After five years and three Daytime Emmy wins, Sarah Brown (Carly, GENERAL HOSPITAL) bid farewell to soaps in 2001 in search of new challenges. Here, Weekly chats with one of daytime’s most popular actresses about life beyond Port Charles.Soap Opera Weekly: Let’s talk about what you’ve been working on.
Sarah Brown: I did an episode of DRAGNET that I’m excited about because it was the largest guest-starring role that they’ve ever had. It was really challenging, and it was a project that I wanted very much. There were so many different aspects to the character; she fascinated me.
THE LYON’S DEN episode was also a big, meaty role. I had a lot of scenes with Rob Lowe, and also with Harve Presnell from Fargo, who plays my father in the episode, and Steven Culp from Thirteen Days, who plays my husband. They’re just wonderful actors, and Rob Lowe was wonderful.
I did an episode of KAREN SISCO, which was a lot of fun, too. Carla (Gugino), the lead actress on the show, is one of nicest people I’ve ever met in my entire life. I hope the show works for her because she’s genuinely a warm, wonderful gal and goes out of her way to make people feel good and keep the set a happy environment — definitely the happiest set I’ve been on. Everyone was in a great mood.Weekly: What else have you been up to since leaving GH?
Brown: I’ve done a bunch of independent student films just to keep busy in the last couple of years — nothing that I would tout as being great pieces of art or anything that anybody can see, but it’s been fun and exciting.
I took off nine months to a year just to spend time with my daughter (Jordan Alexandra, 5) and get her started and ready for school. When I first left [GH], I was up in Canada for several months shooting MYSTERIOUS WAYS (in which she had a recurring role), and that was tough on my daughter. When I got back, I said, “I need a break. I need to stop all of this crazy Hollywood stuff and be here for my daughter.” That was the reason I had a child, so that I could spend this time with her. It’s important. Also, to rejuvenate my spirit and my creativity and get back to that hungry place where you really want it, where you know what you’re fighting for when you go in for a role. So I painted my house, spent time with my daughter and refinished my furniture. I nested and remodeled until I got to the point where she was substantially settled in her school — she started kindergarten this year — and I was ready to go back. I went out and sought a new agent, new representation. I got a wonderful firm behind me, the Gersh Agency, and we went full steam ahead.Weekly: How do you like being a brunette now?
Brown: It’s interesting, I find that a lot of people who meet me now cannot imagine me as a blonde. I love being a brunette. It’s hard to keep up, though. The frequency with which people recognize me with the dark hair is a lot less. People look at me a lot like,’I know that girl, but I don’t know where I know her from.'”
Weekly: Is there anything you miss about being on GH?
Brown: I miss having a place to go every day and stand up and do my work and actually have it be seen. I miss the consistency of being on a soap in a contract role and knowing that tomorrow these are your lines and you’re going to wake up and have the opportunity to do what you love. I find that I don’t work to live so much as I live to work. I love what I do. I love being an artist and trying to find the depths of humanity and the way that people tick. It’s something that’s such an integral part of who I am. I don’t feel like myself when I’m not doing that in some form or another. It’s not quite the same to just go in for an audition as it is to have the pressure of the cameras on you and know that that’s going to go out on television. I love that pressure. I feed off it. I adore it.Weekly: Do you think about Carly from time to time?
Brown: I’ll remember the way that Carly would say something, and I steal it and I put it in (in my roles now). But in life you go to the next step and you try to make something new for yourself. I’ve let her go completely, so that somebody else can own the character and call it her own. Because I think, as evidenced by Tamara Braun’s (Carly) work and the fan support that she has, that’s a character that people want to see for years to come. When you’re an actor, it’s almost like these characters become a part of you. They become a good friend that you think of (laughs).
