Soap operas may be about women primarily, but the soap opera genre also has had many strong brotherly connections. Case in point: Darin Brooks was brought on as Wyatt Spencer, Liam’s brother, a decade ago on The Bold and the Beautiful.
Darin Brooks: Being Bold and the Beautiful
“Time flies when you’re having fun,” Brooks tells Soap Hub about hitting his ten-year anniversary with B&B. Despite being a Daytime Emmy winner for his role as Max Brady on Days of our Lives, Brooks actually had to screentest for the role of Wyatt. He first took a meeting with B&B showrunner Brad Bell. “He was so nice and gracious,” Brooks recalls. “I know we all say that about the Bells, but it really is one big family. We talked about what kind of character I’d like to play.”
Brooks recalls going straight to producers and then screen-testing with Scott Clifton (Liam) and Kim Matula (ex-Hope). “We were all having a blast, and they all thought, ‘Okay. This guy can hang with us,'” the actor says. “I had been away from soaps for four years. I had a second callback with Scott. I remember Scott telling me afterward that he knew I was the one who was going to get it because I brought the love to the scene. It was one brother asking what the other was doing. I heard that others played more angrily. I played more hurt. Scott said I was playing levels of love and care — like a brother. That was super sweet. The rest is history.”
Brooks is aware that while Liam and Wyatt have often been in conflict with one another, the characters ultimately lean into not wanting to lose one another because they grew up without each other. “Scott and I talk about that stuff in advance. We’re on the same page,” Brooks says. ” We’ll say, ‘We can we do this here in this scene.’ Scott and I love dissecting the scenes. Some actors never want to ‘lose’ a scene, but Scott and I know that it’s more a case of sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.”
Meet the Parents
“I knew a week or two into the show that Rena [Sofer] was going to come on as my mom, Quinn,” Brooks recalls. “We were the Fullers. I remember Brad telling me I’d eventually be a part of a big family and that Scott would be my brother. Then, it finally came out that Bill [Don Diamont] was my dad.”
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Darin Brooks Debuted in his B&B Birthday Suit
“Don’t remind me!” Brooks chuckles about Wyatt taking an outdoor shower in his B&B debut. “I asked, ‘Couldn’t you give me a bigger leaf?'” he quips. Soon after coming onto the canvas, it became clear that Wyatt and Liam would compete for the same women — Hope (Annika Noelle) and Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) — just as Forrester brothers Ridge and Thorne tried to win Caroline’s heart back in the show’s early days. More often than not, Wyatt lost out to Liam, but Brooks never played that outcome in advance.
“We take the scenes and the story day to day,” Brooks says. “We never know what the writers are going to come up with. I think [pairings] can be planned, but stories change based on how things go and how the audience reacts.” That said, Brooks concedes, “I think over my tenure here, my scoreboard against Liam has been ‘O for however many!'”
Darin Brooks: Funny Man
As B&B audiences are happily aware, Brooks infuses a great deal of humor into Wyatt — something that’s not easy to do in any scripted fare, especially daytime drama. “That’s the beauty of Brad,” Brooks says. “He loves what he does, and he’s welcoming of humor. He’ll say to me, ‘Go for it. Have fun. Make it your own.’ They give me some leeway. I think it’s my training. I’ve been in Los Angeles for 20 years, and I’ve studied with [acting teacher] Ivana Chubbuck [who asks], ‘Why do people do what they do?’ There’s always room for humor — [even in] Marvel movies!”
When Wyatt Met Sally
Sure, Liam and Sally (Courtney Hope) shared a kiss, but that was a blip in the grand scheme of things. Wyatt was the Spencer sibling who played a big role in Sally’s life. They met each other at the Bikini bar soon after Sally had been dumped by Thomas. “Courtney’s the best,” Brooks raves. “I love her. She’s so fun. She could throw down with my adlibs and keep pace, which is always nice. I loved working with her. Sally was getting out of the Thomas thing. I think that’s when Wyatt was getting out of the Katie [Heather Tom] thing. We were ‘castaways’ when we met. The Wyatt/Sally story was very fun to play.”
Living in Gratitude
Stay tuned for part two of our interview with Brooks. In the meantime, the actor has nothing but thanks to give everyone involved with his journey as Wyatt Spencer. “To everybody on the show, to Brad, the Bell family, the past ten years have been a dream,” Brooks says. “I’ve been to Monte Carlo. We’ve shot in Paris and in Amsterdam. We’ve shot in these amazing, beautiful places that I might never have seen otherwise. I’m eternally grateful to the show, to Brad, and to the fans. None of us would be where we are without the fans.”
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