Howard Wise/jpistudios.com
Come Fly With Me: Arnold (l.) on the B&B set with scene partners (from l.) Jacqueline MacInnes Wood (Steffy), Thorsten Kaye (Ridge) and Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke).
Tom Arnold is poised to make his Bold and Beautiful debut on July 30 in the role of Deuce, the Forresters’ pilot, who commands the jet that will transport Brooke, Ridge and Steffy to Monte Carlo.
Reporting For Duty
The gig came through his decades-long acquaintance with the show’s head writer/executive producer, Bradley Bell. “Brad is a guy I’ve known for 25 years, maybe more,” Arnold explains. “We were social friends and he’s a very nice guy and a funny guy — and as it turns out, he’s a very powerful guy! He asked if I would like to be on Bold and Beautiful and I go, ‘Well, yeah, of course! When?’ And he goes, ‘Wednesday! It’ll be two episodes.’ I go, ‘Oh, boy. How long do I shoot?’ And he goes, ‘Two to three hours.’ I thought, ‘That’s a lie! There’s just no possible way.’ Then I said, ‘Last question — what’s my character’s name?’ He said, ‘Deuce.’ I go, ‘And I’m a pilot? I’m in!’ ”
When he reported for duty (replete with the designated parking spot he’d asked for, “because I think when you’re my age, you really care about where you are going to park”), Arnold reports, “I went down there, nervous, as you are the first day of a new experience with new people. I went into makeup right away and they were spraying my face because I need a lot of makeup [laughs].”
It was there that he first encountered one of his scene partners, Thorsten Kaye (Ridge) — although he didn’t realize it at the time. Chuckles Arnold, “This guy comes in and looked like a construction worker. He goes, ‘Tom, welcome.’ I go, ‘Thank you, buddy.’ [He asked me,] ‘Hey, do you need anything?’ I said, ‘Well, I doubt you have this, but do you have any sugar-free Red Bull?’ This is, like, 8 a.m. and he goes, ‘I’ll find out,’ and then he comes back with it! I’m like, ‘That’s a nice dude.’ We chatted a little bit. I thought, ‘The crew is so nice here!’ Then I got onto the set and he’s the star of the freaking scene! I couldn’t believe it! He was in a completely different outfit, he’d been wearing a T-shirt and jeans when I met him. All I could think was, ‘I hope he doesn’t think I’m a jerk for asking him to get me a sugar-free Red Bull!’ ”
When it was time to shoot his scenes, Arnold was blown away by the professionalism of the show’s production process. “They’re such a well-oiled machine,” he praises. “A lot of times, you shoot a movie and you feel like, ‘Did we get that [shot we needed on camera]?’ And here, I knew they did. They shoot a lot and do a lot and you can tell these people have worked together a long time. Brad’s very talented, and he’s got a very talented crew. And the actors are excellent. They have a lot of lines, they do it every day. It’s shocking how many episodes they do! I told Brad that when I was on Roseanne, we got a call from ABC saying, ‘We need 25 episodes from you this year.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, my God, how do we do that?’ It seemed impossible! But [at B&B] they do 260 episodes a year. It’s insane! With soap opera actors, there’s no messing around. They’ve got to know their stuff and they’re very good at drama and at emotion.”
But Arnold was perhaps most impressed by Jacqueline MacInnes Wood’s (Steffy) facility for physical comedy. “Not many people can do emotional and drama and then genuine physical comedy,” he says. “She had to go through her purse and try to find her passport and scramble through it, and [the script said], ‘Throw whatever you have in your purse’ — I think she had a bikini or something — ‘and throw it and it has to land on Tom’s head.’ And she did it! I get freaked out if I have any prop, but she not only had to dig through her purse while she was talking, but she had to throw this thing and land it on my head. It was very funny. She was like Lucy [Lucille Ball]! That made it very fun.”
Another Soap Town…
Arnold has fond memories of his previous daytime gig, playing Billy “Baggs” Boggs on General Hospital in 1994 in scenes with then-wife Roseanne Barr and the legendary actors who brought Luke and Laura to life, Anthony Geary and Genie Francis. “They had a lot of dialogue and ours was on Teleprompters, and it was so much, we couldn’t even read it!” he recalls. “But they were very kind to us. General Hospital was a show I grew up with and in college back in Iowa, we would miss class to watch General Hospital and All My Children and One Life To Live, the three of them in a row [on ABC]. So to get to be on the show was amazing. When I first came to Hollywood, we were driving down Benedict Canyon in a convertible and a Rolls-Royce pulled up next to us and it was Dr. Hardy [the GH icon played by the late John Beradino]! We just could not believe it. So, to then get a chance to work with Luke and Laura, are you kidding me? That was such a highlight for me.”
The actor took home a memento from the set. “I have the star from my Bold and Beautiful dressing room [door] displayed in my house,” he says. “My kids, they’re 8 and 11, and they make fun of me because I am not as young and beautiful as I used to be. But I said, ‘You cannot be on this show, guys, unless you are both bold and beautiful!’ ” But it looks like he’ll have to haul it back to the studio because Arnold’s pilot will be making another appearance. “Brad is having me back,” he nods. “I can’t wait! But I do need a pilot’s hat that fits my head. I said, ‘Next time, you gotta get me a special-made pilot’s cap for guys with giant heads!’ ”
