Exclusive: Matthew Atkinson Explains Thomas’ Engagement on B&B
When Thomas left for Paris on The Bold & The Beautiful, portrayer Matthew Atkinson also traveled to Europe in real life, taking advantage of his time off to visit multiple countries with his wife! “Brytnee and I went to Ireland and England and Scotland,” the actor told Soaps In Depth. “We just booked this big trip because we’d always wanted to go to Ireland and I’d heard from Thorsten [Kaye, Ridge], he spent a lot of time in London and he loved London and he’s like, “You’ve got to go.’
“So we just made a huge trip out of it,” he continued. “We landed in London, spent a few days there, and then took a train up to Scotland, rented a car, drove to the Isle of Sky, did Edinburgh, and then flew over to Dublin, drove over to the Cliffs of Moher. Basically everything you can think of we did in a two week span, but that was an incredible trip.”
Atkinson returned to America to go back to work at B&B and now Thomas is back on screen… announcing his surprise engagement to Paris Buckingham! “I don’t think that Thomas at all thought he was going to rekindle any kind of relationship while he was in Paris but I think it just sort of happened,” he explained. “If I was sitting here as Thomas’ friend, I wouldn’t have said, ‘Hey, you know what? in the next three months after you just got out of this relationship, it’d be a great idea to get engaged.’ But I think that he’s genuinely sort of trying to move on with his life.”
It’s completely understandable if viewers don’t remember a relationship between Thomas and Paris that could even be rekindled. “It was sort of a short little blip,” Atkinson admitted. “But it was this fun little flirtation that happened and then it just kind of fell away. And I think when he was over in Paris, while he was completely distanced from his life, I think he made a genuine decision in moving on with his life with this girl. But that’s really hard to do when you come back to reality in a way.”
Thomas returning to Los Angeles to share his happy news with his family in person proves to be a shock for everyone involved, including himself. “He went off to fantasy land in Europe and developed this relationship,” Atkinson mused, “but how does that relationship actually fare when he gets back to the real world and around his family and around these people that he’s known for so long? I think that he expected the feelings or the emotions to be exactly the same when he came back. But I do think that things sort of changed for him and he’s learning how to navigate this new situation.”
So keep watching B&B to see what happens next, because it’s going to get messy! “If it’s not complicated, it’s not a mess and it’s not dramatic,” laughed Atkinson, “then what are we doing, really?”
