Behind The Scenes of Legendary Soap Opera General Hospital

Every week, millions of viewers tune in to enjoy the life and death drama in Port Charles. Yes, I'm talking about the iconic soap opera General Hospital, and it's filmed right here at Prospect Studios. Not only is yours truly in an episode, but Young Hollywood is taking you behind the scenes.

Well, you look stunning and you're all dressed up.

This is wardrobe for the Nurse's Ball.

I'm standing on like one of the most iconic sets in television history. Oh, yeah. Walk me through where we are right now.

We are in the heart of General Hospital at the hospital.

So, what's happening all over here?

Okay, so this is our elevator, which is really fun because on TV, it really looks like it opens and shuts. We actually have someone back there that does the manual pulling. These buttons are just for show. Just a lot of lighting, um that's ready to move if it unless notice. And then we have our different cameras. So it's really all smoke and mirrors.

Oh, for sure. For sure. A lot of wood exteriors, but then you come inside and it's so detailed.

Our art department is incredible. Watch your step again. So this is our setup for the Nurse's Ball.

Nurse's Ball.

So over to your left, we have the red carpet, and we have all of our big sponsors on the wall. And over here to the right is our garden. This is also a set that I had not seen before until today.

Very pretty.

I'm editor-in-chief of Crimson Magazine. So, I'm always dressed up and I, I like to say Nina is kind of the pot stir. Yeah, so Drew Quartermaine, although he's been stripped of the name Quartermaine now Drew Kane. He's doing a lot of not great things. People don't like him. The audience is really angry at me. When I go into the supermarket, I get apples thrown at me.

Acting in a scene with you two was a highlight of of like years in the making. It was amazing.

Oh my goodness. Thank you. That's so sweet.

You were amazing and a natural. Now, I see some champagne bottles. It's not real champagne. I believe it's just props. It could be wrong. When you have food and drinks, any kind of beverage on a soap opera or a TV set, it's not real, is it?

No, we actually do eat and drink. Yeah, um, I've had scenes where we've had real french fries. Um, if they make me a tea, it's real tea.

Is it to temperature? Like if it's tea, it's warm.

Absolutely. The fries are crunchy and warm. Absolutely.

Ooh. You're spoiled. You're spoiled. There are cameras everywhere. You ever pinch yourself and you're like, I can't believe it.

Every day. Every day I come here. Every flower that you see, every plant that you see at General Hospital is 100% real. So every single day, they bring in fresh flowers. And Ms. Jane Elliot, the queen who plays Tracy, was telling me that that is one of the things on General Hospital that has not changed.

Wow. Maurice, over three decades on General Hospital, how do you even think about that? You've lived your life here.

This place has been incredible. General Hospital has always just been there for me, 100%, no matter what.

You are General Hospital, are you not?

Well, that's very nice of you to say. I mean, we're all General Hospital, honestly. Multigenerational show and I think that's what makes it so appealing to everybody. People watch it with their grandmothers, they watch it with their aunts. And, um it's what's kept us on the air for 62 years.

You have been on the show for ten years and you are still young. You've grown up on the show before everyone's eyes. Talk about that experience.

I have most like most of my life documented for America forever. And it's a little humiliating during certain years of my life. Nevertheless, I'm, I'm very grateful and I'm happy it's there. I always think of like my, my future family being able to like go back and watch me as a child. Like that's my favorite part thinking about it.

You've gone through life milestones on this show. Marriage, kids, you're a grandfather now. And you get to celebrate it as a family.

This is my family. My second family for sure. I know people say that, it's a cliche. I remember when I first started, I had a nervous breakdown. Quit the show, came back and they held, they held my hand. Even with Frank now, holds my hand a lot.

Leslie, how was it being on General Hospital?

It was an amazing experience. The wardrobe was stunning. I may or may not have kept the jewelry.

You didn't steal our jewelry, did you?

Uh, no, but you did give me the pass. So I'm gonna keep that.

You can keep the pass, but you can't keep the dress. Can I tell you, just being on the show for one day, this was probably as a woman. Oh, yeah. The highlight. Oh, 100%.

This station. This is our on stage makeup that's ready to go. Each bag is labeled with the character name and um also the actor, actress's name. So before each take when we go to shoot, they will run in and they will touch us up and make us look beautiful. But I always say when I sit in the chair, this is my happy place. I say that in the hair chair too, just like, please just keep, keep touching my face.

You gotta memorize a million lines. This is true. How? How?

As soon as I get a script and I know everyone's different, I need to read it as soon as I get it and just reread it and reread it and reread it until it just becomes a muscle memory for me.

