Howard Wise/jpistudios.com
Life Cycle: Heather Tom (Katie) calls working with B&B son Crew Morrow (Will) a “full-circle moment.”
Bold and Beautiful‘s Heather Tom (Katie) had a personal connection to the character of Will Spencer, Katie’s son, from the very beginning — after all, Katie’s pregnancy was scripted into the show because Tom herself was expecting back in 2012. Explains the actress, “When I got pregnant many years ago, I went to [Executive Producer/Head Writer] Brad [Bell] and I said, ‘It’s your prerogative, of course, but I think it would be nice if you wrote this pregnancy in. I think it’s something that for Katie and Bill would be the next step to their trajectory.’ And thankfully, he agreed.”
Not only that, but when Katie did give birth to Will, Tom’s real-life son, Zane Achor, portrayed him on the show from 2013-16 and again in 2018. And now, after a 2018-20 stint by Finnegan George, Will returned to the canvas on August 1 in the form of Crew Morrow — who just so happens to be the real-life son of Joshua Morrow (Nick Newman, Young and Restless), who played Tom’s brother during her Daytime Emmy-winning run on Y&R as Victoria Newman.
“I’m just thrilled that he’s here,” Tom beams of the younger Morrow. “I’m loving it! And I’m thrilled that they decided to age the character, too. I feel like it was time for Will to come back — the right time for him to come back. I think [contending with a teenager] is the next step in [Bill and Katie’s] trajectory and I’d been hoping that they might do that for a while. I guess they were just waiting for the right person and I’m so glad they found Crew! I think he’s going to be great. And I love the connection to Joshua, too.”
First Impressions
The actress said she could tell from Morrow’s first day on set that B&B had picked the right actor for the role. “He just kind of came on and hit the ground running and I felt an instant connection in our scenes,” she notes. “I was really happy; it was an easy day, you know? Like, you never know, as far as somebody new coming in, and even though he’s been around daytime for a long time [via his father], the way we work is so fast, and he was just so prepared and ready to go. It was just very simple and easy, working with him. It just felt like he had always been there!”
It was 30 years ago, in 1994, that Tom shared scenes with Crew’s father on his own first day on a soap. “Honestly, it’s such a weird, full-circle moment,” she marvels. “I mean, daytime is a very small community, and we know each other’s family members and stuff like that. But it makes me feel like I’ve been doing this a long time — which I have! And I have to really give kudos to Joshua and [wife] Tobe, because they clearly raised a really great kid — well, not kid, but man. I’ve been loving it.”
Tom is excited to find out more about the personality of an older Will. “I think it’s just going to be fun to see how the character develops,” she enthuses. “I went through this [in my own soap career] because they had aged Victoria, and that’s how I ended up coming on [Y&R]. You get to kind of make the character your own. And what I think is so interesting about the Will character is that unlike Bill’s other two sons [Liam and Wyatt], Bill really raised this child. Will was the only one that was actually raised with Bill and raised in that kind of wealth and with Bill’s influence. I think that will be interesting, to see how that affects the character moving forward.”
CBS
The Rest Is History: Heather Tom worked with Crew Morrow’s father, Joshua Morrow (Nick), starting in 1994 when they played Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) and Victor’s kids on Y&R.
