Howard Wise/jpistudios.com
As Crew Morrow officially enters the Bold and Beautiful universe as Will Spencer, the actor dishes about his entry into show biz, his burgeoning relationships with co-stars like Heather Tom (Katie) and Don Diamont (Bill), and the challenging family dynamics Will returns home to.
Crew Morrow is set to debut as the new Will Spencer on August 1st, but being the son of a veteran soap actor like Joshua Morrow (Nick Newman of Young and the Restless ) didn’t hold any sway in the show's decision to cast him in the plum role: The young actor hit the audition circuit like any budding thespian. “Over a span of half of a year, I read for General Hospital ,” he explains, "[and] definitely Days of our Lives . I got close on the Days of our Lives gig. It got down to me and this other dude, and then they decided to scrap that role. I remember thinking, ‘This is going to be the one.’ It came down to the screen test, and I thought I nailed it. I waited a week, and it turns out they decided to not go with me."
But to hear Morrow tell it, that disappointment was ultimately a gift, "Because now I'm working at the Bold and the Beautiful .”
Testing The Waters
Morrow's road to his first daytime role kicked off just a few years back, when he decided to pursue acting as a profession. I'm young, so I would just sort of dance around these ideas,” he admits. “At one point, I wanted to be a UFC fighter. That quickly fell out when I realized how difficult those fighters' lives are. But I was always changing what I wanted to do. I had so many hobbies and interests. I did a couple plays when I was younger, but I was not serious about it whatsoever. It was probably two years ago that I really decided, ‘Let's do this thing.' "
It was a sci-fi classic that cemented the deal. “I guess it started more with me realizing that I just wanted to tell stories,” he explains. “The first film I remember watching where I told myself that I wanted to be a part of storytelling, whatever avenue that was exactly, was watching the original Planet of the Apes with Charlton Heston and my half-asleep grandfather. And, I'll never forget it because [in the movie], the good guys lost. I didn't even know you could tell a story like that! I grew up on these like fairy tales, like Snow White and Disney [movies]. Happy stories, where someone saves the day. I didn't even think there were other things to explore.”
How did the senior Morrow react to his middle son's epiphany? "When I came to my dad about potentially pursuing acting, he didn't really take me very seriously," Morrow admits. "He gave me the rundown and I think he said, ‘Hey, I don't have to tell you this, but you know how difficult this world is. I'm extremely blessed with my job, my role, because it's stable.’ And he warned me, you know what I mean? He said it wasn't going to be easy. He definitely told me to proceed with some caution. But he supported me wholeheartedly, like he does with all my other fantastic adventures.”
Nikki Nelson/Mega
The Way He Was: Here's a young Crew (front l.) with his parents, Joshua and Tobe Morrow, and his brothers, Cooper (r.) and Cash, in 2011. The year after this photo was taken, the Morrows welcomed a daughter, Charlie.
Where There's A Will....
Morrow's B&B audition process began inauspiciously. “You sort of just film your own audition tape and you send it in,” he notes. “So, I did one of those, and they said, ‘Okay, great. Come in for a callback.’ This callback, I guess, wasn't so serious, because it was just with Christy [Dooley, casting]. She was just still weeding out the other competition, I suppose. I remember going in, reading for her, flubbing my lines. I said to myself, ‘Oh God, I just totally, royally screwed up.’ "But two months later, he grins, "I got a call from my manager. He says, ‘They're doing one last, final, end-all, be-all audition with the big dogs.’ I went in there and, I guess I did well enough for them to go with me.”
After getting the good news that the role of Will was his, his dad had a few choice words to impart before he reported for work. “I'm going to butcher his words of wisdom, but it had something to do with just telling me how proud of me he was,” Morrow recalls. “It just meant a lot to hear [that] from him. And you could tell that he was so happy for me. He was like, ‘Just trust your gut, Son. You got the role because of your abilities. And I love you.’ ”
Despite having an A-list Y&R star for a dad, Morrow didn't grow up making frequent trips to its studio, which neighbors B&B's, nor was he familiar with the B&B cast members who had worked with his dad in Genoa City. “I actually only had been to the Y&R set one time,” Morrow says. “And I didn't know who Don [Diamont, who plays Will's father, Bill Spencer, and appeared on Y&R as Brad Carlton)] was or Heather [Tom, who plays Will's mother, Katie Logan, and formerly played Y&R's Victoria Newman]. I only found out after I got the role that she played my father's sister on the Y&R way back when.”
