Courtesy/B&B

Who doesn’t love seeing badass Deacon Sharpe back on The Bold and the Beautiful? Soap survivor Sean Kanan (Deacon) has been able to navigate his daytime career through the good times and the bad, always landing on his feet! After being killed-off of General Hospital as AJ Quartermaine, which didn’t sit well with many fans of the ABC soap opera, B&B was like coming home.  And this time, when Deacon arrived back in the world of the Forresters, the Logans, and the Spencers, it was the mighty Quinn (Rena Sofer) who he first encountered.  Imagine that!  Two people that are for all intent and purposes cut from the same cloth … with some clear differences.

Now as Deacon and Quinn have schemed and maneuvered for the love and attentions of Brooke (Katherine Kelly Lang) and Bill (Don Diamont), respectively, and both seemingly have lost those two for good, where else do you turn … but to each other! Feeling jilted, recently the two shared some passionate moments! And the kicker, Quinn’s son Wyatt (Darin Brooks) is now married to Deacon’s daughter Hope (Kim Matula), and the young duo are expecting their first child! Will it be Grandpa Deacon and Grandma Quinn?

On-Air On-Soaps sat down with Sean Kanan to get his take and insights on: returning to the CBS soap opera, working with long time pal Rena Sofer, what he thinks of Deacon as a dad, and what story he would like to explore.  In addition, while B&B co-star Katherine Kelly Lang is currently a celebrity contestant on Dancing with the Stars Italy, Kanan who also appeared on the show a few years back, weighs-in on just how grueling the ballroom dance floor routines and experience can be!  But, what all his fans want to know is if Sean is happy where he is now, after his big return to GH came to quite a disappointing end.  So, here is what the always charming, always funny, and always intriguing, Mr. Kanan had to share.

MICHAEL:

So to reset the stage, all of a sudden things change at General Hospital, and you are back on The Bold and the Beautiful as Deacon.  Would you say for the most part there was an open door policy that if you were available again. and the time was right, you could return to B&B?

SEAN: 

Courtesy/ABC

I’ve always kept in touch with (B&B executive producer and head writer) Brad Bell. Brad is not only a terrific boss, but he is a great guy.  We would communicate from time to time, and at some point we had a conversation where he said, “If it looks like you’re going to be free and no longer doing General Hospital, let me know.”  I said, “I will.  I don’t know when that is going to be,” but I kept that in the back of my head.  When I had the discussions over at ABC with General Hospital, and they wanted to kill off the character of AJ, I called up Brad immediately and put the ball in motion pretty quick, and here I am.

MICHAEL:

And on your first episodes back this time, Deacon bumps into Quinn (Rena Sofer)! And of course, the two of you have worked together previously, so it has been a treat for soap aficionados!

SEAN: 

Rena and I met in 1993, and we met when we were both working on General Hospital.  Then, Rena was one of three lead actresses in my film “March”.

MICHAEL:

What do you think of Rena’s performance in the role of Quinn? And what do you think about the composition of the relationship between Quinn and Deacon … two people who have certainly entertained and executed, shall we say,  not so nice things on others to get what they want?

SEAN:

Photo Credit: HutchinsPhoto.com

I think it’s a terrific part for Rena.  I think there are a lot of similarities between Deacon and Quinn.  They are both survivors, and they are certainly not above scheming and a little bit of larceny to get what they need.  I think they both care a tremendous amount about their children, and they have been persona non grata for a very long time.  They are very much operating on the fringes of B&B society which is the Forresters, the Logans, and the Spencers.  They kind of orbit around that, but what is interesting is that Quinn is a beautiful and attractive woman, but at the beginning, although Deacon never misses an opportunity to appreciate a beautiful woman … he needed a place to stay! (Laughs)  The minute he realized he had something she needed, which was his relationship with Hope, he parlayed that to get a place to stay. Once he was there, I think he was also smart enough not to pursue her.  She obviously has a mercurial personality, and if she gets pissed off, she is going to throw him on the street!  I always joke that Deacon has a very expensive wardrobe, and wears a very expensive watch, but he doesn’t have pot to piss in! (Laughs)  He has no money.  Then there is the other secondary layer; that this woman could possibly be extremely dangerous.  He is like, “What am I getting myself into … and who am I sleeping down the hall from?”  It’s like you better be real careful what you do, or this chick might end up taking out a sword with your name on it! (Laughs)

MICHAEL:

It seems like Quinn is one very formidable opponent for Deacon, but as we have seen where there is opposition there ends up being attraction!

