From farming to fortune
THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL AFFORDED HIM FINANCIAL STABILITY ‘I’ve never worked harder in my life than on this.’
From growing up on a farm in Washington state and owning about 30 to 40 cattle, Pierson Fodé’s life changed massively when he made his debut on popular American soapie The Bold and the Beautiful in July, 2015.
It forced him to leave the comfort of his home and follow his dream in Los Angeles, selling some of his livestock and giving the rest to family.
“In exchange, my dad helped me to pay rent for the first few months when I was in LA,” he said, taking time to tell The Citizen a bit more about taking over as Thomas, what the job has done for him and his practical man tips. “Thomas is an interesting guy. The household playboy of Forrester. He has made a lot of poor choices, but he is trying to make up for them,” Fodé said, explaining that his character is trying not to follow in his father’s footsteps.
“He is trying to be the dad his father wasn’t. I think that is a big challenge for him in a lot of ways because his dad is the only father figure he has always known, so trying to step out of that for anyone is really difficult.”
Fodé says Thomas is attempting to set a new path for himself, to allow himself to be a new person, but is constantly coming across challenges. Fodé portrays the role of Thomas Forrester, a character that was previously played by Adam Gregory from 2010 to 2014 and Drew Tyler Bell from 2004 to 2010.
The 30-year-old says stepping into a role that was previously played by another loved actor was a huge challenge for him.
“I actually met Adam Gregory before I had even accepted the role. At that time, I had never watched the show and never really heard of a person taking over a role and have it go well. That is why this was the most stressful thing for me.”
Fodé says besides this, he was faced with the challenge of making Thomas his own, while adjusting to life in LA.
“I had to stay true to what the fans wanted to see from Thomas and not break their hearts, so I stuck to his history and what the character and the people before me had portrayed to be the heart of Thomas Forrester.” The actor says at first his reception from the many fans of the soapie was a bit spilt.
He gave the character a lot of darkness because the character had daddy issues and felt misplaced within the family as the first-born son.
“I kind of gave him a lot of resentment and sarcasm and fans didn’t take to that right away. But once they understood where I was coming from, it was as if all of that built up perfectly to who Thomas was and who he became through my eyes. “We are both fairly carefree individuals but both equally driven. And when someone tells us that we can’t do it, it makes us work harder to prove them wrong,” he said of himself and the character he plays in the soapie.
“Our humour is probably very similar but at the same time, I think I try to implement pieces of myself for his sensitivity and his need to be loved, but in a subtle manner.” Fodé says there are a few things that serve to make The Bold and the Beautiful stand out from some of the other popular soapies.
The first is the fact that it takes place in Los Angeles and not some made-up city that people cannot relate to and secondly, it looks into life in a fashion design house.
“It depicts an ideal world of money and wealth as we all want to know how the wealthiest people in the world live,” he said.
“We are shown the human side of some of the richest people in the world, and how they still struggle, make mistakes, and how things aren’t easy because they’ve made it to the top or created the most successful fashion label in history. It’s still hard and you still have family problems.” “Being with The Bold and the Beautiful has changed my life in so many ways, with the first part being financial stability. That has been huge for me. Going from movie to movie, job to job hasn’t been hard for me, especially growing up in a farm were you have to earn your money day by day.”
He says this opportunity has afforded him a chance to grow his acting experience in a manner he never thought possible.
“A lot of people don’t have respect for soaps and that is disappointing. I’ve done horror movies, I’ve worked for Disney, Nickelodeon and different TV shows all over the place, but I’ve never worked harder in my life than on this.”
People often think that soapie acting is the easiest and cheesiest. “We shoot eight episodes in four days and sometimes even more, while most TV shows shoot an episode a week, and we memorise between 20 and 90 pages a night.” “I do workout routines. I’m actually not a huge fan of going to gym every morning, but I do it anyway. I force myself to do it because I know it will help me live longer and help my life to be more relaxed.
“Also, it is vital I stay in good shape because I get paid to take my shirt off,” he said with laughter, adding that he tries to do the things he likes like playing soccer and swimming daily.
Fodé recently announced he was leaving B&B. But he will still be on SA screens as this country does not show the popular soapie concurrently with the US.