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.
Get Back to Couples
In an exclusive preview clip released to Soap Opera Network, Benard talks with Francis about the state of couples on soaps, comparing how things were done in the past to how they are done today, particularly on “General Hospital.”
“Let me tell you something. They don’t do couples anymore,” says Benard to Francis, who agrees with him. “If you think about that time when you came back [in the 1990s], and I just started. Sonny and Brenda [Vanessa Marcil], Luke [Anthony Geary] and Laura, Lois [Rena Sofer] and Ned [Wally Kurth], Jason [Steve Burton] and Robin [Kimberly McCullough] … couples were the thing. Now they’re not doing as many. I don’t know why.”
“Do you think the pandemic changed it because of intimacy?” pondered Francis, contemplating when things shifted. “Maybe, yeah. I mean, it could be. I truly believe … look, I don’t question anybody how they’re doing their jobs, but they should get back to couples. I think that’s what helps,” Benard points out, with Francis agreeing, saying, “Helps it, yeah!”
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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.