SEAN:

Courtesy/CBS

Absolutely!  However, Deacon is not a guy that shows fear easily. He has been in prison and had been around the block.  He was being cautious.  That being said, there relationship of pursuing common interests certainly has brought them closer!  We all wind up sleeping with each other on The Bold and the Beautiful!  I remember the time they put me with John McCook (Eric).  It was ugly, but damn it, we made it work! (Laughs)

MICHAEL:

Thus far, what has been your favorite scene with Rena?  I am assuming given the nature of your characters; you might have some good laughs on set?

SEAN:

We laugh a lot. We also fight like a brother and a sister, and in her case, a really sexy sister!  We butt heads in a loving fun way, and not in an antagonistic way.  Rena always makes interesting choices. We have a long history together, and that history builds a safety net of “let’s try some new stuff.”  We take what’s on the script which is usually terrific, and we may tweak it a little here and there, and put our own signature on it, and make it the best it can be.  We did this one scene where I ad-libbed and I called her “crazy pants”! (Laughs)  Sometimes I listen as Deacon to Quinn, and it’s such bat-crazy logic she uses, and such overkill about smothering her son.  As a character I felt obliged to go, “Did you hear yourself? You sound INSANE!”  That is sometimes the stuff that drives the scenes.

MICHAEL:

So, Deacon came back on to the canvas and set his sights on Brooke (Katherine Kelly Lang).  Did Deacon really love Brooke?

SEAN:

Courtesy/Global

Yes!  I think Deacon really loved Brooke.  There is a line that Deacon has that I think is true.  He says, “Any man that has ever been with Brooke Logan still carries a torch for her.”   That is kind of the spell she casts over the men she has been with, and a couple years in prison is a longtime to think about things.  I think what is a fundamental flaw of Deacon’s life is that he has never had a sense of family.  He has had this mother who was a stripper in Vegas, and he had this abusive stepfather.  I think that the concept of having some semblance of a nuclear family anchored by Hope is extremely attractive to him.  I think he is a guy that gets caught up in the romance of that.  I think part of pursuing Brooke was creating a family with her.  Deacon thinks if he does that, it can be the springboard to fix everything else that is wrong …  if he can just fix that part of his life that was never there for him a child, psychologically.  That is my guess, anyway.  And that doesn’t work out!  Brooke wasn’t interested in that, or if she was momentarily interested in that, she then decided what she had with Bill was where she wanted to go.

MICHAEL:

Is Deacon truly OK with that?

SEAN:

Courtesy/CBS

I think Deacon has a big ego.  I think he covers, and he doesn’t show his vulnerability a lot.  I also think prison has taught him to be patient, and that life is not a sprint, it’s a marathon.

MICHAEL:

I would love to find out just who Deacon’s bio-dad is! That would be a great story to tell!

SEAN:

This is the story; again and again I have said I would love to tell.  I think it would be very interesting to find out who his parents are, and they could be anybody!  He could be related to anybody.   He could have brothers and sisters he doesn’t know about.  I think it would be hilarious if Steve Burton (Dylan, Y&R) and I were brothers… and there was a cross-over story! (Laughs)

MICHAEL:

How was working with Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke)?  She is now off the canvas for a bit hitting the ballroom dance floor on Dancing with the Stars Italy!

SEAN:

Courtesy/PureDWTS

I wish her luck on Dancing with the Stars!  It’s such an amazing experience to live over there in Italy … and over there like that!  It’s great when you are being whisked around and whined and dined, although the flip side of that is you’re training your ass off.  Thank God, Katherine is a triathlete.  I am sure she will do every well, because it’s physically daunting.

MICHAEL:

And now another former B&B and GH castmate of yours, Antonio Sabato Jr., is trying to stay in the ballroom dance competition on the American version of Dancing with the Stars!

SEAN:

It’s funny; Antonio and I both have a background in Martial Arts.  You would think Martial Arts would help you in dancing, but it doesn’t really, because Martial Arts tends to be in some respects more rigid than dance does, and some of the basic stances are counter-intuitive to dancing.   So, I thought this was going to really help me, but it didn’t.  Antonio is also a gymnast.  How is Antonio doing?  I have not seen him on “Dancing” yet.

