to Eric after Stephanie passes away? Let us know your thoughts!
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