Maurice Benard gave his General Hospital co-star Jon Lindstrom, who has played twins Ryan and Kevin for decades an incredible welcome that had the Daytime Emmy nominee ready to hire him as his agent. But the love was just beginning — and so was the honesty in this State Of Mind episode that is both brutal in its honesty and inspiring on so many levels.
Opening Up
As usual, Benard has his co-star start at the beginning — which means being born, growing up, and going to school in Oregon. Interestingly, Lindstrom only attended two years of college because he didn’t want a fallback career — he wanted no choice but to follow his first love — acting. The two discussed acting coaches (of particular interest was a doozy on Stella Adler), the toll acting can take on an actor, and learning from anxiety.
*Trigger warning: If you struggle or know someone who struggles with depression, anxiety, or other forms of mental health, the following material may cause some distress. Please proceed with caution and know you are not alone.
As many viewers of the podcast series expect, the question about whether or not Lindstrom had any mental illness in his family or past came up, and without missing a beat, opened up about the depression he has suffered from — shining a light on what goes through a person’s mind who considers suicide. He shared that his family had a history of it as well — a legacy it has left on them. Not wanting to give his family a second occurrence propelled him to seek help. At one point, when discussing having lost his mother this past summer, Lindstrom was too choked up to continue and had to take a moment.
The actor/writer/director explained how one drug helped him tackle it and move forward. It caused Benard to stop the discussion right there for a moment to explain how much good what he shared would do others — a talk he usually saves for the end. They both agreed that talking about it without shame is what is needed out there.
Talk soon moved to other things, including his love for music/drumming (check out the famous actresses before they were stars who used to listen to his band play), what curtailed his success in music (hint, you will appreciate his tough choice), GH — and the first time he met Benard, his wife Cady McClain, and of course the new book he’s published — Hollywood Hustle. You can watch the entire episode here.
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