MICHAEL:

The first week was rough on him. They made him dance first of all the celebrities’ right out of the gate. Antonio has gotten some harsh criticism from the judges and has had some challenges with executing some of the moves, but he is still in the competition.

SEAN:

Photo: CBurkeTwitter

The hardest part of this is: the men have to lead, and my teacher was 48th in the world, and I had to lead!  So I am having to learn the dance, and the choreography, and then lead her because she can’t lead.  But with all do respect to the women out there, the reality is two-fold!  Most little girls at some point or another, study some sort of dance, and they either study ballet, or dance, or the basics, and not all of them.  I am not trying to make generalizations, but that generalization does hold weight!  But then you have some guy like Maxim Chmerkovskiy who is phenomenal dancer, who if you are missing a step or are slow, he can literally pull you and move you around, and if you are the guy, you are … SOL man! (Laughs)  Not to digress, but the most fun part of being on Dancing with the Stars Italy was; we would wrap the show at 1AM in Rome and go out clubbing. I was on the show like four or five years ago, and I remember everyone had just watched the live show.  Then we would all show up at a club and people would go nuts!   It wasn’t for the celebrities, but more for the professional dance teachers!  We would go out there and they would make a schmuck like me look like I knew what I was doing.  (Laughs)  It was so much fun; we would dance till five in the morning.

MICHAEL:

Was there a moment when you were in the middle of Dancing with the Stars Italy that you said to yourself, “What have I gotten myself into?” (Laughs)

SEAN:

Here is what was really hard: My Italian when I did the show was not great, and my Italian now is much better. The other thing is; not to take anything away from Ronn Moss (Ex-Ridge, B&B), but he used am ear piece.  So they were feeding him what the Italian meant.  I had to listen to the judges, and had tremendous difficulty in understanding what they were saying, and I had to learn how to dance in Italian.  Now that wasn’t so bad, because I could understand that, but when they would ask a question on the live show, and a lot of it is that you are appealing to the home audience.  I had to do it in Italian.  It was very difficult and a tremendous disadvantage to me to not be able to speak English, but even so I lost after 9 weeks.

MICHAEL:

Courtesy/B&B

Back to B&B, as for your on-screen daughter Kim Matula (Hope), where does Deacon sit with her current choice to be with Liam (Scott Clifton) or Wyatt (Darin Brooks)?

SEAN:

I think Deacon likes Wyatt. They cracked a bottle of scotch together and in a lot of respects they are cut from a similar cloth. Deacon sees that Wyatt has pulled himself up from his boot straps.  I think that also, Deacon recognizes Liam is a good guy.   He wants what makes his daughter happy, and Liam is a guy who follows his heart.  Deacon wants either one of those two guys to take care of her.  I also think that Wyatt had the diamond, and he is a hustler, and things like that are not lost upon Deacon.

MICHAEL:

Do you think Deacon has changed from being such a “hustler”?

SEAN:

I think Deacon has refined his game.  He’s smoother than he used to be, but at his core he’s a guy who is always looking for the angle. You know, it’s funny. I have been a guy in my own life that has been blessed with tremendous opportunities in my life.  I don’t know what it is like to grow up without certain advantages.  The only thing I could equate it to is coming out to Hollywood as young guy and making a lot of mistakes, and trying to see where the water is flowing and do what I could.  I had a safety net with my family, and I knew I had my college education, whereas a guy like Deacon had none of that.  I can’t be very judgmental of this character, because I don’t know what it is like to walk in his footsteps.  He’s a guy just doing what he has to do.

MICHAEL:

Hope finds herself pregnant! What does dad Deacon think of it?

SEAN:

Photo Credit: HutchinsPhoto.com

She’s married.  I don’t think he can’t go anymore, “This is my little girl!”  It’s like, “Look, I have made a lot of mistakes.  I have been in jail and around the block, and if you are willing to overlook that, and see me as the man I am today, I am not going to see you as this idealized fantasy of how you should be in my head as a daughter. This is your life. I am going to accept you as you are.”  I think Deacon is incredibly proud of her. He’s “Team Hope” and supportive of that.  He is like, “You’re happy and in love with Wyatt, I will support that. If it winds up being Liam that makes you happy, then I will support that.”

