A chance meeting late last year led to Jack Wagner‘s return to The Bold and the Beautiful to reprise the role of Nick Marone, beginning June 16.
“I ran to Brad Bell [B&B‘s executive producer and head writer] at the golf course about six months ago,” Wagner begins. “I said, ‘Listen, I’m going to Italy in the spring or summer. Do you want me to do any press for the show? I know I haven’t been on for a while.’ He said, ‘Let me think about that.’ ”
Six weeks later, Bell got in touch with Wagner with an enticing offer. Relays the actor, “He said, ‘Hey, what do you think of a summer story arc before you go back to Vancouver for When Calls the Heart [where Wagner has played Bill Avery for 13 seasons]? I think we can do a location shoot in Naples and tie it into Nick and his old shipping company.’”
Wagner, who portrayed Nick, a sea captain turned shipping magnate, from 2003 to 2012, made his most recent appearance in 2022 for a special episode commemorating the show’s 35th anniversary. Time away from B&B made him even more eager to play his alter ego with new depth. “I wanted this character to be different, because he lived on the Shady Marlin when I was on the show, and I had a little beard and I smoked,” Wagner points out. “I said, ‘Brad, I think this guy’s got to be more sophisticated. He owns and runs Marone Industry. I think his dress code is more stylized. He’s a shipping tycoon. He’s confident. When he comes back, he has the ability to charm Brooke [Logan, Katherine Kelly Lang]. He has the ability to take moments and be very intimate with her about the truth. And when Ridge comes in, it’s got to be like a fly on his shoulder. He fears nothing.’”
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The actor also welcomed the chance to fall back into the soap’s familiar rhythm. “Getting back into the flow of a show like Bold and Beautiful is jumping on a moving train, because soaps go so quickly now,” he notes. “And I was ready. I like to work fast.”
Wagner says his on-camera reunion with Lang was a standout moment of the visit. “It was great to work with Kelly, and that was part of the deal,” he reveals. “I don’t want to dilute the character and be in a bunch of storylines. Nick’s primary motivation [of] why he’s back [is that] he tells Brooke, ‘I’ve heard that your heart’s broken again, and I’m here to try to wake you up out of this toxic pattern you’ve got going on with Ridge and the Forrester family,’ which gave me a lot of different layers to play, not only with Kelly, but also with Thorsten [Kaye, Ridge Forrester]. I loved it.”
He also loved filming abroad with the show for the first time, as he got to witness B&B‘s global popularity up close. “It was awesome,” raves Wagner, who is newly married to singer-songwriter Michelle Wolf. “What was great is I was able to tie in a honeymoon for the first six days and then just jump right into production and have Brad pay for all the dinners [laughs]. But to shoot with Bold and Beautiful in Italy, it’s like The Rolling Stones over there. That’s what the actors are like.”
And the opportunity to soak up the local sights and sounds was another memorable highlight. “We went over to Capri, we shot all over the island, especially the romantic places,” Wagner previews. “We were able to get out on boats. Then we came back to the port of Naples, there where we stayed for four or five days as a company and shot around the city of Naples. It was great to be with a group of people that were all in because you don’t know what you’re going to face. It was quick, because that’s what it was intended to be, but I think we captured some beautiful stuff, and the storyline is going to be terrific.”
While filming on location presented its own challenges, Wagner took them in stride. “I call it guerrilla TV, because you have a plan of what you want to do, and it’s ever-changing, like a lot of things, because you don’t really have set crews and locations you work with every day,” he explains. “It was a collaboration, and it was go with the flow and shooting on the fly and being able to roll with the punches.”
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One scene that was especially notable involved a sweet treat as Nick and Brooke explored the city. “So, we’re running out of time, but they’re supposed to shoot Brooke and Nick in different spots in Naples, and we’ve got literally eight minutes,” he recalls. “I said, ‘Well, get some gelatos that Brooke and Nick can have.’ So, they had chocolate and pistachio and handed Kelly and me these gelatos. It was hot. They’re dripping. So, we’re completely ad-libbing. She’s like, ‘Oh, there’s nothing like gelato in Italy.’ And I go, ‘Oh, my favorite flavors.’ And we do it again, because it’s dripping more now and going down our arms, and we’re laughing and giggling like kids. It wound up being the director’s favorite scene of the whole shoot. When things are a little messy, I think it humanizes the characters.”
That Brad Bell finds ways to bring Nick back to the canvas for visits means a lot to Wagner, who cherishes his connection with the CBS soap. “This business is about relationships, and I’m just lucky to have a few relationships with people that have really been good to me, and I think I’ve been good to them,” he says. “It’s about trust and collaboration.”
And reconnecting with the cast is always a rewarding part of his daytime journey. “It’s great to come back,” he concludes. “When you get back to set, it’s always like family; it’s like a class reunion. Seriously, it really is. And then the moving train starts, which I love, so that’s the opportunity I get on Bold and Beautiful.”
The Bold and the Beautiful, Weekdays, CBS. Check local listings.