Interview: Courtney Hope on B&B’s Knockout Cliffhanger & How She’d Scream at Her TV if She Was a Fan

Trapped at home with hottie soap star.

Being trapped in your own home for weeks on end as your show goes on quarantine hiatus has a real silver lining for The Bold and the Beautiful‘s Courtney Hope (Sally Spectra), who gets to hang out with another soap star every day – long term boyfriend Chad Duell (General Hospital, Michael Corinthos)! Still, Hope knows what she’s missing – like both her relatives and her extended soap family. Fortunately, she found free time to chat with Soaps.com about computer games, finding a secret message from her grandma – and that major show cliffhanger!

Soaps.com: What’s it been like to shelter in place with Duell?

Courtney Hope: We’ve been living together about three years now. We’re definitely two peas in a pod – we haven’t had any moments where it’s like, “I’m sick of you!” And that’s a good thing. I felt like there were stages of quarantine – in the beginning we both had a little anxiety over it, then set an at-home routine so we could be productive. It’s just us and our three dogs. We like our alone time, too – he likes to play his

games, and I like fitness and crafts.

Bold and Beautiful’s big cliffhanger…

Soaps.com: The last fresh episode of The Bold and the Beautiful was pretty crazy, with Sally faking her illness and Flo (Katrina Bowden) getting knocked out. What’s going on in that gal’s head?

Hope: Well, Sally’s not necessarily thinking fully clearly. She’s watched people fight for the things they want in the Spectras, and the first year she came to LA she loved to ruffle feathers for sure, but since then she’s tried to take a more mature approach. That doesn’t always work – her name follows her around. But she truly does not like Flo. So when it all transpired, she went with the first suggestion that popped in her head, and hit the ground running.

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Soaps.com: And now Flo is unconscious – and could remain so for a while, since the show is going to be airing classic archive episodes. So is there anything Sally won’t do? Does she have limits?

Hope: I don’t think she’d kill or hurt anyone. She’s not malicious at heart. She’s not doing this to hurt Wyatt (Darin Brooks) – in her eyes she’s trying to save him from this manipulative woman; she knows in her heart that she would love Wyatt harder and better than Flo ever would.

Soaps.com: So how should fans deal with what’s going to be an extended cliffhanger in your story?

Hope: Hang on to the edge of your seats! It’ll be great to resume the story when it does come back; it’s a perfect cliffhanger. If I was a fan I’d be screaming at the TV.

Soaps.com: Had you watched much Bold and Beautiful before you were hired?

Hope: I’d never really watched the show; growing up I watched All My Children religiously until I was about 16. Then my grandmother moved out [to LA] with me and she was big into soaps. Funny story: I couldn’t remember which one she was into at all; I was focusing on auditions. Then, when it was the anniversary of her passing recently, my phone popped up a photo of her as a “memory.” And it was this photo of her from 2011 at my aunt’s house, and she’s baking cookies at Christmastime – and in the background the TV is on and it’s got Don Diamont’s [Bill Spencer] face on The Bold and the Beautiful and I’d never noticed before. And I was crying. I know she had a hand in me getting this part, even though she’s not here.

More: Watch All My Children stars’ recent reunion

Playing in Virtual Reality

Soaps.com: Something you do outside of the show is voice work for video games like Control (for which Hope received a BAFTA Games Award nomination in March) and Quantum Break. How did you get involved in those?

Hope: I fell into it, to be honest. And I love it so much; I think it helps me on the show, because there’s so much dialogue we have – it’s insane. And I’m doing some work from home, now, too – they had an audio engineer drop off all this equipment at our house, and I set it up on my own and I’m planning on shooting the next [downloadable content] for the game here in my walk-in closet. And Chad is loving it, too – he’s a huge gamer. I can learn a lot just by watching him play and listening to other actors in his games.

Soaps.com: What are you most looking forward to doing once quarantine ends?

Hope: Go over to my parents’ house. I miss my family so much. I really want to hug my dad – I’m so close to him. My mom and my brother came down twice – the first time, we waved at them from across a parking lot; the second time they came into our backyard and we waved at them from six feet apart. But my dad is 76 and he has a hard time going anywhere. I don’t know if anyone is going back to the way they were before. This is a milestone in our lives and everything from here forward is going to be different. I don’t know if that’s a bad thing. But the other main thing I’m excited for is getting back to the show and shooting and doing what we love to do.