Oliver Hudson’s Jeff Fordham is cold and ruthless on “Nashville,” a role the actor says is quite an adjustment from what he’s used to.
“I’ve never played such a bad person,” the actor told Billy Bush and Kit Hoover on Wednesday’s Access Hollywood Live. “It’s really fun. Going from ‘Rules of Engagement’ to this is night and day.”
When we last saw Jeff on the ABC show, his married paramour Layla Grant (Aubrey Peeples) had overdosed on alcohol and pills he’d given her, and was face down in his pool.
Fortunately, Oliver said Layla will live.
“She does come out of the pool, which I guess I’m now revealing,” he laughed.
And it sounds like the Jayla romance isn’t dead yet, as Oliver dished on how Layla’s closeted husband, Will Lexington (Chris Carmack), will handle the relationship.
“You will see how that sort of plays out, where he’s not so much upset that we’re together, because you know, I protect him,” he said.
While Oliver loves his role on “Nashville,” leaving his newborn daughter in order to film almost made him back out.
“It was tough because I’d just had my little baby girl, my third child, and I had to leave home and go to Nashville… I was a complete mess, bawling,” he said. “My car was coming to pick me up and I was like, ‘What did I do?! I’m gonna call my manager and say I’m not doing it. I don’t care if ABC never hires me again!’ I mean, I was literally out of my mind.
“My beautiful wife was like, ‘Get up, get in the car. Everything is gonna be fine,'” he added.
The actor, who also has two sons with wife Erinn Bartlett, said becoming a father to a little girl changed his life.
“It’s unreal. It’s a whole different dynamic, a whole different ballgame. You don’t understand the daddy’s little girl thing and that feeling that you have until you actually have that girl,” he said.
“Nashville” returns Wednesday, February 4 at 10/9c on ABC.
— Erin O’Sullivan
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