In the new issue of Soap Opera Digest, on sale Friday, Kate Mansi opens up about her surprise move to GH as Kristina. When she took a meeting over Zoom with the show’s executive producer, Frank Valentini, and its casting director, Mark Teschner, Mansi recalled, “They were both incredibly complimentary about my work and told me a little bit about the way GENERAL HOSPITAL works. They said they were looking to do a recast and being a recast myself [in her previous run as DAYS’s Abigail], and then having my role recast [with Marci Miller], I’m quite sensitive to the actors [and] I asked him to tell me broadly about the subject matter of what the storyline would be before I dove into any research.” Mansi was drawn to the opportunity to play a bisexual character and to take part in a storyline about endometriosis, and reached out to the actress she was succeeding, Lexi Ainsworth, as her talks with GH unfolded. “She’s a friend of mine and someone I respect so much as an actress,” Mansi explained. “I wanted to just make sure that she knew how absolutely adored she is by me and the cast and the fans, and that I would do my best to honor her work.” Mansi noted that she understands there will be a transition period for viewers in adjusting to her take on Kristina. “There will be glimmers of things that are similar and things that are really different. I appreciate the support of my fans and also Lexi’s. Something I learned as I grew up is that things aren’t always black and white, and two things can be true at the same time, so fans can love Lexi and love me, or fans can love me and love Marci, or they can love Ashley Benson [Mansi’s predecessor as Abigail] and me. There’s nowhere that’s truer than in the soap/daytime world because one doesn’t necessarily negate the other. I just feel really grateful for this opportunity and I’m excited for fans to hopefully embrace this sort of new wave of the Davis family.” For the full interview, be sure to check out the new issue of Digest.
