Bold & Beautiful’s Tanner Novlan Breaks His Silence on Finn’s Fate: ‘This Is the Ultimate Twist’
“The surprises keep coming and this is one that will definitely get a bunch of buzz.”
Fans are still reeling over the Bold & Beautiful death that rocked daytime on Friday, April 1. Not only was it a shock to viewers everywhere, Finn’s portrayer Tanner Novlan was taken aback by the news that his character would be the latest murder victim as well. In the new issue of Soap Opera Digest, Novlan revealed that producer and head writer Brad Bell called him personally with details as to where his character was headed. “I was pretty surprised,” he admitted. “But, that’s the nature of soap opera. Anything can happen at any time and that’s ultimately what keeps people engaged with the show.”
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He wasn’t the only one who didn’t see Finn’s fate coming… his co-star and portrayer of his character’s onscreen wife Jacqueline MacInnes Wood (Steffy) was “super-surprised.” Given all of their Sinn fans, he recalled that Wood “was speechless,” which in turn proved that viewers would be too — and “that’s the point of it.”
When it came to handling the end of his character, Novlan’s wife, Bold & Beautiful alum Kayla Ewell (ex-Caitlin), gave him some advice since she’d been through a daytime exit herself, but his role on the CBS soap will live on through the days and possibly weeks to come since “in soaps, the surprises keep coming and this is one that will definitely get a bunch of buzz.”
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He went on to acknowledge that “this is the ultimate twist” and though Finn always had faith in people, specifically having wanted to believe that despite what everyone around him had said, that his mother Sheila had somehow changed, that came “back to bite him in the worst possible way.”
When describing the death scene, which was the first he played as an actor, Novlan initially thought it would be easy to just “lay there the whole time” but “it actually was kind of uncomfortable.” Not only did he have to lie in a pool of blood for nearly six hours, he had to “take a big swimmer’s breath before each take” during the long scenes — and with his eyes closed he never knew if the camera was panned on him or not. “So,” he admitted. “It wasn’t as much fun as I thought it was going to be.”
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The actor remains grateful to those at Bold & Beautiful, as well as to the soap community. “It was such an honor to be so well-received from the fans and critics,” he expressed. “Then for everyone getting behind Finn and saying Finn was this breath of fresh air for the Hope/Liam/Steffy triangle, to be able to provide that for the fans and the show alike was a real honor.”
We wish Novlan the very best in all of his future endeavors!
Join us as we take a look back at Finn and Steffy’s romance in the photo gallery below.
