Thorsten Kaye has played the role of Ridge on The Bold and the Beautiful for almost 10 years. He recently shared with us some memories of his first days on the show for Soap Hub’s Flashback Friday feature.
Thorsten Kaye: Ridge Comes Home
B&B made sure that Kaye’s debut as Ridge was going to be memorable. The show taped some of his first scenes on location. Ridge was shown driving up to the Forrester mansion in Beverly Hills. We saw him walking up to the front door. As B&B had done in the past, producers used the home of B&B creators William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell to double as the exterior of Eric’s home.
Kaye had been on three other soaps before, but, arguably, none of them took advantage of exterior shootings, as B&B is set in Los Angeles. “I’d lived in L.A. [before joining B&B],” Kaye tells Soaps Hub. “Beverly Hills is not where I’d go and have a beer.”
Taking A Ride as Ridge
Kaye says he was more focused on getting into Ridge’s skin than sightseeing in his first episodes. “It was at the beginning of a story where I was still trying to figure out [everything],” the actor offers. He does recall driving up the hill to the Forrester estate. “It was my first time driving a Tesla. That was cool.”
Even before he moved back to the West Coast, Kaye says he felt welcomed by the show. “John [McCook, Eric] called me and said, ‘This is going to be fun,'” Kaye recollects. “I had never taken over a role from someone. As far as the [location shooting], I enjoyed it. And, I enjoyed the house. Mrs. Bell was so lovely. I was trying to roll up my sleeves and see what we could do.”
Thorsten Kaye: Viewing Habits
In addition to having a father/son reunion with Eric in the mansion’s living room, Ridge also reconnected with his beloved “Logan,” AKA Brooke (Katherine Kelly Lang). The scene had all the feels, but Thorsten has actually never seen it — unless you count when he was there in person to tape it. Kaye’s among the performers who don’t watch their own work on-screen. “I have to tell you,” he shares, “not for any particular reason, but I’ve never seen the show. For me, it’s always better in my mind when we do it than when I see it.”
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