In a revealing two-part interview with “General Hospital” star Maurice Benard (Sonny Corinthos), for his popular “State of Mind” podcast series, Genie Francis (Laura Collins) sits down for a rare and emotional conversation as the two soap icons open up about their new storyline on the long-running soap opera, the state of the genre itself, their decades-long friendship, as well as their deeply personal mental health journeys — Benard on bipolar disorder, and Francis on depression and social anxiety.
Disappearing Stigma: Acting on Soaps
In an exclusive preview clip released to Soap Opera Network, the two talk about the long-standing stigma around soap actors and why Francis believes it’s finally fading.
“I think the stigma is less and less about us with people like Bryan Cranston [“Breaking Bad,” “Malcolm in the Middle”] embracing it and saying it was the most wonderful training ground,” notes Francis, referring to Cranston’s comments about his portrayal of Douglas Donovan on “Loving” during the early days of his acting career.
“I think it’s disappearing, I think [there are] enough film actors who have tried to do it and can’t. I think it’s lost a lot of that,” continues Francis. “People very often cannot tell the difference between bad writing and bad acting … You have to have a very discerning eye to be able to see that.”
Agreeing with Francis, Benard says, “It’s not fair sometimes, with as much [dialogue] as we have.”
“It’s more difficult now than it’s ever been, even when it was live,” elaborates Francis. “It’s harder now because now, I mean, there are days, no takes, and there’s no rehearsal time, and we’ll shoot three or four episodes in one day. You know you’ll be on set for 20 consecutive scenes of emotional stuff. That’s like a marathon. These things never happened before. So, now it’s harder than it ever was.”
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Watch the preview clip below.
The two-part “State of Mind” interview with Genie Francis will be released on Sunday, November 16 and Sunday, November 23, with the podcast available to watch or listen to on YouTube and all major podcast platforms.
Note: In part two, Francis’ husband, Jonathan Frakes (“Star Trek: The Next Generation”), joins the conversation.
