‘The Bold and the Beautiful’: New Zende Actor Delon de Metz Talks About His Experience So Far
The Bold and the Beautiful has two new fresh faces coming to town. One of them isn’t a new character and is actually a recast of legacy character Zende Forrester. Delon de Metz, who is taking over the character that was last played by Rome Flynn, recently spoke about joining the show.
Zende Forrester Dominguez on ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’
Zende is a member of one of the show’s core families, The Forresters, as the son of Kristen Forrester Dominguez, one of Eric Forrester and Stephanie Forrester’s children.
The character was first brought onto the canvas in 2011 when Zende encountered Kristen and her husband, Antonio Dominguez, in Africa during their honeymoon. Zende was living in an orphanage after his parents died from AIDS. Antonio, who battled AIDS, felt a connection to Zende. After returning to California they went back and adopted him. The family ended up leaving Los Angeles and moved to Florida.
The character returned to the show in the late mid-to-late 2010s as an adult. Zende returned to Los Angeles to work at Forrester Creations, his family’s company. During this time, he was perhaps best known for his relationship with Nicole Avant. At the time of the character’s last departure, the two got married and moved out of the country. Now, he’s back in town.
Daniel Smith played the character as a child from 2001 to 2002. He resumed it again briefly in 2005. Flynn debuted as the adult version of the character in 2015, playing the character up until 2017. A new version of the character, played by de Metz, is next up.
The actor talks about his new role
In an interview with Soap Opera Digest, de Metz talked about joining the show and portraying the character. He explained, “Pretty much everything was on lockdown and [when] my agent sent it [the role] to me he said, ‘Hey, these guys are working, you might have a lot of fun with this, take a look at the sides.’ I said, ‘Let’s take a shot,’ and three rounds of auditions later, I get the go-ahead. I’m very excited to join the team.”
The actor revealed to the publication that his audition for the role took place via Zoom. His audition included a chemistry read with Kiara Barnes, who plays Zoe Buckingham on soap opera. “This is the first time I had used Zoom with casting, or with an actress for a chemistry read, so that part of the process was definitely interesting and a unique experience for me,” he said.
He learned a lot from his mother
And as far as learning the ropes, he didn’t know that much about soap operas but says he was able to gain a lot of information and expertise through his mother. He said she has been watching the show for years. “I am not as literate in the soap world as I could be, and I am definitely doing my homework now, getting up to speed on the character,” he said. “But my mom watched the show for maybe 20 years. When I told her, she completely freaked out so we definitely have B&B in the family.”
He continued, “Mom will come in handy with her Zende knowledge, he reports. “Because my mom is a fan of the show, she is first and foremost my research go-to for this. I’m going to have to get familiar with what Zende has been through, and everything that’s been created to do the character justice, but of course, I do want to put my own spin on it. Hopefully, you’ll see my own colors come out, but I do think it’s important to do right by the show and by the character and let all of the past experiences inform the performance.”
The Bold and the Beautiful airs weekdays on CBS.