MICHAEL:

Is there someone that you have not mixed it up with on-screen at B&B this time that you would like to have story with sometime in the future?

SEAN:

I had a fun energy with Heather Tom (Katie).  For some reason, Katie has this visceral dislike of Deacon!  I don’t know where it comes from, other than the fact that Deacon had been in prison, and that’s not the most palatable thing for a woman. I get that. Deacon also tries to assert his sexuality when he can with women, and he certainly likes younger gals and older gals.  Katie is also Brooke’s sister, so she is also privy to a lot of stuff!  I think there is something interesting there, and not a romantic interesting, but I think there is an interesting give and take that I like. Heather is a terrific actress.  I would love to work with Jacob Young (Rick) too!  I have always loved working with John McCook (Eric)!  The more I watch Karla Mosley who plays Maya, she looks like this pretty little deer with those big eyes going, ”Who me?” And the character is a total bitch! (Laughs)  I love that! (Laughs)  I think Deacon and Maya would be so unlikely, but so great!   In story, I also would really be interested in seeing Deacon pull off some coup where he is able to form a financial power base and really go after Bill (Don Diamont) and do a hostile takeover of Bill’s company.

MICHAEL:

Since another one of your talent is stand-up comedy and improv, do you ever improv your lines at B&B?

SEAN:

The new thing I do when there is a last line, or ending moment in a script, is that I will ad-lib a line knowing that probably they will keep it twenty percent of the time.  Sometimes, something is a little racy that pushes the boundaries of what we are allowed to say, but I will say it so that they will have it in the editing room, and they will keep it sometimes.

MICHAEL:

Courtesy/GH Pinterest

B&B has been very successful in its format with being a half hour soap compared to the other American daytime dramas.  Do you think that it helps the overall vibe when being a working actor here?

SEAN:

Having come from Y&R and GH, where between them there are 60 contract actors, you are always fighting for real estate, and you are competing with four or five other guys that are in your bracket.  I am so happy to be here.  I know I started over at GH, but I have always felt like it was home here at B&B.  It’s not just the actors, it’s the crew and it’s kind of like a family owned business with the Bells, and it’s a smaller cast. I think it just creates a little less corporate of a place. You don’t get more corporate than GH, and that show has clearly a different business paradigm, which had to stress the hell out of the executives, because they were getting breathed on all the time by ABC/Disney to keep the show alive. There is such gravitas to every single thing, and then have that trickle down from the top, it’s stressful.  The Bold and the Beautiful has such a huge presence internationally, and so I don’t feel like you are in intimate danger of being taken off the air.

MICHAEL:

It seems like you feel that you are appreciated here at The Bold and the Beautiful!

SEAN:

So appreciated!  The way this organization treats their actors, I have never encountered in my entire acting career, and I have worked with every major studio and network. B&B is fantastic, and not just for going on great trips overseas, but the day to day, in and out, of how people act here.  There is a civility and respect here that we all try to show each other.  It creates a great environment.

MICHAEL:

Now that you have been back for awhile, what are your fans saying to you on Twitter and social media?  Do they tell you they want more of Quinn and Deacon?  What feedback are you getting?

SEAN:

Courtesy/CBS

I think people like Quinn and Deacon together in whatever capacity that is.  It is a compliment that people like what we are doing together, which means there will then be more of it, usually. The fans are happy I’m back, which is really nice.  I am back this time and I am back on contract, which is different, so that hopefully I will be sticking around for quite awhile.  I think it allows me to invest a little more, and of course any job I have I am going to invest him, but when you are not on contract you’re always keeping an eye out, and thinking, “What am I going to do next if this winds up ending? “ It allows you to breathe a little and to start looking a couple miles down the road.  At this part of my life, there are a lot of things I want to do, but at B&B we have plenty of tine off per year.  So being at B&B allows me to think to myself: “If I am going to be here for awhile which I like at this point in my life, God willing if they want to keep me, I would like to stay here for awhile.”   I am not looking for something else.  If something else comes, and it fits into the schedule, that’s great.  But when I was 25, you are always looking for … when is that call from Spielberg?  And you know what?  I am really happy here. It has given me an amazing life. I have a career in Italy too.  It really doesn’t get a whole lot better.