Clint Howard Recalls His 'Exhilarating' Experience Working on “The Bold and The Beautiful”: 'It Was Go Time' (Exclusive)

The veteran actor exclusively tells PEOPLE about returning to soaps almost 40 years after appearing on 'Santa Barbara'

Clint Howard is used to poring over “boatloads” of dialogue, but for the veteran actor, starring in The  The Bold and the Beautiful meant returning to a brisk pace of working he hasn’t experienced since appearing on Santa Barbara in 1987.

Howard, 64, discussed with PEOPLE his new role on The Bold and the Beautiful, appearing in the April 26 and April 29 episodes as the mysterious homeless man Tom, who provides Deacon Sharpe (Sean Kanan) and Dr. John Finnegan (Tanner Novlan) with pivotal clues to a mystery.

Howard shot his scenes with Kanan and Novlan just weeks before the episodes are set to air, which he says proved to be an “exhilarating” experience, partly due to the show’s brisk pace of production.

“You're handed a lot of scenes to do and you’d better be prepared,” Howard tells PEOPLE. “I was taught by both my mom and dad, Rance and Jean Howard, since I was a little kid that my primary responsibility is to be prepared to show up to work, even as a very young child… And then knowing that soap operas, it's possible to get handed boatloads of dialogue, and you've got to learn it. You've got to understand it. You got to be able to deliver it. You got to be light on your feet.”

Related: Marie Osmond Reveals Working on The Bold and the Beautiful Was a 'Bucket List' Life Achievement (Exclusive)

In PEOPLE’s exclusive first look of the scenes, Howard looks almost unrecognizable as Tom, sporting long hair, a beard and a hoodie over several shirts while talking to Novlan and Kanan.

When the actor was first approached for the role, Howard notes he already had long shaggy hair, which suited the role of Tom perfectly.

"There was this homeless guy that the team over The Bold and The Beautiful has invented. They looked at me and they said, 'homeless guy,'" he jokes of his appearance on the show.

Related: Looking Back on 'The Bold and the Beautiful' 's Surprising Guest Stars

Howard’s return to soaps is a long time coming. In 1987, the actor appeared as an orderly named Marshall in three episodes of Santa Barbara, which ran for nine seasons from 1984 to 1993.

"That was a freedom. That was another lifetime ago,” he recalls of the project. “I didn't have as much to do on Santa Barbara as I did on Bold and The Beautiful, and I haven't gone back and looked at it. I don't even know if I could.”

Related: Clint Howard, Brother of Ron Howard, Set to Make His Soap Opera Debut on The Bold and the Beautiful

The actor joins a long list of surprise guest stars who have popped up on The Bold and The Beautiful over the years, including Bob Barker, Drew Carey, Gina Rodriguez and Betty White. Last fall, Marie Osmond appeared as the wealthy Countess Von Frankfurt — a role she told PEOPLE at the time that she "enjoyed" for its unusual nature. ("It’s not one [character] that I’ve played before," she said then.)

Howard, for his part, hints his character Tom could return in future episodes of The Bold and the Beautiful. In the meantime, the actor is keeping busy in other ways, appearing recently on Pauly Shore's podcast The JITV Show, spending time with wife Katherine Cruz (who visited him on set of The Bold and the Beautiful) and enjoying quality moment with friends like Dee Wallace, helping the E.T. star celebrate her 75th birthday in December.

But Howard is particularly jazzed about another upcoming project that couldn't be more different from soaps: a comedy horror film entitled Another Ice Cream Man. The movie, which is a direct sequel to the 1995 cult classic Ice Cream Man, revolves around his character Gregory Tudor and his motivation for deciding to “put body parts in ice cream.”

“I go to make personal appearances at horror conventions, and it [Ice Cream Man] is by far and away my number one horror film that people respond to,” Howard explains, referring to the sequel ultimately as a “warm movie" despite its seemingly scary overtones.

“We're going to follow that journey of what makes a guy go absolutely nuts," he continues. "It will be so delicious. Not to use a bad ice cream pun!”

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The Bold and the Beautiful airs weekdays at 1:30 p.m. ET on CBS and is available for streaming on Paramount+. Howard's episodes are set to air on Friday, April 26 and Monday, April 29.

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