Jacob Young has played three memorable roles on soaps. But he’ll never forget getting the one that started it all — Rick Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful back in 1997.
Jacob Young Recalls His Audition
The Daytime Emmy-winner recently was interviewed by Steven Brittingham, host and creator of podcast Hollywood and Beyond. Among other topics, Young discussed how he came to land the role of Rick after the show’s casting department brought him into the show for a reading.
Young had moved from Oregon to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. Placing a photograph of himself in a trade publication caught the eye of the show’s casting director, and Young was called in for the coveted role of Eric (John McCook) and Brooke’s (Katherine Kelly Lang) son.
“I was very nervous and I was very green,” Young tells Hollywood and Beyond. “I had never auditioned [like this before]. They had all the producers in there… After the audition, they basically slipped me a piece of paper that had an acting coach on it. They wanted me to do some coaching lessons with Adrienne Frantz [who was already on the show as Amber]. So, we worked on the scenes.
“They said that Adrienne’s a singer and they knew I had some singing abilities as well and they asked would I be willing to do a duet with her,” Jacob Young adds. “They chose the song ‘I Got You Babe’ by Sonny and Cher. We worked on that and we worked on the scene and I needed to be shirtless — [laughs] just to compile extra pressure on me. Finally, the screen test came around. Maybe a day later they told I had booked the role.”
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Young didn’t have a lot of experience, but he feels that worked in his favor. “They liked the fact that I was green because then they could train me in daytime television,” the actor offers, noting that “daytime is a very unique medium for a multiple of reasons. It moves very fast.”
The actor says that performers need to know more than how to memorize dialogue and act. “You have to know your marks all the time,” Young says. “We’re working with three to four cameras… a lot of dialogue and technical aspects.”
Not having a lot of experience in other genres worked to Young’s advantage. “[I was] somebody not jaded by working in the film medium, which has one camera. They started to train me and [in 1999] I was nominated for [my first Daytime] Emmy.”
Currently, Rick is working over at Forrester International, having split from his wife Maya (Karla Mosley). The Bold and the Beautiful airs weekdays on CBS. Check local listings for air times.
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