John McCook has seen much of the world as a cast member of The Bold and the Beautiful. But even before he first donned Eric Forrester’s suspenders, he had traveled abroad. For this week’s installment of Travel Tuesday, Soap Hub chatted with the actor about the time he was paid to play ‘Tourist’ and his other travels across the world.
All the World Is a Stage for John McCook
Soap Hub: You actually got paid to see part of Europe in the TV mini-series Tourist, which your wife Laurette McCook (Battlestar Galactica) was in as well.
John McCook: Yes. That’s funny. We did. That show was actually part of our honeymoon. The morning after we got married, we got on a plane and flew to Rome. The shoot for Tourist was going to be 11 weeks, so we got to Rome a week early. Then, we took the train down to Venice and had four or five days there. Then, we took the train back to Rome and started working. We had this huge cast. It was The Love Boat on a bus. We went to London, Paris, and Amsterdam.
Soap Hub: The mini-series had quite the cast — Lee Meriwether (ex-Ruth, All My Children; Barnaby Jones), Bonnie Bedelia (ex-Sandy, Love of Life; Parenthood), Adrienne Barbeau (ex-Suzanne, General Hospital; Maude), and Bradford Dillman (Falcon Crest, The Way We Were). You and Laurette played co-workers who led the tour.
John McCook: Yes. That was a tiny part for her to take after [being on] Battlestar Galactica, but she wanted to do the show for me and with me. This was 10 minutes after I’d left Y&R [where he played Lance Prentiss]. This was a big opportunity. We thought our wedding wasn’t going to be for months later, but we moved it up.
Soap Hub: Were you able to enjoy Europe or were you working a lot?
John McCook: We were working like crazy even though [most of the stories] weren’t about my character. I’d be off shooting somewhere and Laurette would be back at the hotel. I had been to London before, but Laurette hadn’t been to any of those places where we were shooting. We’ve been back to Paris a few times since. We’d since been to Italy, Monte Carlo, and the south of France a few times.
Soap Hub: Do you have a favorite spot you’ve visited?
John McCook: Yes. My favorite and Laurette’s is Beaulieu-sur-Mer, a tiny seaside town in the south of France. It’s 730 miles east of where Monte Carlo begins. We went there for our 50th anniversary and rented a little house that overlooked the Mediterranean. We’d go out for coffee in the morning and to restaurants at night. There were all kinds of adventures. We’d drive around to different spots.
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Soap Hub: Do you like to have a plan when you go to a new place or do you go out and explore without one?
John McCook: We’ll look stuff up in advance, but once we get there we don’t really do a guided tour unless we feel it’s necessary. We’ll arrive, take a deep breath, and then walk around on our own.
Soap Hub: Do you overpack? Under-pack?
John McCook: Laurette overpacks and I under-pack. We actually don’t travel [abroad] that much anymore, but we do travel locally. We’ll drive up to wine country in California. We do that every year. I’ve traveled with B&B to Europe, and we took that great trip to Australia.
Soap Hub: Do you have any memorable instances of when you were recognized?
John McCook: Yes. One time, Laurette and I and our family were in Beaulieu-sur-Mer. We were on our way to Monte Carlo. There was a beautiful Mercedes…waiting for a green light. The couple inside — a man with a beautiful, blonde woman — was talking away. When the light turned green, the man looks at me and says, ‘Ciao, Eric!’ That was fun.
The Bold and the Beautiful (BB) airs weekdays on CBS. Check your local listings for airtimes. For more about what’s coming up in Los Angeles, check out all the latest that’s been posted on B&B spoilers, and for an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.
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