As Eric’s current story indicates, Bold and the Beautiful has handed John McCook some terrific material to play over the years. Soap Hub recently chatted with the actor about another great storyline he had — Eric’s complicated marriage to Quinn — which won McCook the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Drama Series in 2022.
John McCook: Turning ED Into Solid Gold
Eric and Quinn’s (Rena Sofer) marriage hit an impasse in 2021 after he started to suffer from ED (erectile dysfunction), which led, in part, to his wife having an affair with Carter Walton (Lawrence Saint-Victor). Ridge (Thorsten Kaye) came over to the Forrester mansion to talk some sense into his dad. How could he possibly stay with a woman who was stepping out on him, Ridge wondered.
Well, it turns out he could. Eric showed an incredible amount of vulnerability when he pointed out to Ridge that everyone who used to live in that house with him — his late wife Stephanie (Susan Flannery) and all their children — had moved out. Eric was alone except for Quinn.
If keeping her in his life meant accepting her relationship with Carter, then so be it. It was an incredibly sensitive and delicate situation. However, McCook played a mixture of vulnerability, anger, and, yes, strength, which ended up being an award-winning performance.
Preparation Is Key
“I’ll tell you something,” says McCook. “In getting ready to do the scenes that day, Thorsten and I worked very hard, pulling the scenes apart, putting them back together, and expanding them. What we did that day was not just about what they wrote but what we imposed on it. It was very successful. When we work together like that [and] expose those types of emotions, it’s the best part [of what we do].
“I was proud of those scenes and proud of the preparation, too,” McCook shares. “They ended up being good scenes.” Adds Kaye: “John killed it that day.”
As far as Kaye was concerned, having those scenes take place in the very home that meant so much to Eric was the perfect locale. “We made the house a character,” the actor suggests. “The house wasn’t what it used to be [to Eric]. Those things go hand-in-hand. The ‘character’ of the house had changed. That’s why Eric changed, too.”
John McCook: Road to the Daytime Emmys
McCook says that there was no choice when it came to what scenes he’d submit at the Daytime Emmys for the following year. Eric’s emotional tour-de-force about why he was okay with Quinn and Carter was on his reel. “Those scenes were worthwhile,” he says. “It was a good story.”
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