Last week, while on a break from opening for Janet Jackson's Velvet Rope Tour, Usher took a few days off to shoot three new episodes of the CBS TV soap opera, "The Bold and the Beautiful.

On the show, Usher has developed the (now) semi-recurring character named Raymond -- which also happens to be Usher's real life surname -- a musician who made his debut on the show in June.

The R&B singer has already notched up quite a few acting guild credits with appearances on Brandy's TV show, "Moesha," as well as another sitcom, "The Parent Hood." Usher recently completed his film debut in a drama, "The Faculty.

While on the set of the "Bold and the Beautiful," Usher talked with MTV News about how this role in particular differs from the rest of his acting experiences.

It's actually the hardest gig that I've ever had," Usher said, "I mean, I did a movie with Robert Rodriguez ... and I did the "Moesha" show, but this is a lot of dialogue, and you have to remember

it all in one day. It's just back-to-back, back-to-back taping. It doesn't stop, you know, they just keep going. So you have to get used to it. Seeing as how this is my second time [on the show], so I think I'll do pretty good this time.

"And in case you guys didn't know," Usher said, slipping slightly into character, "the reason I'm back is that I knocked [one of the other characters] up. [300k QuickTime] We were actually trying to find out whether I did it for real, but [the producers will only say it's] a possibility. I don't know how I could have done it. I've been on tour and things. I didn't really do it, it wasn't me.

It is Usher and he's back on the road with Janet Jackson, whose Velvet Rope tour plays Portland on Tuesday.