Soap Hub October Powerhouse Performer for B&B: Sean Kanan

We totally get that Bold and the Beautiful wants to keep Sheila Carter on the canvas. But in order for that to happen, she needs more than getting the right judge to decide her case. Someone needs to believe in her. That someone is Deacon Sharpe, played with conviction, humor, and passion by Sean Kanan. He’s Soap Hub’s choice for B&B Powerhouse Performer for October.

Sean Kanan: Powerhouse Performer

Deacon is the perfect person to see past Sheila’s (Kimberlin Brown) wicked history. At her core, the naughty nurse has always wanted to be loved. Unfortunately for the Forresters and Lauren Fenmore (Tracey Bregman, Young and the Restless), Sheila’s her own worst enemy and makes impulsive (and criminal) choices. Deacon, given his own past as a bad boy, is more easily able to accept Sheila for who she is. One of the reasons he’s fallen for her is that he knows there’s someone inside worth loving just as he feels he’s deserving of love, too.

“I didn’t plan this,” Deacon (Sean Kanan) said after he proposed to Sheila. Indeed. His heartfelt proclamation of love was anything but rehearsed. Sheila and Deacon had decided to part ways but after she overheard that Judge Evan Scott (Michael Corbett), an old pal of Deacon’s, decided to throw him a favor and let Sheila go on a legal technicality, Sheila had to let Deacon know she was grateful to him.

Every successful relationship involves give and take. Sheila wasn’t about to let Deacon throw his life away and endanger his relationships with Hope and his grandkids by marrying her. Thus, she rejected him. That only endeared her more to Deacon. “I don’t need protection. What I need is you next to me willing to stand up for me,” Deacon professed.

“I see something different,” Deacon said as he approached her from behind, holding her in gentle strength, and kissing her shoulder. “My eyes are wide open,” Deacon said, as he added that people can change. He did. “I see it there inside of you. You can do it. And it all starts with one little word…’Yes.'”

Sheila’s got a tough exterior as, from her perspective, Kanan played Deacon as romantic, caring, and passionate in order to break down those walls. Sheila said she wanted to believe that Deacon really cares for her. “You know what I believe?” Deacon rhetorically asked. “I believe that after all these years, I have finally met my match; someone who just doesn’t look at me and see me and my worst moments…all my mistakes…someone who knows everything about me, all my flaws, and is still willing to stand up for me.

“Let me be that person for you,” Deacon implored. “Let me stand up for you. I promise that I will love you and cherish you to my dying day….I’ll be damned if I’m going to live my life without you…say, ‘yes.'”

Sheila whispered a quiet yes, prompting Deacon to tap into his playful side by saying, ‘I’m sorry, what? I didn’t hear that.” Sheila reaffirmed her commitment, prompting Deacon to lift her up in the air with joy. The two sealed the moment with a kiss and some smiles. Who says the antagonists can’t have happy moments?

There has to be growth and change in Sheila for her to continue to exist. She can’t be the only one to claim she’s changed. Someone has to believe in her. Sean Kanan and his B&B alter-ego were tasked by the show’s writers to see something in Sheila that no one else does. He embraced that challenge and sold it with honesty, warmth, and charm.

Honorable Mention: John McCook, as Eric Forrester, continues to deliver the most challenging storyline that the show has handed him in over a year. We saw the B&B original cast member take home the 2022 Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. His performances in this current story make him a contender for the 2024 awards, too.