Photo Credit: Cliff Lipson/CBS

Perhaps 2012 will go down as the year of the behind-the-scenes soap opera shockers, and thus far, there has been none more surprising then the sudden departure of The Bold and the Beautiful’s Ronn Moss!  After over 25 years of playing the debonair male romantic lead of the series, Ridge Forrester, Moss decided to call it quits over a month ago amidst reports of being asked to take a pay-cut that did not sit well with the popular soap star.  But there is much more to this story, as a calling to move on and try a different direction with his professional life, the ever-changing face of daytime, and more importantly the ever-changing face of The Bold and the Beautiful, all seemed to factor into his decision.

On-Air On-Soaps chatted this week with Moss, just as fans are about to see his final appearance as Ridge on today’s episode of B&B, shortly after Ridge and Brooke (Katherine Kelly Lang) married each other, yet again, or as they say, “One mo’ time!”  And this time, from what we understand, the happy couple go off on their honeymoon, only when Brooke does return Ridge will not be in tow, since Ronn’s decision to depart the soap had to be dealt with rather quickly by B&B’s executive producer, and head writer, Brad Bell.

So is Ronn Moss truly gone for good?  Would he consider a return to the series?  How would he feel about a recast if the show were to go down that road?  And how was it filming the emotional final scenes between him and Katherine Kelly Lang, where Bridge fans from all around the world will need their Kleenex boxes, just as much as Ronn and Katherine did?  Find out all of this and so much more in our heartfelt and farewell chat with Moss, whose departure leaves a huge hole in many fans hearts worldwide. But fear not, after you read Ronn’s parting words below, you can keep up with him via www.devronnsblog.com on all his latest projects, journeys, and upcoming travels!

MICHAEL:

Your last episode as Ridge is airing Friday on B&B, just as Ridge and Brooke said their “I do’s” for yet another time.  It’s been a little over a month since you announced your departure.  How are you feeling knowing Friday is your final airdate?

RONN:

Courtesy/CBS

I feel like 25 years has been a damn good run and I am grateful to have it with everybody. But at a certain point, you have to expand you life.  I have been meaning to do that for years.  We get comfortable with our family and our friends – and when I say family, I mean my co-workers, too.  They have been as much a part of my family as my real family for a lot of years.  But you get comfortable just being there and going along the same way.  And for me, it hit me that, “No.  I don’t want to continue under these circumstances.  It’s time to move on and start on a new road.”

MICHAEL:

Did being asked to take a significant pay cut to continue with B&B make you feel that they did not value your work … especially considering all the years that you put in, and being one of the mega-stars of the B&B brand?

RONN:

I think the way you just stated it is right.  Yes, the pay cut was definitely a part of it, but it was not everything.  But it was definitely a sign to re-evaluate what is going to be important here.  And don’t anybody bring up Jay Leno’s taking a 50% percent pay cut down to $15 million.  There is no relevance whatsoever in that.  (Laughs)  That is a different game, but when you talking a much different scale than that, it is very relevant!  And yeah, I want to feel appreciated, and I feel for what we were doing there was no reason to cut like that.  There are plenty of other ways to make those kinds of cuts.

MICHAEL:

You are iconic and synonymous with The Bold and the Beautiful worldwide!

RONN:

Does anybody think a decision like that was done rashly?  You have to take certain things in life and go, “That doesn’t sit well with me now. Something is off.”  There is a respect that all of a sudden doesn’t seem to be there.  So let’s move to a place where it is more respectful, and where I feel like I am not going to be taken so for granted.

Photo Credit: Kathy Hutchins

MICHAEL:

You also were coming off a very bad car accident involving yourself and your wife Devon before this decision to exit B&B.  Did you feel that accident was a wake-up call?   I know I have read in other interviews that you had done that feel there were certain “signs” telling you to go in a different direction in your life, and this one of them.

