“I am so appreciative to Bradley Bell for creating this character for me, and I’m having the best time,” she said, about being in The Bold and The Beautiful. “I badgered the poor man. I probably put more grey hairs on Bradley than anybody else. I kept telling him that ‘I think Sally needs a sister,’ and fortunately, Bradley kept me in mind when he re-created this family and I am so grateful.”
Her character, the fiery Shirley Spectra, is sassy and full of life. She arrived in Los Angeles with her granddaughter, Sally, to help resurrect their family fashion business, Spectra Fashions. “I’m a little bit vicious at times, but I’m protecting my family,” she admitted.
She had nothing but the greatest remarks about her acting family on The Bold and The Beautiful, especially her co-stars Courtney Hope (Sally Spectra) and Pierson Fodé (Thomas Forrester). “I cannot tell you what it’s like to work with Courtney. If I had children, or grandchildren, I couldn’t have picked better kids or a better family, and Alex [Wyse] and Danube [Hermosillo]. What a great group the Spectras are,” she said, emotionally.
On her plans for the future, Darbo said, “I hope I am around in The Bold and The Beautiful for a while. As actors, we always like to do other things, we have some down-time, so I am always auditioning. Everybody needs to have something to look forward to, and to grow with whatever is happening around them.”
Last year, Darbo won the Primetime Emmy Award for “Best Actress” in a “Short Form Comedy or Drama Series” for her work in the web series Acting Dead. “That was surreal,” she said. “Time stopped, and everything started rolling very, very slow. It was crazy and thrilling. Next week we start the Creative Emmys again, and I am a governor for the TV academy so I will be there. I have three different Emmys to go to next year.”
Each day, the veteran actress shared that she is motivated by health and life. “My husband is healthy, and I am healthy. The world is good,” she admitted. “I’ve been married 44 years, very happily, and we have had a good life together, and it is still going on. I am very blessed.”
For aspiring actors, Darbo’s advice is as follows: “Be like a dog with a bone. You need to be tenacious. If you want this, don’t let anybody, not even your parents say you can’t do it. If it’s your dream, and if it’s in your heart, you have to keep going for it, and keep moving forward.”
On the key to longevity in the acting and entertainment industry, Darbo said, “You must be tenacious, if this is what you want. I always tell young actors that I mentor: ‘don’t sit in a bar whining. Get out, get out on the street, and take a dance, singing or acting class. Be with people that are working in the field and move forward. Don’t take two steps back.”
Digital transformation of television industry
“I have my telephone attached to my Twitter account, and my Instagram, and the whole thing is very confusing to me, but every day, I try to learn something new about it because that is the future. Last year, at the Oscars, one of the films was shot on an iPhone. We have so many platforms, so technology is the future. If we don’t grow or at least try, we are going to get left behind,” she said. “I have a lot of younger people that help me with it, because it is so important. The Bold and The Beautiful are so willing to help us with all of our tweets, and everything else that we need to do to make sure we stay on the right path and do the right thing, so we don’t fall behind.”
Darbo also had kind words for fellow television actress and producer Fran Drescher (The Nanny). “Fran is a darling. She is a very nice person. I’ve met her several times,” she said.
She defined the word success as “staying in the business that you love.” “Success means loving what you are doing, since you will never work a day in your life,” Darbo concluded.
To learn more about Emmy winner Patrika Darbo, follower on Twitter.
