The Bold and The Beautiful brings back Kimberlin Brown as Sheila

CBS

Spoiler alert! This story contains a major plot point that was revealed in the April 29 episode of The bold and the beautiful.

Exclusive: Talk about a big change for the CBS daytime drama.

On the April 29 episode of The bold and the beautifulfans learned that the character they loved to hate wasn't really dead at all.

The villainous Sheila Carter (Kimberlin Brown), who was supposedly killed off two months ago on the CBS daytime drama, is actually… Alive and well.

In an attempt to bring back the iconic Brown character, head writer Brad Bell crafted a surprise return featuring a character named Sugar who first appeared in wideSister soap The young and the restless (Where Brown Sheila grew up in 1990). Sheila has a lookalike named Sugar (played by Brown, of course). she She was the woman killed by Steffy Forrester on February 26. Sheila.

BB The prospect of Sheila's return has been raised for two weeks, with Deacon Sharpe (Sean Kanan) refusing to believe his good friend is dead. But fans may have had a hard time believing that would happen since Brown has given interviews in which she said she was leaving Black people for good.

From February 6 (her last recording date) to March 18, Brown thought she was no longer working on soap, until she received a call from Bell. In her first interview since her return bed and breakfast, Brown speaks to Deadline about her shocking comeback.

So deadline, surprise!

Kimberlin Brown I didn't see this coming, quite frankly.

DEADLINE So who contacted you about coming back? Was it Brad Bell?

brown He was. It was very mysterious. “Well, I'm working on something,” he said. 'I don't know what this is.' And I said, OK. Talk about a roller coaster. The only thing I can think of is that maybe it was because of my fans, and maybe everyone who was commenting, that made everything go viral. Brad is listening. He truly cares, and in my opinion, I truly believe that my followers, fans, and people who have loved to hate Sheila all these years are responsible for my comeback.

DEADLINE Does Brad have a reputation for changing his mind?

brown I really don't know. I get my scripts, save my scripts, and figure out what I'm going to do with them that day to make them exciting and entertaining. And I go to work, come home, see my family, and work the next day. I'm not one of those actresses who knocks on the door upstairs. I let them do their job and I do mine. I have no right to question why decisions are made this way. I'm so glad he chose to bring me back. He surprised me when he told me how he did it and had to do a lot of research into the backstory to achieve this current story.

Deadline Maybe he thought he made a mistake and now he's correcting it?

brown Either that or it was on his mind the whole time and he didn't tell me! But I can't see anyone doing anything that evil. That would be Sheila's moment.

DEADLINE What about fan confidence? Do you have concerns about how this might play out with them?

brown I really did it because I really thought I was gone. I went into the interviews knowing I was gone and looking forward to the next chapter in my life and what it might bring, wise or otherwise. I even bought property in Montana. I'm expecting a grandson in June. My son lives there and I am building a house in Montana so I can be closer to my grandson. I was looking to close on my house in Los Angeles that I rent for work. Thank goodness I received a phone call from Brad a week before I left my home in Los Angeles, and I really thought this was a done deal. Like I said, it's been a roller coaster ride for me, and I'm so grateful that that roller coaster is back on the upward swing.

Sheila is my happy place. I'm one of those people that when I go to work, I go to work because I absolutely love what I do every day. Getting that call, asking me if I would consider coming back, was one of the best calls I've ever received in my life.

DEADLINE Let's go back to the original discussion, when you first learned that Sheila was going to be killed.

brown Brad called me upstairs to talk to me about what was on his mind about Sheila. It was a tough pill for me to swallow. It's been years since I've been playing Sheila, and I consider her my baby, so to speak. This was certainly not news I was expecting or hoping to receive.

DEADLINE Was he being too honest? Did he directly say: “We will kill Silla?”

brown Yes, very beautiful. I went to his office because he said we needed to talk, and I thought it would be story related because he would often call me to tell me what to expect and how he wanted me to play something. I thought this was the conversation I was going to have upstairs. When I entered his office, he looked at me and said, “We're killing your character.”

Deadline Are you surprised by the silence? Or did you ask a bunch of questions and make statements like, “What would the fans say?”'

brown No, I was never that actress. I've never been one to question why they do what they do. I'm more of that person who's so grateful that my career lasted all day long. It was an amazing trip. But when he told me, you could probably hear a pin drop. I just said ok. I was grateful that he was the one to tell me, and that I didn't hear it from the whispers in the hallway. It speaks volumes when you have that kind of integrity, because I know there are other shows that don't always do that. So I was very happy that he respected me and my character to tell me that directly.

Delivery time. What do you think of the reaction to your character's death?

brown I've definitely seen the reaction. I even saw what happened with the ratings the following week. The fans were going crazy. They were exploding. My social media and the stories everyone wrote regarding my coming out went viral. That was amazing to me. It was a bittersweet thing for me here. I was killed off the show, but here I had millions of people so upset about that fact and making it so verbal on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter, and it was really cool to see. It was amazing for me to see the impact my character had over these years of playing her. People have said to me before, “Oh, you're the icon of the day.” I never considered myself anything like that. I considered myself really lucky to have had this career. And when all this came out and the influx of fans was so huge, I didn't realize that I had this kind of impact on people. I didn't realize that my character was probably as famous as her. I mean there were posts and DMs sent to me that literally brought me to tears.

DEADLINE So does this mean you're becoming a series regular again?

brown I am happy to say that I have been asked to negotiate another contract.