RONN:

Not really a wake-up call, but I have been talking about the signs that I have been seeing that many people seem to think is too ethereal or hokey.  I know what is going on in my life.  I know what I know, and I know what I see.  I took it as it spun us around, literally! We had a wonderful business meeting before that and that basically said, “OK. You are not going in this direction. You are going in the opposite direction.”   And you have to listen to things like that, and I attached meaning to it.  Now you don’t have to do that, but I chose to do that.  It seemed to fit with a lot of other things that were going along in my life as well.  And you can discount them if you like and pretend they didn’t happen, or they don’t mean anything in the scheme of things.  However, I tend to make them mean something, as I am going in a different direction now, and I want to go on a positive and affirmative new road that I haven’t necessarily traveled.  I am looking so for to it.  But as far as the accident, we are recovering from the actual physical stuff that happened.  Devon and I are still getting through that and it has gone on a lot longer than expected. She was absolutely right when she told me, “You are going to feel the effects of this quite a bit later,” and we are.  So we deal with it.

MICHAEL:

When you made decision to leave B&B, did you and your wife, Devon, and your family sit down and talk things over and shed some tears over this big move and shift in your life?

RONN:

We had a lot of different moments.  There was not one or two specifically, or that we had a tearful sit-down.  It was all real positive and felt completely and totally right.  There was no hesitation whatsoever.  I think all the things that happen add up. And, you have to make a strong decision.  It surprised a lot of people for sure, as nobody expected me to be that bold, but I had to.  I had to for my own survival.   I know many of the fans feel I let them down, or abandoned them.  No, I have not abandoned them.  I am still with them.  I have been doing this for 25 years!  At one point am I released, so that I can go, “OK, guys?  I need a break from this!”

MICHAEL:

Photo Credit: Kathy Hutchins

Since the “official” announcement from you that you were leaving B&B, there had been everything on Twitter for you from an outpouring of love and support, to disappointment, and even some feeling that you abandoned them!

RONN:

Basically, people can’t handle change. They don’t want things to change and so they lash out at you a little bit, and this is a very small percentage of a reaction that I felt.  But I know what’s out there, and I have tried my best to dissuade it as best I can.  I would say 95%-97% of the people have been very positive, and are looking forward to the future and wishing me well, as I do for B&B. 

MICHAEL:

Will you watch your last episode Friday?

RONN:

I will probably watch it, but I don’t know if I am going to watch it live when it’s on.  I will definitely tape it.

MICHAEL:

I watched the CBS promo and I was getting all choked up watching Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke) your long-time scene partner, getting all choked up looking at you during Ridge and Brooke’s wedding vows.  I have heard from Katherine that this tape day was so emotional for her.  How did you get through it?

RONN:

Oh, I wasted that day, and I don’t mean the drug-fashion. (Laughs)   The two of us were completely basket cases.  It was so hard to get through.  We could not look at each other in the eyes or we would have just lost it.  This was the culmination of so much emotional stuff that we have had.  We had to get through it, and to get through the day, but it was intense!

MICHAEL:

As viewers, we see the two of you reciting these vows and the gazes into each other’s eyes, and we realize you two have been so intertwined and integral for 25 years of daytime television!

RONN:

Courtesy/CBS

We have lived these people’s lives as alter egos to ourselves.  It has been a second life for us for all these years.  I can’t slough that off, or say that didn’t matter.  I don’t think people really know how intense living that is.  Yes, it is a character on a TV show, but it took an enormous amount of our real lives to do, and that we dedicated ourselves to.  I feel wonderful that I was a part of that, and I feel wonderful that I am now able to go and experience other aspects of my life that I have been wanting and missing.  Now is the time to do it.  Life is getting much shorter.

MICHAEL:

I think it may have been more difficult and worse if you made the announcement that you were departing the series, and then there were several months to go before your last tape date.   This way, it all happened very fast.

RONN:

Once I made the decision, I then only had a couple days left to tape.  And, I would not have said anything except for Susan Flannery (Stephanie, B&B) blurting it out on a soundstage.  She just blurted out that she and I were leaving.  And whoever was in earshot of that heard it and went, “What? What? What?”  So it was out there and people started tweeting about it.  I was going to keep it under wraps, because I had to get through those two days.  But in the end, I could not keep it a secret.

MICHAEL:

How was it for you, when you packed up your dressing room and exited the CBS soundstages?

