Here’s How Rebecca Budig Prepared To Take Over Taylor On Bold and the Beautiful

Although The Bold and the Beautiful storyline for Taylor has yet to kick into high gear, her latest portrayer, Rebecca Budig, has shown great promise and eased into the role. Considering Taylor first appeared in 1990 (then played by Hunter Tylo), there’s quite a bit of character history for Budig to bone up on, and she talked about what she did about the learning curve. 

The Right Guidance

Soap star Rebecca Budig spoke with Soaps in Depth about moving over to B&B and becoming Dr. Taylor Hayes. With 34 years of character history to learn, Budig realized it was a daunting task and was able to break things down and take everything slowly. She spoke with executive producer and head writer Brad Bell, who gave it to her in a nutshell, explaining that “Ridge is the love of her life.” She further stated that he “Just gave me a lot of details about who Taylor is. She’s a psychiatrist, she’s smart, she cares, and she listens well.”

Budig explained that, “I’ve just been kind of learning as I go along, picking it all up.” Ridge’s current portrayer, Thorsten Kaye, was a friend of Budig’s since they worked together on All My Children, and he would give her bits of details about the characters and stories as she eased into the part. “It’s hard to get 30 years in,” she said, continuing, “You know how soaps are, so much happens in a year, so to try and get every single piece of information is just beyond [impossible].”

She’s Putting Her Own Stamp on Taylor

While she’s working hard to make the character her own, she’s also aware that she could accidentally go places that Taylor never would, so she insisted that she gets good direction from the staff. “If I’m not going in the right direction with her, I want to know,” she remarked.

Ultimately, while she knows she’s walking in the footprints of soap giant Hunter Tylo, as well as Taylor’s last portrayer, Krista Allen, Budig feels that fundamentally, she’s a different person from them and will put her own stamp on things while also honoring the character’s past. (Find out why Krista Allen’s run as Taylor was doomed from the start.)