Crew Morrow will make his soap opera debut as Will Spencer on The Bold and the Beautiful on August 1.
Daytime drama is familiar territory for the newcomer — his father, Joshua Morrow, has played The Young and the Restless’ Nick Newman for 30 years. Despite having a dad in the business, the younger Morrow’s passion was sparked by watching films.
“I like to say Ryan Gosling and the original Planet of the Apes did it for me,” Crew shares with TV Insider. “When I was eight or nine, I remember watching Planet of the Apes with Charlton Heston with my half-asleep grandfather, and it was the first film that I saw where the good guys effectively lost. That just created a whole new avenue for storytelling and what you can say with cinema. And then, obviously, Ryan Gosling, he’s just so flipping cool. Who doesn’t want to be like him?”
But performing wasn’t his only goal when he began to think about a career in the arts. “Initially, I didn’t want to put all my focus into acting; that was just one part of the game,” Crew explains. “What I initially fell in love with was writing and screenwriting, and I started writing my own scripts. And then I thought, ‘Well, I have to find another segue to get into this industry because it’s difficult to break into the industry as a writer.’ And then I started doing some classes. I went to college and studied film and was taking some theater courses. I got my first role at Santa Barbara City College for a disaster movie, and then I dropped out of school the next day.”
His parents were okay with his decision, Crew reveals. “I sort of played with the idea of dropping out because I’ve never been one for school,” he confides. “My parents were like, ‘Well, you don’t really know what you want to do with your life. Let’s just stay in school until you know exactly what you want.’ And then when I got that role in the movie, I came to them, and they could see the newfound resolve I had, and they trusted me, and they believed in me, and they supported my decision to drop out, and that’s all I could ask for.”
The elder Morrow set realistic expectations for Crew as he was starting out. “He sat me down and said, ‘Son, this is a dog-eat-dog world. You’re going to fail a lot before you succeed and there’s going to be a lot of difficult challenges along the way,’” Crew recalls. “And he was right. I took his words of wisdom because he’s been in the game for longer than I’ve been alive.”
In time, the chance to audition for the role of Will came his way. “I did an initial audition for them and then I went in for a callback,” he says of his path to B&B. “And then a month or two went by, and I didn’t hear anything. Finally, my manager called me and said, ‘They want an in-person audition for Brad Bell [executive producer and head writer] and all the big dogs.’ I quickly prepared, and I guess I got the job done.”
The last time Will was on camera, the character was played by 14-year-old Finnegan George, so expect to see a more mature version in Crew’s rendition. “I haven’t explored this character for long, but he’s prideful, and he deeply loves his family,” Crew observes. “He loves his mother — I think a little bit more than his father. There’s been some history with Will and Bill. But coming home is a little bit rocky, and I think you’ll see that come August 1 when my first episode airs.”
Crew has high praise for his new onscreen parents, Don Diamont (Bill Spencer) and Heather Tom (Katie Logan). The actors have known Crew since he was a boy through their association with Joshua.
“They’ve been anything and everything I could ask for,” he raves. And the young actor appreciates the fact that he and his dad film in the same studio space. “I think it’s awesome that we work on the same lot,” Crew enthuses. “I go and knock on his door and ask him if he wants to hang out. It’s definitely a son’s dream to work with his dad. I didn’t feel any fear going into it knowing he’s here as well.”
Crew reveals that Joshua isn’t the only Morrow in close proximity at his new soap home. “When production was asking me for photos for the family mantle for the set, I started sending some photos of younger versions of myself, and I snuck in a photo of my little brother [Cash Morrow]. So now he’s on set with me,” Crew reveals with a smile.
As he prepares for his soap debut, Crew says he’s pinching himself over the fact that his dreams of breaking into the business are coming true. “It still just doesn’t feel real,” he notes. “It feels great, though, knowing that I’m actively taking steps to further my career. I’m so grateful that B&B decided to go with me, and I am so excited to get these storylines going. It’s just so much fun playing pretend.”
The Bold and the Beautiful, Weekdays, CBS
