Rick Hearst Opens Up About Working With Maurice Benard On ‘GH’
Rick Hearst returned to GH last month but it took a while for his character, Ric, to go head-to-head with half-brother/rival, Sonny Corinthos. The actor opened up about finally reuniting with co-star Maurice Benard. Keep reading for more.
Ric Lansing Returns To Support Daughter
Hot-shot lawyer Ric Lansing made his return to Port Charles just in time to help his daughter, Molly, grieve the loss of her unborn child. The storyline has pitted Molly against her sister, Kristina, who carried the baby as a surrogate. The Davis family is divided as Alexis seemed to take Kristina’s grief more seriously than Molly’s.
GH fans had high praise for the father-daughter chemistry between Rick Hearst and Kristen Vaganos, who just took over as Molly last year.
Rick Hearst Opens Up About Working With Maurice Benard On ‘GH’
Rick Hearst spoke to Soap Opera Digest about returning to the soap for the first time since 2016. He said that he was happy to reunite with former co-stars Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis) and Becky Herbst (Elizabeth.) But the one co-star he was looking forward to working with again the most was Maurice Benard, who has played Sonny Corinthos for over thirty years.
One aspect of Sonny’s backstory was finding out that he had a half-brother, Ric Lansing. The brothers have never gotten along, with Ric resenting that their mother gave him up for adoption but raised Sonny on her own.
Now the feud also involves the next generation. Kristina is Molly’s daughter. Ric and Sonny finally faced off over the lawyer representing Ava (Maura West) in a custody battle with Sonny over their daughter, Avery. But the confrontation quickly dissolved into old wounds and the situation with Molly and Kristina. Rick Hearst was giddy to work with his old friend and co-worker.
“We giggle because we just love getting into it with each other. Mo is an actor who delivers lines of dialogue in a way that is unique to him, and you don’t know what’s going to trigger in you to be able to respond in kind to what he does with the dialogue. That’s the thing that I think I always loved, and continue to love, about working with Mo.”
What Executive Producer Frank Valentini Thought Of The Scenes
The scenes between Ric and Sonny had an unexpected viewer: GH executive producer Frank Valentini. He called the scenes “sloppy,” which initially concerned Rick Hearst. But the EP meant it as a compliment.
“And [the performances] were very, like, quick, fast, talking on top of one another, a little bit of ad-lib, a little jab — things that organically just popped for both of us. And Frank goes, ‘It was great! It was sloppy, but it’s because you two hate each other so deeply.'”
What do you think about Ric and Sonny facing off again? Sound off in the comments.
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