Exclusive: Rebecca Budig Opens up About Taking Over as Taylor on B&B

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Fans were surprised when soap star Rebecca Budig suddenly made her debut as the new Taylor on The Bold & The Beautiful. And even with all her experience in daytime, the actress admitted she knew she was stepping into some pretty big shoes.

“It was a little intimidating, knowing how important Taylor is to the history of the show,” Budig confided to Soaps In Depth. “Knowing that Hunter [Tylo] played her for so many years, it was a little intimidating, but I got here and honestly, everyone from cast and crew just couldn’t have been more welcoming. It was really awesome.”

Given that the character of Taylor Hayes debuted back in 1990, there’s a lot of backstory for Budig to get caught up on. Too much, in fact! “I talked to Brad [ Bell, B&B’s headwriter and executive producer] about it and he said, Ridge is the love of her life and just gave me a lot of details about who Taylor is. She’s a psychiatrist, she’s smart, she cares, and she listens well.”

Thankfully, she had former All My Children co-star Thorsten Kaye (Ridge) on set to help fill her in here and there. “So I’ve just been kind of learning as I go along, picking it all up,” Budig revealed. “It’s hard to get 30 years in. You know how soaps are, so much happens in a year, so to try and get every single piece of information is just beyond. You just have to get the basics and go with it. And I did tell them I want direction. If I’m not going in the right direction with her, I want to know.”

Knowing she’s stepping into the role previously played by Tylo and later, Krista Allen, Budig is naturally going to be putting her own stamp on Dr. Hayes. “I think just by virtue of being me, I’m a different person,” she mused with a chuckle. “I’m going to bring something else to the table, obviously. I just want to do right, though, by the history of the character.”

Having played Michelle Bauer on Guiding Light, Greenlee Smythe on All My Children, and Hayden Barnes on General Hospital, Budig has lots of experience in daytime, though of course, there will be similarities and differences with each studio.

“I think the similarity of this show to All My Children is there’s a really warm atmosphere,” the actress shared. “There was at Guiding Light, but I was young. I didn’t spend a lot of time at Guiding Light. So I just feel a very, very warm atmosphere here. It’s got a family feel to it.

“I think the difference is that the cast is smaller, so it’s a little more contained, there’s not so many people, and that’s kind of nice,” she continued. “ And also, it’s a half-hour show, so that’s different. I think I’ve been adjusting to that, mostly. The scenes are a little shorter and the show just goes by so fast.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean doing less work! “No,” Budig laughed. “No, it does not! But I realize that these things come in waves so I may have a lot of lines now, but I may not be working in three weeks. That’s how anything works. So I take it with gratitude.”