RONN:

That went as I would have anticipated it for almost 23 years.  I have always kept my dressing room the way it was, so I could just walk out.  A lot of people make it very personal and hang up a lot of pictures and bring in all their stuff from home.  I never did that.  I wanted it to be kind of a transient place, even though I lived there for half my life.  So I cleaned it out a couple of days before the final tape date, and walked out and that was it.   I was totally emotionally prepared to do that because I never emotionally invested in it that way.  I kept the dressing room that way on purpose.

MICHAEL:

Courtesy/CBS

Was the fact that the show was focusing on the younger characters and not Ridge, part of your other issue with the series?  Was it that Ridge was not being given his due as one of the “core four” characters to drive story?  Or, did you feel it was a natural progression of what we unfortunately see many times in daytime when the veterans get kicked to the curb?  With Peter Reckell (Bo, DAYS) leaving, Steve Burton (Jason, GH) announcing he is departing daytime as well, and you going, I feel like Bette Midler in The Rose, saying “Where’s everybody going?”

RONN:

Well, I don’t know if that’s a natural progression.  I won’t lie and say that it wasn’t a factor, of course it was.  When you are feeling like you are less than, why stay?  But let the show do as they see fit, I am fine with it. 

MICHAEL:

So are you standing by the “This is it”, or are you going to comment, “Never say never” when the subject comes up if you would ever consider returning to B&B as Ridge?

RONN:

I have decided to subscribe to “Never say never,” but I need a break.  But I have been through enough experiences where I have to eat those words, whenever I say it’s a definite thing like that.  So, I just will leave that open.

MICHAEL:

Photo Credit: Kathy Hutchins

During your final tape day, did anybody say anything that resonated with you that will stay with you and in your heart forever?

RONN:

Everything!  Lots of it.  One of our stage managers did a little texting with me back and forth this other morning, and it was lovely.   Yeah, that continues and I think it’s just going to get more intense down the road, actually.

MICHAEL:

Now that it’s been a month since the decision was made public, was there ever a moment, now looking back, of “What the hell did I just do?”

RONN:

No. Never.  I am pretty resigned to go ahead and move forward.  As I said, I am moving forward in a positive way and it’s even getting more positive than I expected.  I can’t go in to that now, and that will be a different conversation down the road, if things materialize.  I think it’s going to be really great.

MICHAEL:

Is music a big part of this next evolution in your career, since you have been part of the band Player since the 70’s?

RONN:

Courtesy/B&Bforum

Music is definitely a big part of this.  Peter Beckett and myself have been, and are, Player.  We just released a new set of songs, which is going to be our best collection ever.  I am really looking forward to doing the tour.  We are going to form a tour beginning in Europe, and hopefully bring it back to the States.  But I am so looking forward to playing live!  Playing rock and roll live, there is nothing like it.

MICHAEL:

Is acting still something you want to pursue?

RONN:

Oh yeah!  There are acting projects and that is part of the big change that is happening.  We are formulating some movie projects right now that will be absolutely fantastic. I want to go back to doing movies.

MICHAEL:

When you have seen first-hand what is going on contract-wise in daytime, do you envision that the daytime soaps (knowing what you know and being on one for 25 years) can survive five more years, and possibly continue on after that?

RONN:

I think they will continue on.   I am just not sure if they will be on network television.  I think everything, if you are smart, will go online.  I believe cable television and online formats will be where it’s at.  Networks will eventually phase out, because people will not watch things in real time.  They will watch things at their leisure, and everything will have to accommodate for that.  There is so much of a different world out there online and a lot of different possibilities.   I think if shows grow and change that way, they can grow and continue and morph into other things.  But going along the way they are?  No. You can’t survive that way, because there is a reason that people follow programs and it’s not to just provide them with the cheapest common denominator.  When you do that, you will lose the core audience and the reason they tuned-in in the first place.

MICHAEL:

Photo Credit: Kathy Hutchins

Have you had conversations with Susan Flannery about both your exits from The Bold and the Beautiful, and what a huge shake-up it will be for the canvas?

RONN:

Oh yeah, we have talked quite a bit and so did Katherine and John McCook (Eric, B&B). We all met and discussed a lot of things.  I think Susan and Katherine and I will get together soon and have a little pow-wow amongst all of us, and talk about future things.

