Maurice Benard Reveals How He Manifested Working With This General Hospital Co-Star

On the latest episode of Maurice Benard’s mental health podcast State of Mind, the General Hospital star revealed how he manifested working with one of his GH co-stars.

Manifesting A Major Role

Benard started out by noting he believed he never shared this story with his guest. “I was sitting watching TV one night, and this guy named Rick Hearst won an Emmy,” he remembered. “And I thought to myself, ‘Damn.'”

Benard admitted he wasn’t familiar with Hearst’s work, but after seeing the clip shown during his Emmy win, he said, “Okay, this guy is good-looking and can act like that and he just won an Emmy. And I thought, ‘Wow, I’d like to work with him.'”

The story shocked Hearst, sitting across from Benard, realizing it happened during his 1991 Daytime Emmy win for his role as Alan-Michael on Guiding Light.

Just over a decade later, Hearst would join the cast of GH as Ric, Sonny’s (Benard) half-brother. Hearst held the role from 2002-2009, again from 2014-2016, and most recently with his August return.

Reminiscing

The two actors later talked about their time working together as on-screen brothers, including a pivotal moment in Benard’s real life. “We can get into the storyline that I had with Rick where Sonny was off medication.”

“I always like to do this with people I’ve worked with on certain storylines that have to do with mental health,” Benard continued. “I don’t know if you know, but at the end of that storyline, I heard my mom and dad talking to me on the set and I said, ‘Oh, okay, I’m lost a little bit here.’ And then I went home that weekend and had my first anxiety attack.”

READ THIS: Here’s what’s coming up on GH.

Sonny has attended therapy during several storylines throughout the years, so it’s unclear which one Benard is referring to.

Hearst gave his co-star his input on the past storyline. “The one thing I’ve always known and respected about you is the level of commitment and intensity that you always bring regardless,” he began. “For the majority of that, I always kind of thought you were just… like, it was a personal thing to you so you were just super committed.”

Hearst went on to share his perception of Benard during the scenes. “I will say, there were times, and it was one of those very elongated moments where I looked in your eyes and they were black,” he said, referring to what Benard often calls “black eyes” during his mental health struggles.

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