While Anna Devane and Brook Lynn Quartermaine don’t have much to do with each other outside of clashing over Valentin Cassadine, actresses Finola Hughes and Amanda Setton appeared together in an online event and spoke about their influences in Port Charles.
Finola Hughes and Amanda Setton Talk Influences
The gorgeous actresses took part in a General Hospital Fantasy Events Zoom over the weekend and they were asked by some fans in attendance about each other — but also about playing strong women and the co-stars either may have looked up to when they had their respective starts in Port Charles. That question specifically was posed by attendee Sly, with both ladies praising it.
“Working with Jane Elliot [Tracy Quartermaine, Brook Lynn’s grandmother] the few times that I’ve had the pleasure to work with her has actually been super informative,” enthused Setton, “and really just awesome, because I think I said in another interview recently that her presence is sort of in the room before you’re even there — in a good way, in a positive way because she is so fierce, so strong and the character of Tracy is so strong that you just want to show up. You just want to show up for it and I found that to be really inspiring. The whole Granny/Brook Lynn banter is just like two hard heads going at each other and that’s fun.”
“Jane’s amazing,” added Hughes enthusiastically. “She’s such a strong, strong presence and person. Her head is so firmly on her shoulders. She’s really got a lot of common sense.
“You know for me, when I first go there [in 1985],” continued Hughes, “John Beradino, Leslie [Charleson, Monica Quartermaine], and Stuart Damon [Alan Quartermaine] — I think Stuart and Leslie and John were kind of the people that I emulated the way that they worked. And obviously Tristan [Rogers, Robert Scorpio] too but he wasn’t of the older generation — those guys. And of course, Anna Lee [Lila Quartermaine], as she was British, so I used to go and sit in her dressing room and just talk to her.
“But what was so apparent at that point was when I got there was this dedication to work,” recalled Hughes fondly. “It was a very different beast because we rehearsed all day and then we had a dress rehearsal in the afternoon and then we shot once the dress rehearsal was done so basically you spent all day with everybody and you could watch people’s process. There was a real element of respect for the work, which we still have now with [executive producer] Frank Valentini has a real work ethic and he expects that of all of us.
“What I loved about watching Leslie and Stuart was even though they were incredibly professional, and they knew everything they were doing, it kind of got thrown away as soon as they started the work.” Finola Hughes explained further, adding, “so that anything that was fun or funny that would come up in the scene, they would use and we were encouraged to do that by our producer at the time, Gloria Monty, who encouraged us to do all of that and improvise sometimes. So yes, those two were definitely a big influence on me.”
General Hospital (GH) airs weekdays on ABC. Check your local listings for airtimes. For more about what’s coming up in Port Charles, check out all the latest that’s been posted on GH spoilers, and for an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.
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