Leslie Charleson has portrayed Monica, the lady of the Quartermaine manor on GENERAL HOSPITAL, for more than a quarter of a century. Over the years, she’s amassed some fond memories of life in Port Charles. Take a walk down memory lane with the actress as she reminisces about her top five Monica moments — the good, the bad and the batty!
HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW (1979)
“When Gloria Monty was producing there was a scene when Monica had to fall down the stairs. They did have a stunt double, but it was one of those crazy things where her head was much bigger than mine. So the wig that they had on her looked shorter than my hair. I remember Kathy, the hairdresser at the time, coming up to me on the set. I was waiting to take the place of the stunt double after she fell down the stairs. Kathy said, ‘Don’t say anything. We’ll take care of it; come down to the makeup room.’ She cut my hair to match the stunt double’s wig. She cut off about three inches of my hair. I was so traumatized, but I didn’t react until we finished the scene.”
THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT (1980)
“A lot of the stuff that you remember is on location, because it meant you were out of the studio. Some of my most fun times were the scenes where Alan was stalking Monica and Rick. It was funny and fun at the same time. Stuart Damon (Alan) was such a wonderful bad guy. Back then, he didn’t have to do much of anything to terrorize me…because of his height. I’m so small, and Stuart is so tall.”
GOING BATTY (1986)
“There was a time when Alan and Monica were being counseled. They had gone to see a marriage counselor. They were given these rubber bats and Stuart and I got to wail on each other really. And we did. It was one of the best therapy sessions I’ve ever had as far as getting aggressions out. We were in a room that was almost a padded cell.”
EDWARD THE GREAT (1987)
“I have a lot of great memories of working with David Lewis (ex-Edward). He would do anything and everything he could to crack me up. He had that rubbery face that could look so stern — until you looked at his eyes. Then you saw that twinkle. I remember doing a scene where Uncle Herbert had died. It was David, Anna Lee (Lila), Stuart and me. David and Anna had to exit the bedroom, leaving Stuart and me to have a very serious conversation. As David passed us, he said, ‘I’m taking mommy to wee-wee,’ so [just] Stuart and I could hear it as we were taping. We had to do the rest of the scene in character. We locked eyes and thought, ‘Once this scene is over, we’re going to kill him.’ Afterward, we railed on David. We said lots of unprintable words.”
A NEW DAWN, A NEW ‘DO (1991)
“I remember the time when we were changing Dawns (Monica’s daughter), regularly. Joe Hardy was producing the show at the time, and I think we were on the fourth Dawn. I had gone out and gotten my hair cut. Halfway through the haircut it occurred to me that I was going to be working the next day, and I had to match the previous day’s scenes. It was sort of like, ‘Oh. Wow!’ In fact, my hairdresser even said, ‘Your head has gotten awfully hot.’ I said, ‘I am so screwed.’ I worried about it, because it was not me. I wouldn’t do that. The next day I went up to see Joe. He was just staring at me, because I looked a lot different. I said, ‘Joe, look: The way I figure this, if you can hand me four daughters in the space of six months, I can cut my hair.’ He looked at me and said, ‘You have a point!'”