It's the nurse's ball. Yes. I got to be in a scene and it was very exciting. Like, you gotta get it done. Move on and then that's it. It's quick.

Oh, it's quick. Yeah, you, this isn't like movies or anything else. This is like McDonald's. It's fast. You come on this and it's literally like a speeding train and you're standing on the ground, you gotta like grab on and go. And and nobody knows what hit them, really. It's it's it's an enormous amount of work and also a pace that nobody's used to. A few weeks ago, I was looking at my script and there was a page count kind of towards the end of the schedule. And we had shot, I think it was 180 that day. This is the only place that work like that can get done. It's crazy. Like theater, because you get one take. Unless it's for a camera error or you miss a line, it's a one take show. It's like it almost feels live.

As the EP, you're running the ship. This ship sails so smoothly. Uh, you should be really proud of your cast and crew.

I am. It's mostly because I get motion sickness, so the ship can't rock. We we we have too much to do and too much to say and too much story to tell.

To the left looks to be our stage, which is currently getting worked on. They are always working and they are so fabulous. We have backstage of the Nurse's Ball. We have a makeup station over here. We've got snacks and drinks.

Sir, who are you? What are you doing here? seeing you here. Ah.

Yeah, a great, great tour of the first of the set for. Thank you. I really appreciate it.

It's your turn now. Here we go. All these photos, the Luke and Laura return to General Hospital. Some old-time memorabilia. Of course. A map sort of where everything is. The OGs. And you've been on the show over 40 years. What does that mean to you? Just talk about like the best gig in Hollywood.

100%. Um, this is the best gig because we get to act all the time and we get to work with our friends every single day. I mean, I have friends that go back to 40 years. General Hospital, maybe any soap opera, is the best job in Hollywood. It really is the best job. No better fans than General Hospital fans. You guys are the most loyal, incredible fans. Even when I do bad scenes, you think they're great.

It's historic. It's it's it is an iconic piece of like American pop culture. We're filming now the Nurse's Ball. Which is one of the most iconic weeks on this show. What can fans expect?

All of the individual kind of story lines that everybody knows and loves from the show are kind of coming to like this, you know, one place where it's just one big messy outcome.

Yeah. And the llama.

Oh, and the llama. We can't forget the llama.

I heard the llama pooped.

No, the llama pooped quite a few times. But they come prepared. I guess when you travel with a llama, you just know the llama likes to just poop.

I'll show you my morning routine. I sort of enter through these doors. I check in. I grab my morning schedule. I I sort of know like, okay, what's happening today? What sort of people are working? Uh, this is what the call sheet looks like.

That's an actor's dream gettin' your name on a call sheet, right?

Sure is. Take me like from start to finish being here at the studio. Typically, when I'm here, I'm running around. I literally don't sit still when I'm here. I'm up on my feet all the time. I try to give myself a little break when I can, but most of the time I'm somewhere in some crevices trying to do something. Um, usually, I start off my day putting everything down, turning on my heater and automatically going into hair and makeup.

But I always have to start my day with like a good morning because that's so rude like coming in and not saying hi to everybody, so I try to say hi to every single person that's here.

You know, I do my best.

Um, you even got me.

I did get you.

I was what a blessing, a gift.

You were, you were like a gift this morning.

Oh my gosh, you're the gift. You're the real gift. Um, but yeah, that's kinda typically what I do and the during the day when we're getting ready, you know, the typical hair makeup which you went through. And then we come up here and we just get to play. We get to hang out and just we love to just talk and kind of banter too. That's also what one of my favorite parts of the day as well as when we get to just kinda like sit down and chit-chat a little bit. Um, and then we rehearse and we study and that's also really fun too. We get different ideas off each other. We bounce off. He's really good at communicating what he sees and his vision. So, um, he always asks me what I would like to do next. And so I really do appreciate that. It's a community here that once you get on stage and like when we get to work, we're also catching up with like these people and friendships that like we missed during the weekend.

You already won a Daytime Emmy.

To win was just crazy because you always think of about if something like that will happen to you as an actor. You're like, oh will I ever like win anything? Or I remember joining the show and going to the Daytime Emmy when I was really young and seeing everybody win and it was this grand amazing thing to watch as a little girl and you like want to be those people on stage. And then it happens to you and you black out and then you have an Emmy in your house.

Well, you brought up like dating or love making in soaps. How does it work? How's it go down?

making in soaps. Yeah, yeah. You take this one. I mean, you mean like a love scene on this? Yeah. Well, it's We've had a few. We have on the floor, on a table. Yes. It's it's all I work covered up. We have a sheet, and we have like

Well, you're covered up.

