Sonny’s latest mental breakdown on General Hospital has been brewing for a while now and finally came to an explosive head on the May 17 episode. Maurice Benard interacted with fans on social media about the storyline, throwing his two cents in about his character going off the rails.
He Praised His Co-stars’ Performances
It’s surprising that Sonny hasn’t broken his hand, considering how many times he’s been throwing punches at people’s heads lately. First, he beat the ever-loving snot out of Cyrus (Jeff Kober) on the January 4 episode. Then, on the 17th of May, he kicked the crap out of his former mob lieutenant, Dex (Evan Hofer), who’s switched sides and has joined the police academy.
Because Valentin (James Patrick Stuart) is now in control of defense contracting company Pikeman, and Sonny refused to do business with them, Valentin made the pharmacist alter Sonny’s bipolar medication to a far lower dose than he normally takes. The result, which has percolated over several months, is that Sonny feels everyone who was close to him has betrayed him, and he’s pushed all of his friends and family away.
Thankfully, Jason (Steve Burton) intervened and prevented Sonny from killing Dex. But in his rant about wanting to put a gun to everyone’s heads, his daughter Kristina (Kate Mansi) had the unfortunate timing to have witnessed this, shattering her view of him. Jason called in Sonny’s ex, Carly (Laura Wright), who was able to calm him down despite feeling he now has to beat himself up over his actions. The brilliant performances all around were praised by the fans.
On May 21, Benard took to X, formerly Twitter, to thank the fans and the show for continuing a public diatribe about mental health — a subject near and dear to his heart.
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“First off, I want to thank everyone for the incredible discussions on mental health as far as [today’s] show!!!” he wrote, adding, “[Thanks to] the writers for understanding, bipolar. So many great performances. We put a lot of hard work into what we do. We really appreciate you watching @GeneralHospital.” A cavalcade of fans responded, many of whom felt that Benard’s work in bringing awareness to mental health issues has helped them. Laura Wright responded simply, “Big love Mo. xoxo.” Almost all of his followers had nothing but praise for his acting, and the powerful storyline.
Mo Defended the Portrayal of Sonny
However, a few fans were a little perturbed by the whole mess, as one wrote on X, “@MauriceBenard, People off their medications don’t necessarily go around hitting people and being out of control. This was the WRONG message to send,” adding that the actor should have prevented the way bipolar disorder was portrayed. Benard thoughtfully responded, “This is true, but when you have a character like Sonny who’s volatile and is drinking and is manic and his thoughts are [taking] him over, it could definitely happen. Like I said, bipolar ain’t pretty.”
Another fan poo-pooed the whole thing, chalking it up to an Emmy grab by Benard. “Maurice is just trying to get another Emmy, he thinks another ‘off his meds storyline’ will help him get [nominated]. Sure hope not!” they wrote. Benard exuded confidence in his acting skills, replying, “Believe me, that’s not true at all. I’m absolutely cool with the Emmys I have. I don’t need to convince anyone of anything. I really do love the mental health talk [which is] worth more than any Emmy.🎁”
As the saying goes, you can’t please all the people all the time, but in our book, Benard definitely hit a home run with his portrayal of an out-of-control Sonny dealing with improperly treated bipolar disorder.
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