Bold and the Beautiful Alum Jacob Young Talks To Soap Vet Jason Cook

The Bold and the Beautiful alum Jacob Young recently welcomed Days of our Lives and General Hospital alum Jason Cook to his podcast Real Conversations with Jacob Young for a thoughtful conversation on a variety of topics.

Jacob Young and Jason Cook Get Real

During the Real Conversation podcast, the two men talked about being early risers. Cook said he got in the habit of getting up early when he started playing Shawn on DAYS in 1999. Young, who grew up on a farm, said that getting up early was part of farm life.

Cook talked about the importance of having both street smarts and book smarts, citing characters from Star Trek as an example. He said you need both Captain Kirk (William Shatner) to make decisions at the helm and Scotty (James Doohan), the engineer, to handle the mechanics. Young agreed, saying that he often encourages novice actors to learn the business end of show business.

Cook also talked about his 2019 movie The Creatress. The film’s about an author named Erin Bellow (Lindy Booth), who takes revenge on her critics. The Creatress is available on Amazon Prime and also stars director Peter Bogdanovich (What’s Up, Doc?).

Young asked Cook what motivated him to move from a career in front of the camera to behind the scenes. He recalls working with talented actors at DAYS, wishing they had more opportunities to shine. “I saw this amazing talent in front of me,” he recalls, “I felt like they were missing the potential of where these actors could go.”

Cook says when he went back to DAYS for the 50th anniversary in 2015, his TV grandmother Peggy McCay (Caroline) had this big speech to perform. “She was so good, I’m getting emotional thinking about this performance,” the actor recalls. “She crushed it. I was grateful that they gave her that moment. So many actors on the show [are] that talented.”

Cook says he started to write his own material after leaving DAYS in an effort to give actors more chances to shine. He wrote a film called Social Security Guard, which starred John Ingle (ex-Edward, General Hospital; ex-Mickey). Ingle’s character played a 77-year-old man who got to experience adolescence late in life. “He worked 12 hour days like it was nothing,” Cook recalls of Ingle’s work ethic. The two had worked on GH at the same time when Cook played Dr. Matt Hunter, Patrick Drake’s brother, but that was after Young’s tenure as Lucky Spencer in Port Charles.

In keeping with the theme of Jacob Young’s podcast, which shines a light on mental health, Jason Cook also chatted about a film he directed titled Numb to Life. Cook encouraged Young to talk about how he got into show business, which fans should hear. To listen to the full podcast with Young and Cook, click here.