General Hospital: Alimi Ballard Calls Returning to Soaps as William Baines ‘A Mind Trip’
Alimi Ballard made his General Hospital debut as WSB Agent William Baines on the September 3 episode, 30 years (give or take a few weeks) after he exited his previous soap opera role, Frankie Hubbard, whom he played on both Loving and The City. In a new interview with TV Insider, Ballard called it “a mind trip” to be returning to the soap world — but one he is embracing.
GH’s Alimi Ballard On Becoming William Baines
The actor has made his mark in primetime in the decades since he began his career playing Frankie, appearing on shows like Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Criminal Minds, Queen Sugar, NCIS, The Rookie and Law & Order. But when the opportunity to audition for William Baines came up, he jumped at it. Why? Because, he enthused, “GH is legendary!”
Booking the role was one thing — adjusting to the hyperspeed at which soaps film today was quite another. Ballard credits his castmate Laura Wright (Carly Spencer), who played Ally Rescott alongside him on both Loving and The City, with helping him get his bearings. He reported, “The funniest conversations occurred with Laura and me. I’m like, ‘What is going on here, Laura?’ And she’s like, ‘Alimi, it’s faster. I told you this. It’s easy. Calm down.’ I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. You do 105 pages in one day?’ She said, ‘Yes, we do. Sometimes less, sometimes more.’”
Wright wasn’t the only one in the General Hospital cast to make Ballard feel at home; he admitted that over the course of his career, “I’ve been in environments where it’s not as wonderful, so I personally thank Frank [Valentini, executive producer] and Mark [Teschner] and as many people as I can. I understand what it takes to curate a warm environment for people, and it’s a beautiful thing to be welcomed where they’re like, ‘Come and play with us. Show up with your best. We’re here for it.’”
On the show, Agent Baines arrived to take over the investigation into WSB Chief Jack Brennan’s (Chris McKenna) mysterious disappearance. As fans know, that may well soon turn into a murder investigation should Brennan’s corpse — which Drew Cain (Cameron Mathison) and Ava Jerome (Maura West) buried in the nature preserve near the Quartermaines’ property — be exposed.
Ballard hopes fans keep an open mind about his new character as his storyline unfolds, and had this message for fans of General Hospital: “Don’t judge him on those first couple of minutes. Grade him on a curve. He may surprise you.”
What did you think of Ballard’s GH debut? Let us know in the comments below!
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