This is what happens. We're always trying to get him naked. This is what happened in the wardrobe. This is what happens. They're like, oh my gosh, Cynthia, let's get a sheet. Let's get you all covered up. Make sure you're okay. Eric, you're gonna put on this tiny little pair of underwear, you'll be all right. And then like let's make sure you're all cover, let's okay, great. Everybody okay? Do you feel? Do you feel comfortable, Cynthia? Are you okay? Meanwhile, I'm standing there like literally practically naked. Then we we you know, have the scene and they don't show the stuff that they can't show and we we you know, we're kissing and rolling around and it's very, very quick.

Would you say it mechanically quick.

It's very, very The pace of the scene is very, very quick. It reminds me a little like something like, you know, where you come in and it's like, Camera 2's on you, camera 3, you say your line there, you roll on your back, Drew, you yeah, you put your hand, you caress her slowly, kiss her neck and you come up, say that line then roll, she's on top and then you know, you're kiss one more time and she gets angry, gets up and throws the pillow at you and walks out of the scene. Here we go. In five, four, three, and you're kinda like you're you're

So it's like real life.

Yeah. It's true. It's like real life. And guess whose dressing room this is, right next to mine. Ms. Leslie Robbins. Oh. And right next to me. Well, that that's my. My dressing room. There is absolutely nothing in here. Uh, we got, you know, a TV. Obviously, my script in hand. Nothing. I have nothing in here because I just focus on my mind. I don't I don't decorate. I just come in here, listen to music and really focus.

What's the music that gets you into the zone?

I have a different playlist for every episode I do. So it it's sort of like like I have like my character's music that he would listen to. I have uh music that is just totally the same essence as the scene, but it always changes. I'm just trying to always find the freshest, hottest choices. Um, exploring as much as I can. And then uh hopefully I go up there and it can just let it go and it'll all be there. Just being on the set all day. Yes. It feels like home, it's a family. It is a family. I even have a dressing room for the day and I love it.

But how is your dressing room? Has it become like your second or third home?

Yes, it's definitely a second home. You know, it's the place where you you um retreat to.

When you're in your dressing room. You got downtime. What's your activity? What are you doing?

Yeah, we run lines. We get for ready for whatever scenes are coming next. It's typically what we should be doing most of the time. Yeah. Yappin. Yappin or nappin'. Reading. Myself and uh Kirsten, we knit. Uh, so I'm making a hat for my son right now. Um, so what else do I do? I scroll. I doom scroll. I follow A lot of cooking. So then, and then and then I go home and I I make what I see. I just want it to be as serene in there as possible. So it's very cozy. Lighting is really important to me, warm light, plants. I have my diffuser. And if I'm not up here, I'm meditating. All day.

What does that do for you as an actor or just as a human being?

It's presence for me. Kind of all about finding the slow moments during the day and like just really being where my feet are. That's but that's what meditation is. For me, I don't meditate to meditate. I meditate for the rest of the time that I'm not meditating. I'm always on my social media.

You are Young Hollywood. I'm sorry. That's it.

Oh, yeah, I get I I'm I'm I'm cool with that. This is the green room. Um, there's all this sort of memorabilia. Uh.

Where the magic happens.

So this is the chair that I go to every morning. The wonderful makeup artists at General Hospital always beautifying us.

She's probably like a therapist too, right?

A little bit. She knows some things about me. This is the wardrobe department. Now, so this room is epic.

Not only do I want to take your hair and makeup team home, I want the closet space home with me. Some of the clothes. You gotta be kidding. I mean, it's just clothes on clothes on clothes. Suits. This is mine. So we have purses, there, bags, that's all shoes. I didn't even know that that existed. It's just a huge shoe wall.

Welcome to the soaps.

Welcome to the soaps. Now, the question is, do you get to keep anything you wear?

No. No.

This is bigger than my house. This this this closet's bigger than my house. Yeah. The show is going on over 60 years. Longest running program. What makes it stay for so long?

Well, I think it's an escape for a lot of people. It's that and also they've watched with their grandparents. And then the grandparents got their parents hooked, and then parents got their kids hooked.

And Leslie, you're gonna have to come back and and we're gonna have to figure out what kind of character. That's right. Well, she can still be the same character, but then you have to intro you have to have like a love affair with another with another character. Drew's seems to be working through town. Although Drew's madly in love with your daughter at the moment. Whatever. I can't do a triangle. No, you can't. I need commitment. You won't know about the other woman. Only the audience knows about a triangle. You're not gonna know about it. I'll know. They'll know. Women know. Women know. Jeez, I know.