Rena Sofer has elaborated on her reasons for leaving The Bold and the Beautiful (B&B) — as well as some tough love she gave co-star Lawrence Saint-Victor.
The beloved actress, who recently departed the CBS soap after nine years, sat down with Maurice Benard on the General Hospital (GH) star’s vlog, State of Mind, to discuss her exit.
“I was the bad girl of the show who had a toe in the murderous area, but I’m not like some of the characters on the show who are really bad,” Sofer described her character, Quinn Fuller.
And Sofer is truly the authority when profiling Quinn, because she worked hard to make the character more than a stereotype.
“I got to create this character, like I did with [her GH character] Lois, but the character of Quinn – I wanted her to be a human being,” Sofer revealed. “I really infused a lot of humanity in her.”
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The actress explained that her talent is bringing depth to a character, and her treatment of Quinn developed the role into a fan-favorite.
“When I first started the show, they were really moving her towards being a gold digger,” Sofer shared, “and I just said, ‘Listen, I don’t play gold diggers because gold diggers are all about money. And once they get their money, where do they go?’”
After that initial hurdle, Sofer enjoyed her run on the soap and revealed that things got even better once she began working with Lawrence Saint-Victor (Carter Walton).
“Towards the end, they put me together with this man, Lawrence Saint-Victor, who had been on the show longer than I had,” Sofer said, “but he was that character that was the lawyer, who married people, divorced people, sued people, ran the company…”
As the “Quarter” fling heated up in the summer of 2021, Sofer saw a super-couple opportunity and took Saint-Victor aside.
“I sat him down in my dressing room one day and I said, ‘Listen, we can do what’s on the page, or we can create something off the page. We’ll say what they want us to say, but we can make it something deeper,’” Sofer recalled.
Saint-Victor was game to see just how far they could take their scenes together, and Sofer revealed that the duo put in some serious work.
“We would run lines for the next day and the day after, in our dressing room, after that day’s work,” Sofer admitted. “We would try to find moments where we would stop and just look at each other and just laugh, or have a moment.”
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“And I just looked at him and I go, ‘You’ve been here for longer than I have and you need to realize that you’re a leading man,” Sofer recalled telling Saint-Victor, “so let’s show them that you’re a leading man.”
“And he did. He proved it. And he was great. And I loved working with him,” she added.
B&B viewers responded positively to the “Quarter” pairing and, after some necessary drama split them up, the couple appeared to be looking at a bright future.
And then, suddenly, Sofer announced her exit. So, what happened?
“I love that Bold and the Beautiful gave me the opportunity to be a full-time, stay-at-home mom,” she began. “My husband’s a director, so he would get a job and be like, ‘I have to leave in a week.’ Somebody had to be home.”
Sofer has never regretted that decision, as she believes that the lives of her children are more important than hers. But she also had a timeline for her own happiness in mind.
“Every time I renewed my contract, I just knew that when my youngest daughter was going into her senior year of high school, I was going to leave,” she revealed.
“And my contract ended, and I just didn’t renew it. Because my daughters are all ten years apart, so I’ve been a mom for a really long time,” Sofer admitted. “And I wanted my time. I wanted to follow my dreams.”
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Ryan Pratt
Ryan is an avid runner, reader, hiker and music collector. When he isn't writing and editing for Fame10 Soaps, he's relishing in the fine company of his two cats, Penny and Gus.