General Hospital’s Finn Carr On How Obrecht’s Return Affects Rocco: ‘It’s Pretty Crazy!’ (Exclusive)
Rocco Falconeri has had a lot to absorb in recent episodes of General Hospital. Hot on the heels of discovering that he has a half brother in Gio Palmieri (the product of his dad, Dante Falconeri’s, long-ago summer fling with Brook Lynn Quartermaine), Rocco learned that he was not birthed by his biological mother, Lulu Spencer, but rather by Dr. Britt Westbourne, who stole his embryo from the hospital. Now, Rocco is so hungry for information about Britt that he has reached out to her mother, Liesl Obrecht, who was last spotted in Port Charles back in December 2023. “He’s going through a lot of stuff right now,” nods Rocco’s portrayer, Finn Carr, who checked in with Soap Opera Digest about all the drama in his GH character’s life.
Soap Opera Digest: I’m so curious to know what your reaction was when you found out about how Rocco came into the world.
Finn Carr: Well, when I was first researching a little bit about my character’s origins, because I jumped into playing him when he was in his teenage years, I found out about that plotline. And I knew that Rocco didn’t know about any of this. So it was cool to have that realization that this character doesn’t know anything about how he came to be. Looking at that, the plot, I was like, ‘What is going on?!’ So I thought it was going to be so much fun to figure it out on camera. I thought it was going to be messy in all the best ways and that a lot of emotions would come out of it. I always like it when I get to see that I have a fun plotline and that I get to explore it a little bit with the character and how he’s going to handle things. So, I was like, ‘Wow’ — I think ‘wow’ is probably the one word that I would use to describe how I reacted when I saw in the script [that Rocco was going to learn about the circumstances of his birth].
Digest: How would you describe what is motivating Rocco to want to learn as much as he can about the circumstances surrounding his birth and about Britt in general?
Carr: I think he just wants to get to the bottom of it. He feels a lot of dishonesty from his parents — I guess they haven’t lied to him directly, but they withheld information. They didn’t tell him the whole truth, and I think that is the reason why it’s hitting him so hard and why he’s so strongly wanting to get to the bottom of everything. I think probably how he found out about it is the main reason why he’s going so hard [after more information].
Digest: What do you remember about playing the scenes with Alexa Havins and Dominic Zamprgna (Lulu and Dante) where they spilled the beans to Rocco about how he came to be born?
Carr: Well, I knew those scenes were going to be heavy and that there was going to be a lot of emotion around them, so I kind of talked to the other actors and we went through the scenes a few times. I really tried to get into [Rocco’s] mindset, and I had such amazing actors to help me get there with them. They were so much fun to film, those scenes. I love working with Alexa and Dom because of how into it they are, and what great of actors they are. It just makes the whole experience so much more enjoyable. The emotions were pretty strong, pretty, pretty real, but they were really fun to play out and explore. I didn’t know how I was going to react to the information, but I put myself in the place to just see what happens when I go on set. I try not to plan out specific emotions to feel and stuff like that, but all the stuff that came out was really cool and interesting.
Digest: Rocco was obviously quite rattled by what he learned — not only did another woman give birth to him, but she raised him as her own for the first several months of his life, and he even had a different name, Ben Westbourne. Do you see this as shifting the way he views his parents?
Carr: He’s definitely trying to figure out his parents’ intention with how he came into the world. He talks a lot about their motivations behind having him, if they wanted to have him. That’s kind of the main thing going on in his head, that he is really wondering if they wanted him, if it was their choice to have him, or if he was kind of forced on them without them wanting him. That’s sort of the main thing that he’s struggling with. I think he’s mostly confused and taking some time to process it all.
Digest: It seems pretty obvious that Lulu and Dante would not be happy if they knew Rocco was emailing Liesl Obrecht. What is your take on why he did that?
Carr: Since he knows Britt is dead, she’s the next best thing, I guess. I think he’s probably a little bit nervous about doing it, too, and he’s worried about it being okay with other people if he does that, and then he sort of has to realize that it’s his choice whether or not he wants to do it, and he goes ahead and emails her. I think it probably was a hard choice for him, because he doesn’t want to upset other people. But he does it anyway, and it’s pretty crazy, all the stuff that comes after that!
Digest: What can you tease about their first interaction?
Carr: Well, those scenes were really fun. Rocco is really excited to meet her and it’s pretty funny — he dresses up a little nicer than he normally does. Instead of his usual relaxed clothing, he puts on a little button-up shirt and instead of messy hair, he has a nice little comb-over to try and impress her a little bit. She is just as excited to talk to Rocco, and I know that previously on the show she’s done a lot of crazy stuff, but to Rocco, she’s just a really nice person and through her, he’s able to learn some new stuff about himself.
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