Bold & Beautiful Exclusive: On Hope’s Birthday, Annika Noelle Reflects On the ‘Shadow Which Has Followed Her Around All of Her Life’

On July 2, 2002, the character declared her independence — from her mother’s womb, that is.

Ah, Hope. Even before she made her debut on The Bold and the Beautiful, she was destined to be surrounded by drama. How could she not be, what with being the product of a fling between scandal magnet Brooke and… Oh dear. Her son-in-law, Deacon Sharpe.

That wasn’t going to be a good look for anybody, much less the sexpot that archenemy Stephanie Forrester had infamously dubbed the slut from the Valley. (Got a hunch Deacon’s then-wife Bridget thought up a few choice nicknames for Mom, too, back in the day.)

More: Hope and Liam’s love story revisited [PHOTOS]

Mind you, Hope turned out to be everything that Brooke wasn’t. She was virtuous to the point of carrying unnecessary baggage and devoted well past the point where it made any sense for her to stand by Liam Spencer. (“You mistook a mannequin for me? Seriously?”) And to date, unlike Mama, Hope has never accidentally mistaken a randy masked man for her significant other and schtupped him at a party.

She has, however, developed a knack for lusting as hard as she loves. First, she made her fantasies about Thomas a risqué reality, then she started showing her admiration for Finn by dreaming up scenarios in which she tore his clothes off. “It’s been exciting to play different aspects of her character and to paint with some different colors in the palette that I have as an actor,” says Annika Noelle, who’s been rocking the role since 2018. Here and there, the Emmy nominee has even been “getting a chance to explore the complexities of her relationship with her mother and some of her past issues in regard to intimacy.

“Even her conception,” she adds, “was under a circumstance that created a shadow which has followed her around all of her life.”

“I’m not totally undressing you with my eyes. I left your shoes on.”

Credit: Howard Wise/JPI

Regardless of how like or unlike Brooke Hope may be, that’s not to say that her life has been easy — or any less tumultuous than her entrance into this world was. As a matter of fact, if there’s one area in which she’s just like Brooke, it’s in that they both attract trouble the way Liam does indecision.