Getting real
Trans actor Scott Turner Schofield reveals how Bold is telling Maya’s transgender story the correct way.
The Bold & The Beautiful Weekdays SABC3 (*193) 18:00
Maya’s (Karla Mosley) possible future mother-in-law Brooke (Katherine Kelly Lang) comes down on her like a ton of bricks on Monday 30 May, trying to force Maya to tell her lover Rick (Jacob Young) that she’s a transgender woman. But Maya is terrified what disclosing her secret could cost her and a desperate phone message brings her old friend Nick (Scott Turner Schofield) to her side with a friendly ear for her troubles. “Nick and Maya met in a support group when she first came to LA; they clicked. We recognise the humanity and the spirit within one another and that is a deep thing,” reveals Scott, who has an interesting perspective on Bold’s history-making storyline: he’s transgender too. Scott, who was born in a female body as Katie Lauren Kilborn and started transitioning in 2004, auditioned to play Nick after Bold’s producers and casting folk asked GLAAD (a media monitoring organisation founded by LGBT – Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender – people) to put together a list of transgender actors – male or female. He quickly fell in love with the way that Bold has been handling Maya’s story. “I actually do cultural competency work around transgender issues; that’s been my job for the past 10 years in addition to acting, so I know what I’m talking about,” says Scott. “I got the script and was floored by the sensitively and how correctly this was done.”
Asked for an example of what Bold is doing right, Scott tells us that “in my debut episode, Nick and Maya are talking about when the right time to disclose is. Maya’s got so much to lose. The writers already understood that a person disclosing their transgender identity is not at all the same thing as a gay or lesbian or bisexual person coming out,” says Scott. “Coming out is when you’re hiding something. Transgender people are not hiding anything at all; we have become who we are and that is our truth. The fact that the writers could grasp that and do it so well was just astounding,” he adds. Nick will be hanging around Forrester for a few weeks and Ridge (Thorsten Kaye) had better watch out, because Nick has a bone to pick with the way he’s been treating Maya on Tuesday 7 June! Annoyed with Eric’s insistence on keeping Rick in charge, Ridge warns him and Brooke that they’ll need to prepare for the fallout when Rick finds out that his “flawless paragon of honesty” Maya is a transgender woman. Maya gives Nicole modelling tips, while Rick asks Carter for his advice on proposing to Maya. Brooke demands that Maya tell Rick her secret immediately… or Brooke will tell him herself.
Liam gets a message from Caroline telling him that she’ll be back soon, while Maya welcomes her old friend Nick. Wyatt goes running to tattle to Liam after Nicole tells him that Maya is really her brother Myron. Rick and Maya travel up to the Big Bear cabin for a short holiday, and Ridge tells Nicole that she’s just blabbed her sister’s secret to the son of publishing mogul Bill Spencer. Meanwhile back at Spencer, Bill rubs his hands over the news and gives Justin the go-ahead to publish a story despite his staff and wife’s ethical issues with it. Maya tells Rick that she was raised as a boy… Myron. Rick’s baffled at first but he reacts with anger when he finds out that she never told Carter about her past when they were engaged. Maya tries to leave but Rick begs her not to go because he wants to spend the rest of his life with her, while back in LA, Brooke and Eric see Spencer’s online scandal story about Maya. NB! See more on p4.