Stephen A. Smith’s 40-year GH fanship began out of necessity. “I was the youngest of six with four older sisters,” sets up the Bronx, NY, native. “When we got home from school, every TV in the house was on GENERAL HOSPITAL, so if I wanted to watch TV instead of do homework, I had to watch GENERAL HOSPITAL. I was watching from the days of Steve and Audrey Hardy to Luke and Laura and the Cassadines and the weather machine and Frank Smith, Monica having an affair behind Alan Quartermaine’s back, and Alan spying on her with Rick Webber — this is how far I go back with GENERAL HOSPITAL!”
Despite his packed schedule, the accomplished sportscaster (he co-hosts ESPN’s FIRST TAKE, is a regular on SPORTSCENTER and has his own daily sports-centric radio show) still prioritizes staying in the Port Charles loop. “Every weekend, I catch up on any episodes I missed. There have been times of late that I’m a couple of weeks behind, so I’ll sit there and have a GENERAL HOSPITAL marathon.” (He does cop to some fast-forwarding, with one permanent exception: “Any time I see Carly and Sonny on the screen together, I have to watch it.”)
It is fitting, then, that it was on GH that Smith made his acting debut back in 2007. “It was a 10-second cameo as a reporter that showed up on the scene during the [Metro Court] hostage crisis,” he recalls. “I did a quick scene with Mike, Sonny’s father.” While he didn’t get to fulfill all of his daytime fantasies (as his unabashed favorite, Maurice Benard, Sonny, wasn’t working that day), it was still a memorable introduction to the inner workings of the set. “I was there for five hours, and the whole time, Steve Burton [ex-Jason] and Bradford Anderson [ex-Spinelli] kept me company. We were talking sports, playing with PlayStation. They were fantastic to me.”
JPI
Fast-forward seven years, and Smith finally got to meet the man behind Sonny Corinthos. “Maurice showed up on my show [FIRST TAKE] as a surprise guest and I was shocked,” he recounts. “I was very happy to meet him and he could not have been nicer.” It was the start of a beautiful friendship. “He’s a huge sports fan, very big with boxing. We talk all the time, we text one another all the time. It’s a real friendship.”
It was also the start of Smith’s return to GH as Brick, Sonny’s crackerjack surveillance expert. “When he came on my show, he invited me to come on to do scenes with him,” Smith explains. So, in March 2016, Brick first hit the scene, and the actor impressed not only Benard, but GH Executive Producer Frank Valentini, as well — so much so that Brick has become a proper recurring character. “I’m not an actor, though people say I can act. I’ve never taken an acting lesson in my life and it’s not my chosen profession, so I’m flattered when people say I can do it and give me props for doing it,” he says. “But what resonates with me in a very, very touching way is that Maurice is so generous with his time and really coaches me through these scenes. That’s why I kind of refuse any credit when people are complimentary toward my acting — it’s because of him! I know Denzel Washington and Jamie Foxx and people like that — they’re fans of sports, they all know me — but when I think about me being an actor, I think about Maurice Benard sitting in a dressing room and going over my lines with me and making sure that I do things right. My gratitude can never be measured. He is incredible.”
He also praises his GH boss, Valentini. “He believed in me — I don’t know why, but he did!” Smith chuckles. “He came to me after my second stint and said, ‘I think you’re ready for more scenes, do you think you could do this?’ I said, ‘With all due respect, sir, you be the judge. This is foreign to me!’ ” Smith’s first truly dialogue-heavy day, scenes with Benard, Billy Miller (Jason) and Donnell Turner (Curtis) in the Corinthos living room, was a heart-thumper for him. “I was nervous as hell!” he exclaims. “The first time I showed up I had, like, three lines. Second time I went there I had, like, eight lines. This time I had 30 in, like, four different scenes. I walked in there with every single line memorized and still messed up twice. All three of those guys are great guys, and they were very patient with me.” And while Smith cherishes his spot in Sonny’s entourage, it’s the off-camera rapport that he and Benard have come to share that means the most to him. “It’s an honor and a privilege to work with him,” he declares, “but an even bigger honor to know him and call him a friend.”
All in all, Smith is still pinching himself over his good GH fortune. “When Frank came to me and said, ‘We want this to be a recurring role for you, and the character of Brick to be a permanent part of the show,’ I couldn’t believe it. I was like, ‘Of course! Absolutely! Say no more!’ I can’t get over the fact that a show that I’ve been watching for 40 years, that I TiVo every chance I get to make sure I don’t miss an episode, I’m now on it. It’s crazy, just absolutely crazy. It tickled me to death when I saw Carly arguing with Sonny one time and she goes, ‘Yeah, I could have asked Brick, but all he’d do is charm his way out of it.’ I was laughing, like, ‘She’s talking about me!’ ”
His fondest wish is for Carly one day to be talking to him, not just about him. “I’ve never done a scene with Carly, but she is right: I would charm her and I would flirt because she’s gorgeous,” Smith enthuses. “Any scene that I could do with Laura Wright is fine with me! Not only is she gorgeous, but she’s a wonderful woman. I love everything about her. My dream scenario is that I wish I was her Jason. I wish I was the guy that she loved so much that she was always hugging up on, who was always needed to counsel her and keep her cool and all of that stuff.”
Soon, he may get his wish. “I’m going to be spending more time out in Los Angeles for my radio show on ESPN, so who knows,” Smith grins. “So stay tuned!”
In Good Company
n Though he’s not a Y&R watcher, Stephen A. Smith has forged a tight bond with Eric Braeden (Victor) since they met a few years back — so much so that he penned the foreword to Braeden’s autobiography, I’ll Be Damned. “He and I are very, very close,” Smith reports. “We speak every week, just like Maurice Benard and I do.”
Last month, in fact, Smith brought the two men together for a fun dinner. “I arranged for the two to meet,” he shares. “They’re both superstars who share profound respect for one another from afar — although they’d met before, they never broke bread. Both are huge sports fans, especially boxing, and the generosity I’ve received from both cannot be measured. So I wanted to bring both of them together. Obviously, we talked sports most of the evening. It was fantastic.”
In Smith’s estimation, “More athletes watch YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS than watch GENERAL HOSPITAL, and they love Victor because Victor reminds them of themselves. They consider themselves the black cats, the pariahs, the menacing people that at the same time you just can’t get enough of. The athletes love that menacing dude.” On the other hand, “Maurice is up there with the ladies because the ladies look at Maurice Benard as a cutie-pie. Every woman I’ve run across goes, ‘Oh, he’s adorable! He’s so cute!’ ”
Just The Facts
Hometown: Bronx, NY
Birthday: October 14
Expert Opinion: Smith sought advice from famed thespian Denzel Washington before hitting the GH soundstage as Brick. “First he teased me, like, ‘Oh, my goodness, you did not come into my field! You are not trying to be an actor!’ Then he told me, ‘Be yourself, make sure you know your lines, and remember, it’s about the character, it’s not about you.’ ”
Loud And Proud: Smith gets ribbed “all the time” by professional athletes about his passion for GH. “They’re like, ‘You? Soap operas?’ I’m like, ‘Please, I ain’t ashamed to tell you, and I’m gonna do it again!’ ”
All-Time Favorite GH Couple: “I used to love Sonny with Brenda, but Laura Wright’s Carly is my favorite of all the women that have been with Sonny.”
All-Time Favorite GH Storyline: “When Dante was undercover trying to get Sonny, and Sonny ultimately shot him.”
