Brandon Beemer chats with Greg In Hollywood

Caught up with actor Brandon Beemer at an AIDS benefit recently and he could not have been more friendly and gracious.

He has played Owen on the CBS soap Bold and the Beautiful since 2008 and his character is currently involved with older woman Jacqueline Payne Marone who is portrayed by the lovely British actress Lesley Anne Down.

“I’m doing the whole cougar storyline,” says the 29-year-old Brandon. “It’s awesome, it’s great. She’s been in so many movies and I’m learning so much. She’s a great, great person, so much fun to work with and an amazing actress.”

Of course things are not always smooth between the two characters: “We are trying to be happily married and are battling the obstacles of a cougar relationship. I want kids and she’s already had a kid and doesn’t want anymore kids so we’re going to have to figure that out. I’m going to be forced to make a choice about what I want: her or kids.”

The cast has been on a high since the show won the Emmy last August for Outstanding Daytime Drama for the first tine.

“I think it was a payoff for all the hard work,” Brandon says. “Every show puts in a lot of hard work and sometimes it gets overlooked and a lot of people get overlooked. But this time we didn’t get overlooked and it was great.”

His show is thriving while many other struggle and face cancellation. Earlier this year, fellow CBS soap Guiding Light finally ended its long run and joined a growing list of canceled soaps such as Port Charles, Santa Barbara and Passions.

Says Brandon: “I can’t complain, I’m in a good position on a good show, a stable show. This genre needs to keep going and keep getting attention and getting new viewers. We need to keep creating new and fresh storylines.”

He joined his currently show after two years on NBC’s Days of Our Lives as Shawn-Douglas Brady. That soap was a big break for Brandon as he transitioned to acting from modeling. He’s since become one of daytime’s top hunks and is often required to do scenes without a shirt – or even less than that!

“u should have seen what I was in today: I had to wear the skimpiest thing that I’ve ever worn. Let’s just say that it was fake leaves. I’ve been going to the gym the last 4 or 5 days because I cannot look bad in this thing that they are putting on me.”

Somehow, I don’t think Brandon can ever really look bad.

I wondered how he feels about being such a sex symbol with numerous fan sites dedicated to him and YouTube videos  (see below) floating around of his shirtless scenes.

“I kind of look at it this way: I’m not always going to have it, whatever it is that everybody thinks that I have,” he says.  “I might as well embrace it. It kind of makes me laugh sometimes, it makes me shy but it is what it is. If it puts a smile on people’s face to see me run around in a pair of black leather pants on a runway on the show, then I’ll do it.”