MICHAEL:

If B&B were to ever re-cast Ridge, how would you feel?

RONN:

I would feel betrayed.  I would feel like my 25 years really didn’t mean anything.  I would also feel that I absolutely made the right choice.

MICHAEL:

Did Brad Bell and you leave on bad or OK terms?

RONN:

We left on great terms.  I still love him.  I am sure he thought we should just stay and continue with no change of anything, but everything had changed.

MICHAEL:

Obviously, The Bold and the Beautiful contributed highly to your huge popularity overseas!

RONN:

I think the music part of my career, as well as B&B, contributed to my success overseas.  Our music played very heavily in Australia, and Peter Beckett’s influence with being part of Little River Band was big part of it as well.  But yes, the show was a big part of it, but that was not the only thing.  But now I think I will have a closer touch with those countries and the foreign territories than I did before, because now I have time to be there.  I would totally love to come down to Australia.  We are working on doing some movies and charity functions there right now. And, Katherine and I are about to take off and go over to Italy for a week and half, too!

Courtesy/CBS

MICHAEL:

When you take a moment to reflect back, is there a Ridge or Ronn moment during your time at B&B that was a defining for you as an actor, or the character you created, or a big memory of your time there?

RONN:

The biggest memory of my time at B&B is not story-related.  It’s not even character-related.  The last day will very much be ingrained in my psyche now, from a very emotional point of that is when everything was changing.  But, my biggest memory that I will carry from B&B is how much of a family it is, and was for me for the last 25 years. It’s a huge family – between crew, actors, everybody.  And I will carry that, as that is the warmest thought I have of everybody, and seeing these people every day.  I will carry that, and for me that’s fine.  I don’t need a story point or a character element to remember that.  There are too many of those!

MICHAEL:

You have got to pinch yourself, when you think of your journey as Ridge harkening all the way back to the beginning as Ridge the playboy!  You were part of that, no matter how it ended.   It was 25 years of this role on B&B, and you became very well known to television audiences domestically and internationally.  Cool?

RONN:

It’s very cool!  And I will hold that for the rest of my life.   I feel very fortunate to have been part of this show, and part of this big family of ours. There’s the big emotion of it.

MICHAEL:

Is there something you would like to say to your fans you feel has not been communicated, or that you would like to add to what you have already said publicly?

RONN:

Courtesy/FabulousPenguinAus

Just that I hope that they keep the faith and the spirit of what hopefully I did for that long with Ridge in their lives.  And, let it be with me.  Let me take that as my memento.  But also to hang in there with me and know that I am not abandoning them, but that I am including them and taking them on what could be a far greater journey.  I hope they keep their minds and awareness open, and let’s see what the roads have to offer.

MICHAEL:

Do you think you will watch B&B in the future?  Reports are that Katherine will be getting a new love interest!  That may be odd for you to watch.

RONN:

I don’t know.  I will see.  I can’t say I wouldn’t watch it.  I have no reason not to watch it. I have so many other things I want to do.  And Michael, I wasn’t even able to watch the show when I was on it! (Laughs)  I always keep busy and I am seldom just sitting around with nothing to do.

MICHAEL:

And tell me the latest on Ronn’s Garage, the web series you have going through your website!

RONN:

It’s building and I am working on the next episode.  I am not telling people who the next guest will be, but I want it to be a huge surprise.   It’s a very fascinating person! (Laughs)  I am hoping to have it up by October 1st.  I want to get the episodes up in a more timely fashion.  The accident through me off.  My shoulder got fractured in three pieces, and that kind of set us back, but I am back on track.  I want to morph into something else, which we will talk about later, as well.

MICHAEL:

Photo Credit: MF Soaps, Inc.

I have to tell you, personally, I was sad when you announced your departure from B&B.  But then I was so happy about it!  I was like “Good for you.”  You have always been a friend of mine throughout the years we have done interviews together, and our time together in this genre.   So I had all of those emotions going on.   It was very bittersweet.

RONN:

Good and thank you.  Michael, you as well have been part of this.  We have a big respect for what you do and the way you have done it. You have always been right on the money, very fair and very honest.  No b***s that I can discern for anything you have done, so bless you for that!