General Hospital’s Rick Hearst Is ‘Thrilled And Intrigued’ By Ric And Sonny’s Surprise Truce (Excl)
On General Hospital, Rick Hearst (Ric) and Maurice Benard (Sonny) have been playing battling brothers on and off for decades. Just recently, though, the men have made some headway in burying the hatchet and connecting as siblings. Soap Opera Digest checked in with Hearst about the dynamic between Ric and Sonny, and his own real-life relationship with Benard.
Sibling Revelry
The actor says that both he and Benard were delighted when, after a long drought of on-screen interaction, they received scripts heavy on Ric and Sonny scenes. “I was thrilled,” Hearst begins. “Whenever we get an opportunity to work together, we’re both thrilled, honestly. I texted him when I saw that first script and I said, ‘Bro, we get to work together! I’ll see you on Monday,’ or whatever day it was going to be. And he texted me back, very short and sweet. He just says, ‘I can’t wait.'”
To hear Hearst tell it, the actors work together so well, their scenes work even when he struggles to remember his lines. “It’s so funny, because if I look I’m searching [my brain for my dialogue] on camera, it still works! We just work through it. We had a moment where I said, ‘I went through this’ — and I was supposed to say ‘through this life-altering experience,’ but there was a distinct pause, because I could not remember what i was supposed to say! So I searched for it, and he just stayed with me. We stay with each other during those times when something like that happens. He goes, ‘What?’ And I went, ‘A life-altering experience!’ It just came back to me and we went on with the scene from there. It’s stuff like that where we trust each other, and they don’t call ‘Cut!’ and we just stay in the moment with one another, and nine times out of 10, you’re going to get something very interesting, very organic, that springboards you into something else in a scene. That’s the beauty that I have working with him, that we very much trust each other, implicitly, and we’re on the ride together.”
Needless to say, Hearst is both “thrilled and intrigued” by the efforts Ric is making to turn over a new, more peaceful leaf with Sonny. “If there’s any opportunity for the development of this character to go into a new chapter, and have that chapter involve his history with Sonny, I’m all-in,” he declares.
One idea Hearst thinks is rife with potential is for conflict to erupt between Jason (Steve Burton) and Ric over their respective pulls to Sonny. Recently, he says, he and Burton were watching an old scene where Ric lured Jason to a garage to goad him into physically attacking him so that Ric could have Jason tossed in jail. “These characters were very much in each other’s orbits and there was such genuine animosity between them,” the actor notes. “They two of them vying for Sonny’s’ attention, or to a certain extent, his trust, I think would be beautiful!”
The actor believes his character has always been somewhat envious of the closeness between Jason and Sonny. “Ultimately, I think Ric always would have loved to have been involved with Sonny’s business and been the buffer and been the trooper so that he could just kind of push Jason out of there,” he muses. “So that there would be that genuine connection there between the two of us, between Sonny and Ric.”
Hearst is confident that Ric sincerely wants to forge a lasting bond with his half brother. “There was a line that I had where Sonny says, ‘I wish that I could trust you and that we would not have to be at odds with one another,’ and I say, ‘It’s what Mom [the men were born to the late Adela Corinthos] would have wanted,'” he recounts. “From a character standpoint, it was something that hit me so at my core… I think that’s always been an Achilles heel for for Ric. Sonny is the only living connection that he has with his mother, their mother, and I think that’s sort of the missing piece for him at this point. I think he feels like he could potentially get his life integrated, if nothing else, were he be able to at least be in the same room as Sonny and not look to, you know, seek his destruction!”
Conversation
All comments are subject to our Community Guidelines. Soap Opera Digest does not endorse the opinions and views shared by our readers in our comment sections. Our comments section is a place where readers can engage in healthy, productive, lively, and respectful discussions. Offensive language, hate speech, personal attacks, and/or defamatory statements are not permitted. Advertising or spam is also prohibited.