GH Alum Vanessa Marcil Recounts Incredible Night With Meryl Streep

Vanessa Marcil as Brenda Barrett is one of General Hospital’s most beloved characters and fans love hearing what the actress is up to, even many years after exiting the fan-favorite role. The actress recently shared a story about a time she came face-to-face with a legendary movie star.

Vanessa Marcil’s Unforgettable Night

On her Instagram page, Vanessa Marcil shared a detailed account of the night. “So many incredible things have happened in my life after having the guts to leave a small town and an abusive upbringing,” Marcil wrote. “Here is one of them….. When I met Meryl Streep it was in her dressing room backstage at a play she was doing. I was dating a writer/director for 6 years after Kass was born and Meryl was the star of his latest movie.” Marcil included several photos with Streep on her Instagram post, which you can see below, and detailed more from the memorable night.

“We had a great time with her that night never discussing business,” Marcil shared. “Later that night when we got home we had already received an email from Meryl. She said what a great time she had and then said ‘If I’m not mistaken… Without her glasses on, your girlfriend portrays Sam Marquez on the show we watch every week. My family and I always say after each show, Well she’s the best actress.’”

Of course, Marcil played Sam on the NBC hit, Las Vegas, and she was flabbergasted that Streep would know who she was. The multiple Academy Award winner went on to tell her boyfriend not to “F*** this relationship up.”

“Yes, I fainted. Yes I framed the email and yes I went on to learn many things from Meryl,” Vanessa Marcil continued. “One- Don’t watch yourself on camera. Two- try to do every take differently Three- Stand for and with other women. Always. Four was that she was right, Ben was in fact going to [F***] up our relationship.”

The actress then teased that there are plenty more details about this and other great moments in her new book, though she notes it won’t be one of those tell-all memoirs out of respect to her son. Instead, the book will be about love.

“I’m so excited to share so many amazing stories with you all as truly I hope these stories will help you to know that we all deserve pure love in our lives,” Vanessa Marcil said. “So just for today? Don’t ever ever give up. I love you Meryl and I love all of you, my female tribe.”

Although Brenda hasn’t been back to Port Charles since 2013, fans are still clamoring for her to return and fight for her true love, Sonny Corinthos (at least those who don’t think she belongs with Jasper “Jax” Jacks!) While it’s probably not in the cards anytime soon, Marcil did reunite with Maurice Benard at his daughter’s wedding earlier this summer, so at the very least, there was a kind of Brenda/Sonny sighting!

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.