Will Taylor Hook Up Hope & Thomas on ‘Bold and the Beautiful’? Annika Noelle Weighs In
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Taylor (Hunter Tylo) is taking a page from her late mother-in-law Stephanie’s (Susan Flannery) playbook by trying to put together one couple — Hope (Annika Noelle) and Thomas (Matthew Atkinson) — so that another — Liam (Scott Clifton) and Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) — can be together.
While stranger things have happened on The Bold and the Beautiful, the reality is that Hope, mourning the loss of her newborn daughter Beth, is still very much in love with her husband. Still, playing a maternal figure to Thomas’ son Douglas (Henry Joseph Samiri), recently left motherless, has helped Hope start to heal her own broken heart. In other words: it’s complicated!
There’s no telling when exactly Hope’s going to find out that Steffy’s adopted baby Phoebe is, in reality, her daughter Beth. TV Insider chatted with Noelle to discuss Hope’s struggle to find peace in her life and that homage to Britney Spears’ “Stronger” she and Wood shot a while back.
You’ve played Hope’s angst beautifully. I imagine the trick is to show her pain without making it so that viewers don’t find it all too unbearable.
Annika Noelle: Yes. That’s been the biggest challenge, finding the layers in her despair. There are so many different levels of what people go through when they are grieving. It was important for me not to be one-note and show the complexities.
Katrina Bowden and Annika Noelle (Cliff Lipson/CBS)
Hope won’t actually be able to get that mad at Steffy over all this as she didn’t know Phoebe was Beth.
There so much at stake here. A lot of relationships are going to be affected whatever the ultimate reveal is. I’m just so curious as to when it will be. I’m in the same boat as everyone else. We only get the shows about two to three weeks in advance [from when they air]. I’m wondering how it will all unfold. Who is it that will finally be honest about this situation and come clean? The longer it takes, the more devastating it will be. Steffy’s bonding with Beth. It’s going to be a very big reveal and I’m curious as to how Brad [Bell, executive producer/head writer] will go about it.
Meanwhile, Hope’s developing this strong bond with Douglas. What has that meant to her?
Hope is left with this echoing emptiness ever since she lost Beth. It’s caused her to confront some things in her relationship with Liam. It’s also, in a way, shown her that she and Douglas have bonded over the loss of these important figures in their lives. By helping a child through this grief, if in any way she can also make her mourning easier or make his life easier, it’s helping her process her grief. As she’s describing loss to Douglas, [she realizes] this is all the things she wishes she could have said to Beth. It’s a healing process for both of them.
We’re seeing some growth for Hope since Beth died. It’s not the life she envisioned but she’s slowly learning to move past [her tragedy][. She may never fully move past it. But she’s starting to accept the new reality of what her life has become. Douglas has helped her process that.
Taylor’s trying to push Hope into Thomas’ arms, hoping to create a reunion between Steffy and Liam. Liam’s pushing Hope to have another child. What’s Hope’s mindset on all this?
[Laughs] When has Taylor not wanted this! She’s looking out for her daughter and grandchildren. Thomas and Hope do have a little bit of history but Hope’s always only had eyes for Liam. He has always been ‘the one.’ We’ll see how Taylor does playing matchmaker. Liam has said we can try again but he’s not listening to her when Hope says she couldn’t handle the loss of another child. She’s not sure she can handle this a third time. She had a miscarriage with Wyatt. As far as Hope knows, she lost Beth due to placental abruption. She’s not sure she wants to risk it.
As a husband, Liam wants to be there for his wife. But at the same time, they have to listen to each other and right now Hope feels she couldn’t handle this again. We’ll see. There are different types of motherhood there’s adoption. There’s Douglas coming into Hope’s life. We’ll see if Hope starts to open up to new possibilities.
Henry’s a good little actor!
He’s only five years old! He still has that sweet, little angelic little boy voice and it breaks your heart when he says the things that Douglas does. We have a great working relationship. I adore him and I think he adores me. We get along on set and are able to communicate with each other in a way that brings out the best performances. We’ve bonded and I think that comes through. He’s doing such a great job and it’s such lot of pressure working at the pace we do. He’s been killing it. He’s so great. I really enjoy working with him.
You can relate to Matthew being new to the show having been the new kid on the block a year ago.
Yes. He had a year over at The Young and the Restless [as Austin]. They threw him into the deep end with a very heavy storyline here. Not only a lot of dialogue but a lot of story, with Douglas’ mother passing way. It’s been great. I’m loving the new kind of wrench it’s throwing into this story. And how they’re both dealing with grief differently. It adds an interesting dynamic and we’ll see how that affects Liam and Hope’s marriage.
It’s not a given that Hope will find out the truth anytime soon or where she’ll be in her life when she does learn her daughter’s alive.
Exactly. Are Liam and Hope going to be together when they find out? How old will Beth be when this is revealed? How bonded will Steffy be with her at that point?
The video you and Jacqui put on social media, doing a tribute to Britney Spears’ “Stronger” was amazing.
I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much in my life as when we did that. Even though Jacqui and I play rivals on the show, we’ve developed a real bond and friendship. I have so much respect for her as an artist, as a woman, a mother. She’s an amazing human being. We did that when we were heavy in the storyline. She saw that I needed to blow off some steam and make it happen. She’s a great friend and a whole person.
Everyone in the cast is amazing and so supportive. I can’t believe a whole year has gone by since I joined the show. They’ve all become like a family to me. I’ve grown as a person and an actor because of this show. I’m eternally grateful.
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