Kiara Barnes interview Fantasy Island Bold and Beautiful
Credit: Rob Flate/Fox.

“I thought it was kind of a sweet ending.”

Kiara Barnes may have traded Zoe Buckingham’s stilettos on The Bold and the Beautiful for Ruby Akuda’s all-white wardrobe on Fantasy Island, but that doesn’t mean she’s completely left Forrester Creations behind. While viewers felt like Zoe’s storyline might have been a bit rushed, Barnes had some differing thoughts on how it all wrapped up — and the answer just might surprise you.

During the Fantasy Island press junket, we asked her if she wished Zoe’d had the opportunity to call out Quinn (Rena Sofer) and Carter before she left, and Barnes had an answer we weren’t expecting. “Zoe had already had so many of those big dramatic moments beforehand with Thomas and all that,” she said. “I actually enjoyed this perspective of where all of that intensity totally fell on Rena and Lawrence and their characters of Carter and Quinn like, ‘Where do we go from here?’ They did all of the messing around, so I think it was only [right] for the fans to see what happens on their end.”

Despite Barnes feeling good about where Zoe ended up, we pressed on to see if she would be open to returning to Bold & Beautiful if the writers felt like there was more to the character’s story or if they wanted to wrap up any loose ends. But the Fantasy Island star admitted, “I thought that the ending was pretty good, and I also thought that Paris being the one to tell me [about Carter and Quinn’s affair] was also sweet because they had gone through so much. It was a lot of ups and downs through Zoe and Paris’ relationship, so I thought it was kind of a sweet ending and it showed that connection of Zoe and Paris becoming sisters again.”

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Barnes’ exit from the soap wasn’t a lonely one because she brought a piece of The Bold and the Beautiful with her to Fantasy Island: Adain Bradley (ex-Xander). In the pilot, Barnes got to play opposite Bradley as the younger versions of Ruby and Mel Akuda.

It was “a total coincidence” that the two former soap stars wound up on the show together. “I was so, so happy because we already have that easygoing chemistry — we worked together, obviously, on B&B — so we already knew how we act with each other within scenes,” she said. “He’s one of my favorite actors to work with. He makes work not feel like work. That was a really fun reunion, I missed working with him.”

To find out whether Bradley might return in later episodes, what Barnes took from the experience and what she thinks Zoe’s fantasy might be were she to visit the exotic island, watch the full interview above. Then check out the gallery below in which we look at some of the more… shall we say daring fashions donned by Barnes and her fellow Bold & Beautiful actors