General Hospital’s James Patrick Stuart Recalls the Big Break That He Didn’t Even Realize Was One: ‘I Had to Pass On a Taco Bell Commercial’ to Do It

If you blinked, you might have missed him in a certain Hollywood blockbuster.

Proof positive that you never know what will turn up on the Internet: On October 17, a follower of James Patrick Stuart’s tweeted out a clip from Pretty Woman, one in which an all-decked-out Richard Gere and Julia Roberts make a big impression on hotel staff including…

Yep, a baby-faced Stuart himself.

Shot in 1989 at the infamous Ambassador Hotel in LA. Working title was “Three Thousand.” My first gig after 2 years of acting school. I had no idea who Julia Robert’s was & I had to pass on a National Taco Bell commercial because the shoot conflicted with my 3 days on the movie. https://t.co/jrBV879REk

— James Patrick Stuart (@japastu) October 17, 2021

The future General Hospital star was still a year away from his breakthrough daytime role, that of the dastardly Will Cortlandt on All My Children. (Fun fact: He succeeded CBS weatherman Lonnie Quinn in the part.) And Stuart didn’t entirely realize what a big deal the movie was going to be.

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It was “shot in 1989 at the infamous Ambassador Hotel in L.A.,” he recalled. (That’s where Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968.) The “working title was Three Thousand [the number of dollars the titular hooker was offered for a week’s services].”

Stuart, now a General Hospital MVP as Valentin, was happy to be cast as an awestruck bellhop… at least mostly. It was “my first gig after two years of acting school,” he said. But “I had no idea who Julia Roberts was, and I had to pass on a national Taco Bell commercial because the shoot conflicted with my three days on the movie.”

Needless to say, it all worked out in the end. And while you’re here, check out the below photo gallery of soap stars who made it big in primetime and movies, then returned to daytime.