MEET B&B'S NEW ZENDE

“It’s been wild the past couple of months,” marvels B&B newcomer Delon de Metz, who was tapped to play Zende Forrester during the show’s hiatus. “Pretty much everything was on lockdown and [when] my agent sent it 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.”

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The auditions were done over Zoom with Casting Director Christy Dooley and Kiara Barnes (Zoe). “It was very interesting,” de Metz relays. “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.”

The New York City native — and Harvard honors grad — reveals he never intended to pursue acting, but the opportunity came his way thanks to his mother. “I was a sophomore in high school, probably around 16, and she wanted me to go see an acting coach in advance to prep for college interviews,” he explains. “She had me see a coach in New York, her name is Susan Batson, and after my first session, I was like, ‘Mom, this is really interesting. I think I might want to pursue this as a career.’ She said, ‘Delon, you get into Harvard, work hard, get a degree and then you can do whatever you want.’ That was pretty much the agreement: Get in, go, do my thing, and then if I wanted to pursue acting, I’d have the full support of the family.”