Incredibly, on Joshua Morrow’s first day on the Y&R set, Nick returned from boarding school and paid a visit to his sister, Victoria, played by Tom. Now, in a full-circle moment, Crew Morrow's introduction scenes as Tom's on-screen son feature his own character's return from boarding school. Morrow says he is looking forward to forming his own unique bond with the two-time Daytime Emmy Award-winning Tom as his mother figure. “I’ve got so much to learn from her,” he praises. “She's an incredible actress. I have got a lot of respect for her. I just am so happy that she's playing my mother on the show because what a fantastic scene partner.”
Morrow's first day at B&B "was great," he enthuses. “Don called us, all the scene partners in, so we could run through some lines. The energy there is serious, but it's laid-back; we're telling jokes to each other. I immediately felt like I had been a part of this family for years. They just accepted me with open arms so quickly. They were all so loving. We had a great time on the first day on set.”
He also had a special moment attending his first cast celebration. “At [John] McCook's [Eric Forrester] 80th birthday, he and I shared a special moment,” Morrow discloses. “I remember we all had T-shirts with his face on it, sort of honoring his career and his life. And in his moment, his anniversary, his birthday, he sort of spoke out to me in the crowd, and just shared some words of wisdom from the old stag to the young buck. I love that. I thought that was very cool.”
New Kids On The Block
Morrow takes over the role of Will at a critical time in the storyline, as the (suddenly older) young man must deal with his father’s new relationship with Poppy (played by Romy Park). Diamont has been instrumental in helping him shape the father/son relationship between Bill and Will. “I remember [Diamont] reaching out to me, and we both knew what our relationship was, sort of like a father-son strain,” he says. “There's so much love there, but there's so much history and pain. And he knew from right out of the gate, just as I did, that me and him were going to go back and forth. And it wasn't going to be all love — we were going to be father and son, but we would have moments where we were enemies. I am just so excited to build upon that.”
The actor has a lot to work with when it comes to fleshing out Will's personality and dynamics with other characters. “I think what's very interesting about Will is that he's sort of the only son that Bill's actually raised. So he lived in this wealth,” observes Morrow, who looks forward to exploring the dynamic between the Spencer brothers. “His brothers didn't necessarily grow up in that wealth. So I think there's a lot to be played with that. I think a certain swagger comes from that, for sure. Maybe a little bit of ego; definitely a little bit of ego. I picture someone who's sort of young in the game, with strong emotions, be them good or bad."
Part of the joy of his new role is working with people like three-time Daytime Emmy Award winning Scott Clifton, who plays his brother Liam, and started on a soap opera ( General Hospital , where he played Dillon Quartermaine) as a young actor as well. “We had a great scene together,” the actor recalls. “It was actually my favorite scene yet. I really enjoyed the scenes I had with him. He's going to be dangerous to work with because I remember in our dressing room, me and him were supposed to just rip him back and forth, you know, a little improv. And he's fun. He's fun to just sort of quip with.”
The addition of Luna (played by Lisa Yamada) to the family — she was recently revealed to be Bill's daughter by Poppy — adds another layer of complexity to Will’s homecoming. “It's a little rocky, that's for sure,” the actor says. “Listen, it's not the greatest of welcomings, I guess. He doesn't really know what to think because he has his loving parents and the life that he grew up with. And now there's these new gals in town [who've] sort of made it seem like it's their place, too.”
Will’s bond with his mother may set the tone. “I think both he and her ideas fall very in sync together,” Morrow surmises. “I think he listens to his mother a lot and I think he believes what his mother believes. So there's definitely some feelings of uncertainty with Poppy Nozawa. He went away to boarding school and now he comes back with a whole new family living inside of his home. I think it hurts seeing these strangers in his home and maybe, in his mind, stealing it.”
Howard Wise/jpistudios.com
Dad Tidings: Don Diamont (Bill) helped new on-screen son Morrow feel at home on the B&B set.
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With a couple of feature films under his belt like Continental Split with Chris Bruno (ex-Dennis, Another World ; ex-Michael, All My Children ) and Jessica Morris (ex-Jennifer, One Life to Live ) and Healing Towers with Andrew Keegan and William McNamara, Morrow is taking script writing classes and learning the ropes of daytime television on the set of Bold and the Beautiful.
“I feel like I've said it a million times, but it's just like the greatest workplace ever,” he raves. “As an actor, there would be months where I just wasn't getting any roles. And I was just sitting at home twiddling my thumbs. Working with all the B&B cast is just a steady source of what I love to do. And the people I love to work with. It's such great training when you're starting out.”
Morrow has a special note for fans tuning in. “Be prepared for some fire," he grins. "I'm going to pop on the screen. You definitely know it when I'm in the scene.”
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