Nancy Lee Grahn reunites with Anthony Geary of General Hospital
Credit: Image: BonGrahn Creative/YouTube

General Hospital alum discusses glory days of soaps, and clashing with writers.

During these unconventional times, General Hospital’s Nancy Lee Grahn (Port Charles’ Alexis Davis) and Kaore Bonell have put together a soap opera-themed YouTube show. In the first two episodes, they interviewed Michelle Stafford (former Nina Reeves and Phyllis Newman on The Young and the Restless), James Patrick Stuart (Valentin Cassadine), Scott Clifton (former Dillon Quartermaine and Liam Spencer on The Bold and the Beautiful), and Maurice Benard (Sonny Corinthos). In their just-released third episode, they interview Anthony Geary, best known to General Hospital fans and Soaps.com readers as Luke Spencer. After retiring from the soap opera, Gearymoved to Amsterdam. Geary revealed that whenever he mentions in Europe that he was on soap operas people instinctively ask if it was Santa Barbara. Grahn jokes she’s probably better known across the world for her role as Julia Wainwright Capwell on Santa Barbara than in the United States for her part on General Hospital.

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During the course of the show, Geary gushed about loving working with Genie Francis (Laura Spencer) back in the day and that the scripts late head writer Gloria Monte put out were amazing. Both Grahn and Geary shared their early experiences working on soap operas and how the writers would allow them to sometimes rework their lines to best suit their character or acting style, which is no longer true because of the fast pace in which the shows are now shot. Geary said one of his Daytime Emmys was for an episode he and Francis completely improvised with Monte’s permission. Geary also admitted he’s been known for clashing with soap opera writers, and before Monte left she advised him to protect the character of Luke. Grahn recalled some of the fights he had with the writers and his opposition to them normalizing Luke.

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Luke and Laura’s epic love story, as most General Hospital fans know, began with Luke raping Laura. Geary has always been bothered by fans viewing it as seduction or something else. However because Luke was soft-hearted, Geary explains the audience began to identify with Luke’s pain of what he did almost as much as they did with Laura’s pain. This led to the re-writing of what happened, which Geary was angered over. “It was fucking rape,” he stated bluntly.

Watch Geary’s candid interview below.

Video: BonGrahn Creative/YouTube