Kimberlin Brown Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Even after decades in soaps, Kimberlin Brown was just as shocked as Us when she learned her character, Sheila Carter, was returning to The Bold and the Beautiful.
“I didn’t see this coming, quite honestly,” Brown, 62, told Deadline on Monday, April 29.
On Monday, fans of the soap opera learned Sheila actually hadn’t been killed off after “she” was stabbed in a February episode. In a surprising turn of events, it was revealed that Sugar (who was tricked into having plastic surgery to look just like Sheila years ago) was the woman who was killed by Steffy Forrester (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) and Deacon (Sean Kanan) wasn’t seeing things when he saw a woman with 10 toes (Sheila has nine!) be cremated.
Brown noted that head writer Brad Bell had informed her of Sheila’s return but said he was “very vague.” She added, “He was like, ‘OK, I’m working on something. I don’t know what it is.’ And I said, ‘OK,’ Talk about a roller-coaster.”
When soap opera stars leave their roles, it can be as shocking as their shows’ plotlines. Alison Sweeney surprised longtime Days of Our Lives fans in 2014 when she announced she’d be exiting the series after 21 years. “I’ve been on Days of Our Lives since I was 16 years old, and I have never […]
While she’s not sure what led to her character’s return, Brown noted she believes her supportive fans could have played a factor in the decision.
“The only thing I can think of is maybe it’s because of my fans, maybe everyone who was commenting, who made everything go viral,” she said. “Brad does listen. He does pay attention, and in my opinion, I truly believe that my following and my fans and the people who have loved to hate Sheila all these years are responsible for me coming back.”
Brown noted that it’s “not my place” to question why the “decisions are made the way that they are.” She added, “I’m just very, very happy that he chose to bring me back. It surprised me when he told me how he was doing this and he had to put a lot of research into the backstory to make this current story happen.”
When Brown previously learned that her character was going to be killed off, she had a difficult time with the news.
“It was a hard pill for me to swallow,” Brown recalled. “It had been years of playing Sheila, and I consider her my baby, so to speak. And that was definitely not news I was anticipating or hoping to receive.”
Many celebrities have soap operas to thank for launching their careers. Before becoming an Oscar winner, Julianne Moore got her start on As the World Turns in 1988. She portrayed sisters Frannie Hughes and Sabrina Hughes, which scored her a Daytime Emmy in 1988. Moore eventually exited the series to kickstart her film career. Like […]
As for her current status with The Bold and the Beautiful, Brown gushed, “I am happy to say that I have been asked to negotiate another contract.”
Brown made her debut as Sheila in 1990 on The Young and Restless, before moving to The Bold and the Beautiful two years later. She’s appeared on both soaps as Sheila on-and-off for the past three decades, earning a Daytime Emmy nomination in 2022.
Brown briefly left Sheila behind to join the cast of Port Charles, a spinoff of General Hospital, and One Life to Live. She ultimately returned to The Young and the Restless in 2005, but she was released from her contract the next year. In 2017, she joined The Bold and the Beautiful.
The Bold and the Beautiful airs weekdays on CBS.
