The Bold and the Beautiful’s Scott Clifton (Liam) sat down to talk about the moments immediately following his nomination news and how his thoughts about the Emmys have changed over the years.

Hard to believe it’s been 16 years since Scott Clifton stepped into the role of Liam Cooper – now Liam Spencer – back in 2010. But his run as the soft-spoken, ever-waffling Spencer scion is still on fire, as evidenced by this week’s Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Performer in a Daytime Drama Series: Actor.

Read on to learn what Clifton had to say about his and his family’s reaction to the news, the storyline he credits with the nod, and which number nomination this is.

Key Takeaways

• The everyday moment when Clifton learned he was nominated
• The out-of-the-mouths-of-babes exclamation that said it all
• How Clifton feels about the Emmys now as opposed to when he started in soaps
• The storyline that put Clifton in the running for Lead Actor

Errand Boy

Clifton began his long tenure on daytime dramas way back in 2003 as Dillon Quartermaine on GH – and immediately impressed the upper echelons at the Emmys, because he already received nominations for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series the following year, as well as in 2005 and 2006. And though Clifton’s time on OLTL was brief (just over a year, from January 9, 2009, to April 8, 2010), he still managed to get nominated in the same category in 2010.

It was Clifton’s first year on B&B that not only won him his first Emmy for 2011, but also got him bumped up to the Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Daytime Drama Series: Actor category, where he also saw victories in 2013 and 2017; he was again considered in both 2014 and 2015.

2024 found Clifton getting his first nomination as Lead Actor for his role as Liam Spencer, and his nod for 2026 makes this his eleventh nomination overall. So how did a soaper with such star power find out he’d gotten another double-digit nod? While he was out running errands. “I got a call from Bradley Bell,” Clifton said of B&B’s executive producer and head writer. “Emmys weren’t on my radar at all in that moment, so I just thought, ‘Oh, boy, this is either going to be really good news or really bad news.’”

The former turned out to be true, and Bell wanted to be sure he was the one from whom Clifton was getting the news first. “Hearing the news straight from him couldn’t have been more perfect,” he beamed.

Not Home Alone

One might have expected Clifton’s partner, Elle, to “literally squeal with pride” upon being told face-to-face about the honor. However, the response of Clifton’s young son, Ford, was of the kind children feel free to express while adults remain more reserved. “’Guess what?’” Clifton reported that Elle had asked Ford. “’Your dad just got nominated for an Emmy!’ Ford’s reaction was hilarious and perfect: he threw a fist pump in the air, quietly said, ‘Yesssss,’ and then ran back into his room. It gave Elle and me such a giggle.”

Clifton’s got himself a regular Macaulay Culkin there, doesn’t he?

Lemme Talk About Scott Clifton and the Emmys

As mentioned before, Clifton received his first nomination in 2004 – and both the passage of time since and totalling two decades in the soap business have changed his perspective on what the Emmys symbolize for him. “These nominations actually mean more to me now than they did back then,” Clifton reflected. “Early in my career, I saw them as some sort of validation that I was a ‘good actor.’”

“But they represent something way more profound to me now,” the actor elaborated. “Recognition from a community of peers I admire – people I know, who know me and my work over the years, effectively saying, ‘Hey, man, good job!’

“That means so much more, because we’re all in the trenches together, and to celebrate with them is incredibly meaningful.”

You’re Outta Here…Not

Did you know that Liam’s cancer story last year was supposed to be his last? Calling the arc a “once-in-a-lifetime gift,” Clifton expounded that Bell had “[laid] it all out for me before he began writing it…We both sincerely thought I was playing the end of Liam’s journey. It was supposed to be the ‘unluckiest’ year of my career, and it became one of the luckiest.”

Liam had a wealth of sequences where he went from hiding his diagnosis to sharing it with his exes and father – plus the suffering caused by the “disease” itself (viewers will recall that Liam wasn’t actually dying from cancer after all; he had been drugged to produce symptoms as part of a scam).

So how did Clifton actually decide what to show the Emmy committee? “I submitted three scenes from moments when Liam was at his most vulnerable,” Clifton revealed.

“But none of it would have worked without the beautiful writing and the incredible actors I was fortunate enough to share those scenes with.”

Clifton will have to beat out Eric Braeden (Victor Newman, Y&R), Steve Burton (Jason Morgan, GH), Christian Jules Le Blanc (Michael Baldwin, Y&R), and fellow B&B cast member Thorsten Kaye (Ridge Forrester) if he expects to go home with a Lead Actor statuette.

Do you think he can do it? How do you feel about Scott Clifton’s Emmy nomination and the storyline that got him there? 

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Photo Credit: CBS

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