‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ showrunner Brad Bell talks balancing grounded drama and delicious camp

Woman’s World has talked to our share of soap opera troublemakers, but none hold a candle to Kimberlin Brown as Shiela Carter Sharpe – who has spread her villainy across both The Bold and the Beautiful and The Young and the Restless for 34 years.

With death-defying Shiela currently playing at redemption on The Bold and the Beautiful, Brown opens up about whether this tiger can change her stripes and why her marriage to Sean Kanan’s Deacon Sharpe might just work.

Plus, The Bold and the Beautiful executive producer/head writer Brad Bell chimes in about finding the balance between grounded stories like Eric Forrester’s illness last year and over-the-top turns like Steffy killing Sheila (not-so) dead, yet again.

The TV star says she’s ‘lucky’ Sheila Carter is a soap-hopping survivor

Sheila Carter first descended on daytime in 1990 and whether creating drama on The Young and the Restless or The Bold and the Beautiful, the baddie has continued to spell trouble with a capital T.

“I’m so lucky,” portrayer Kimberlin Brown says of her crossover role, which currently has her stirring the pot on The Bold and the Beautiful. “I have had the opportunity to hang out with both sides of the aisle at CBS [Television City] – because the shows are literally right across from one another. So, when I go to work B&B, I’m walking down the hall and I’m kissing on Bryton James and hugging on Eric Braeden [from The Young and the Restless]. I’m having a good time!”

‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ showrunner Brad Bell shares his daytime ‘recipe’

Poor Sugar was a pawn in Sheila’s machinations almost 20 years ago. During that run, the schemer drugged Sugar, gave her plastic surgery to turn her into a double, and then forced her to go back to prison in her stead. Sadly, Sugar’s recent revenge plan led to her own demise… but can you blame her for trying to even the score with Sheila?

While Sheila always brings over-the-top drama and wild adventures, this round started right after The Bold and the Beautiful had slowed down to tell a grounded, heartbreaking tale involving Eric’s mortality.

In a storyline Bell recently told us was based on personal experience, the patriarch’s family was ultimately forced to decide whether to take him off life support – and after that emotional ride, the showrunner was ready to shift gears and lean into some Sheila mayhem.

“I look at the show like a viewer,” Bell explains. “I watch it and I think, ‘Oh, gosh, we’re dreadfully serious,’ or, ‘We’ve gotten too crazy!’ I guess it’s like cooking: You just have to add an ingredient or take something out to create a great combination of humor, drama, comedy and adventure.”

Soap star Kimberlin Brown only wants to catfight on TV

As one of daytime’s most iconic villains, Sheila has a legion of supportive fans who love to hate her – and those viewers also love it when Brown resurrects the agitator. That said, as happens in the age of social media, Brown sometimes receives hostile feedback from a small faction who don’t love to hate Sheila.

“I let it roll off my back,” says Brown. “It takes so much more energy to be mean and nasty – I know because I do that for a living! – than it does to be nice. Sometimes people are just having a bad day and social media is a very safe place to be rude. I’m not one of those people and if they choose to be, then that’s on them.”

The queen of catfights – who also has a jewelry line and an avocado farm to tend to in the real world – doesn’t have time for fans who bash her.

Hearing everyone on the show talk smack about Sheila, however, is another matter.

“I love it,” Brown says. “In the hair and makeup room, we have the monitors on and I’ll sit and watch what they’re taping – and in everybody else’s scenes, they’re talking about me. Well, they’re talking about Sheila! And my whole thing is: The only time you need to worry is when they STOP talking about you.”

The actress talks Sheila, Deacon and redemption on ‘B&B’

With Sheila singing a redemption tune these days on The Bold and the Beautiful, she’s been challenging Steffy and anyone who will listen to believe she only wants to live happily ever after with her new hubby Deacon, her son Finn and her grandkids.

“I think a tiger can be tamed and can be lovely when you tame it,” Brown hedges. “But I also believe a tiger never changes its stripes. So you always want to be very careful about the hand that you’re putting toward the beast.”

While she urges caution when it comes to her character, Brown is convinced Sheila truly loves her new hubby, Deacon.

“Oh yes!” she says. “Deacon’s definitely the voice of reason in her ear. He’s the angel whispering on her right shoulder…while the devil is screaming in the other ear.”

Soap star Kimberlin Brown believes in Sheila and Deacon’s love on ‘B&B’

“Loving angel” is an unexpected role for Deacon to play for Sheila or anyone. After all, Sean Kanan’s character has also spent decades sewing trouble on both The Bold and the Beautiful and The Young and the Restless!

“That’s what makes their relationship so interesting,” Kimberlin Brown tells WW. “Deacon loves and accepts Shiela for everything she is and has done in the past, and he hasn’t judged her – and she does the same for him. This unconventional couple actually has the most normal relationship of anyone on daytime.”

For now, maybe. With that devil still screaming on Sheila’s shoulder, we’re downright worried.

Currently, the uber-villain seems a bit distracted by Tom, but we can’t help but wonder: Will Sheila pull Deacon back to his wicked ways on The Bold and the Beautiful…or will he be her next victim?