Let’s just say that she’s absolutely grateful for each and every day that she gets to go to work on a hit daytime television show like this.
Joining The Bold and the Beautiful Was The Best Thing To Ever Happen To Naomi Matsuda
The Bold and the Beautiful star Naomi Matsuda, who is best known for her role as Li Finnegan on the soap, admits that joining the show was perhaps the best thing to happen to her career.
In an interview with Soap Opera Digest, Naomi says that when she moved from her native Japan to San Diego, she and her mother learned English thanks to daytime television.
“I started kindergarten and I was a year late, and I had to learn English, so every day when I came home from school, I watched soap operas,” she recalls. “I saw Susan Lucci [ex-Erica, ALL MY CHILDREN] every day. The soap operas helped me speak English.”
Naomi also admitted that she certainly did face a lot of challenges when she first moved to Hollywood.
She said, “I was 17, coming up to L.A. I was always much older and more mature — and a little bit crazy. We would go to clubs with fake IDs then. When you’re a teenager, you want to grow up fast and live your life.”
“Your dreams are just so big and anything is possible. You just kind of go with it. I was going to these nightclubs, underage, and meeting these producers. I was very lucky that nothing happened to me in a negative way. Very lucky.”
She continued, “In my 20s, I went out for a lot, like GH, but I was anxious and still trying to figure out who I was. I was like, ‘I know soap operas. I’ve watched them my whole life so I’m just going to go in and perform.’”
B&B News: What’s Next For Naomi Matsuda?
“Clearly that wasn’t what they wanted. I used to get so excited auditioning for soaps because I was like, ‘Maybe, maybe!’”
Naomi also said that she’s still pinching herself over the fact that she’s now a star on The Bold and the Beautiful.
While her first day on the job wasn’t a smooth one, she says, “Thank goodness for Ted King [Jack]. He was so calm and he kept me grounded. We ran lines. We talked about our characters.”
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Also, don’t forget that The Bold and the Beautiful airs weekdays on CBS. You’ll need to check your local listings for times.