Soap Opera Digest – August 05, 2019

so that first day was a little

surreal!’ And then on the

soundstage, it was so fun

seeing the hospital hub

and all of that stuff. Even

reading my scripts, I was

like, ‘Oh, my God, I have a

scene in the Metro Court!’ ”

When it was time to shoot

her first scenes, “More than

feeling starstruck by the

people I’d be working with,

my [nerves] were more

about just really wanting to

do a good job because I was

on my soap,” she explains.

“The first person I worked

with was Maura West

[Ava], so she probably got

most of my jitters. She was

fantastic; she’s an incredible

actress and just really fun to

work off of. Everyone there

is beyond kind. I’m having

the greatest time.”

Her years of GH viewing

have come in handy when it

comes to her dialogue. Ray

says, “I’m talking about a

lot of past characters, and

what’s great is, not only do

I know who they are, I know

exactly what happened to

them! It definitely gave me

a leg up that I knew all this

stuff. And quite frankly, it

just made it so much more

fun. It’s just so fun for me to

be there!”

thtfitd littl H fGHH i i

nFew actors at GH were

more directly affected

when Michelle Stafford

exited the role of Nina to

reprise the part of Y&R’s

Phyllis than James Patrick

Stuart (Valentin), her lead-

ing man since 2016.

“It’s her life, it’s her

decision, it’s her career,”

begins Stuart about how

he handled the news.

“The core group of people

who were most dramati-

cally affected by it all heard about it in a

small moment. But the thing that Frank

[Valentini, executive producer] and me

and the producers and everybody over

at GENERAL HOSPITAL have in com-

mon is that we love Michelle. So there

wasn’t any bad blood at all. There couldn’t,

because we adore her. There was nothing

you could feel except love for her, and

when we found out she was leaving, we just

wanted to love her as long as we could.”

Stafford’s departure created what Stuart

describes as “a stumble that we knew we

would have to try to recover from.” He has

high praise for Valentini’s new Nina hire,

Cynthia Watros. “I don’t know about you,

but the last thing I would ever want to be

told on a Monday morn-

ing is, ‘We need to replace

Michelle Stafford!’ ” the

actor exclaims. “And

then Frank dropped the

bombshell that Cynthia

was available and inter-

ested and I just couldn’t

believe our luck. I think

she’s dynamite. I think any

transition is going to be

difficult, especially with

somebody like Michelle

Stafford. But with Cynthia,

I knew right away — I said to Frank, ‘I’ve

got to thank you because that is an incred-

ible get, and I will make it my life’s work

to make sure that she is as welcomed as

possible and feels like she can create to the

best of her ability.’ I just think the world

of her.

“She’s definitely laying the ground-

work for the inevitable payday,” he

continues. “I think everybody knows that

Nina is going to have to find out sooner or

later what Valentin has done” — i.e., hired

Sasha to pose as her daughter — “and

we are all really looking forward to that

moment. Whatever it looks like, whatever

it turns out to be, it’s going to be spectacu-

lar. She is going to chew the carpet!”

SOAP OPERA DIGEST

“I’m having the

greatest time.”

Stuart

and

Watros

HOWARD WISE/JPI

James Patrick Stuart On GH’s Nina Switch