GH Exclusive: Dominic Zamprogna On The ‘Total Shock’ Of Dante Learning Gio Is His Son

After months of anticipation, the big secret of Gio’s parentage is finally out on General Hospital, leaving multiple characters — Brook Lynn, Dante and Gio chief among them — reeling. Between discovering that Brook Lynn hid her pregnancy from him, the still-to-be-revealed efforts Lulu made to prove that Gio is the child Brook Lynn birthed and the fact that Dante and Gio have been on the outs since Rocco’s alcohol poisoning, there will be a whole lot of drama on Dante’s plate for the foreseeable future. Soap Opera Digest checked in with Dominic Zamprogna about playing the pivotal scenes and what fans can look forward to as the storyline continues to unfold.

 

Soap Opera Digest: You came onto the show in a major storyline involving Dante’s secret paternity; neither he nor Sonny knew they were father and son. Now, Dante and the son he didn’t know he had, Gio, have to reckon with the truth about their relationship. When you first found out GH was cooking up this story, were you at all struck by those parallels?

Dominic Zamprogna: I mean, at least I didn’t shoot him [Sonny infamously shot Dante moments before Olivia blurted out that Dante is Sonny’s son]! I didn’t really see the parallels at first, to be honest with you. Maybe I just had too much tunnel vision around everything that was going on. And the scenarios are kind of different, you know? This kid was always around; Dante knew him from the neighborhood. It wasn’t like a stranger popping up out of nowhere. That may make it even more difficult for Dante to process, because he knew this person in one way and now he’s got to get to know him again in a completely different way, whereas when Dante came to town, he was new to Sonny — Sonny didn’t know anything about him. He had never met this person before. So, the similarities didn’t really hit me when Frank [Valentini, executive producer] first told me. But I loved it, man, because to me, it meant working with Amanda [Setton, Brook Lynn], and I love working with Amanda. She’s one of my favorite people on the show. Her abilities on camera and hanging out with her off camera, she’s just a great person, so I was looking forward to having meaningful story with her. But it also changes the dynamics between Chase and him, and Brook Lynn and him — there are so many potential arms and tentacles to this thing, and that’s exciting to play.

There Won’t Be Blood: Thankfully, no one was harmed when Dante found out Gio was his son, unlike how Sonny (Maurice Benard) learned Dante was his!

Digest: I thought the reveal was powerfully done, between the intensity of Giovanni Mazza’s (Gio) performance when Gio lashed out on stage, to the heartbreak on Amanda’s face and the shock and confusion on yours. What do you remember about playing the big moment when Dante hears Gio say that he is Dante’s son?

Zamprogna: I kind of played it like he thought it was like a joke, like part of his performance or something like that, until Gio starts freaking out. It’s not really until he looks at Brook Lynn that he realizes, “Oh, this is actually a real thing.” It’s obviously one of those “world turned upside down” moments, and those moments are hard to play. You don’t know what’s coming next, sometimes, so you’ve just got to play this moment as true as you can and know that the real moments of anger, frustration, sadness — all those things — are coming. But in the moment, it’s just total shock. I remember kind of almost smiling, like, “What the hell is going on?” It’s a good moment for Gio, for sure — he got to go a little apes–t up there!

Digest: Dante and Cody then share scenes where Cody sort of lays out what he knows and how he came to know it. As Dante is starting to absorb this huge paradigm shift in his reality, how would you describe what he’s going through?

Zamprogna: Well, it’s like a rug-pull moment, you know? Especially when he finds out, “Oh, you knew? And you knew?” I thought those scenes with Josh [Kelly, Cody] were really great, actually. Josh is phenomenal and a very soulful guy in his own right, and I think those scenes that we had in the immediate aftermath of Dante finding out were beautifully written and super-emotional scenes.

Tell Me Lies: Dante couldn’t believe his ears when Gio claimed to be his son with Brook Lynn (Amanda Setton).

Digest: We’re only at the tip of the iceberg at this juncture — the truth is out, but he hasn’t had it out yet with Brook Lynn, nor does he know about Lulu’s role in what went down, nor has he spoken one-on-one with Gio and so forth. What can you tease about what fans can expect when the action picks up next week?

Zamprogna: Well, when he finds Brook Lynn, she’s in the middle of it with Lois. And those scenes may be the best scenes I’ve ever seen, the ones between Rena [Sofer, Lois] and Amanda [Setton]. It’s just otherworldly. He goes to look for her to be like, “How could you?” and he sees the place she’s in, this terrible moment with her mom, and [it shifts his perspective]. It’s tough, man. It’s tough when you feel betrayed by multiple people who are very close to you and whether or not you agree with their reasons for doing it, everyone you scan your eyes to in those moments seem to already know something that they were keeping from you, whether it’s Cody or Chase or Brook Lynn or Lulu or Carly, you know? The list just seems to keep growing, and Dante is like, “Well, am I the only one that didn’t know? There’s a lot of great writing, a lot of great moments to come, for sure.

Digest: One last thing I want to bring up — I don’t want it to get lost in the excitement of the Gio reveal that you made your debut as a Nurses Ball performer this week, as well. [Zamprogna laughs] How did that come about?

Zamprogna: A few months ago, Frank was like, “I have this idea, I want you to do the Nurses Ball.” I was like, “Oh man. All right.” I never have, and I’ve kind of got this reputation for being scared of it, so I thought I’d show everybody I’m not scared of it! And it was awesome. We had such a great time, me and the two Joshes [Kelly and Swickard, Chase] and Sawandi [Wilson, Isaiah]. It was one of those “get you out of your comfort zone” moments. I grew up in the theater, so I’m not a stranger to doing any of this stuff. I just haven’t done it much in my adult life. My whole hang-up was, “Dante would never know how to do any of this stuff,” but they made it simple enough — it wasn’t like we were doing pirouettes on the dance floor or anything like that. It was just really fun and I’m really kind of grateful that Frank had the idea and wanted us to do it, wanted me to do it. I enjoyed that feeling of being in rehearsals with people; it’s like you’re a little team, all trying to do this thing and you know you’re probably gonna mess up at some point and just laugh about it afterward. It was nice.

Digest: Were you nervous on tape day?

Zamprogna: I wasn’t really nervous, but there are certain people that kind of make you nervous. Lisa’s [LoCicero, Olivia] always giving me a hard time for not doing anything in the Nurses’ Ball — she’s so supportive, but you’re [kind of feeling like] Adam Sandler saying, “They’re all gonna laugh at you,” that type of thing. You know Maurice [Benard, Sonny] is going to be sitting there — but Maurice was great. He was like, “That was one of my favorite songs back in the day!” It was “Look of Love” by ABC, and I’d never heard of them before. I was like, “Is this a song created by ABC that we’re using? Is this a network song?” I’d heard the song before, I just never knew who sang it. But yeah, we got dressed up, did some funny dance moves and everyone was very supportive. That’s the awesome thing — whenever you get up and do these things, or whenever you’re watching your castmates get up and do these things, as has been the case with me because I’ve never really gone up there before there, everyone’s just so supportive and it brings people together.

Digest: Would you do it again?

Zamprogna: Oh, yeah, for sure. I actually came up with an idea for next year: If Gio and Dante are on good terms, I think Dante should play the drums while Gio’s on the violin.

Stage Presence: Zamprogna appeared in a Nurses Ball number alongside (from l.) Josh Kelly (Cody), Josh Swickard (Chase) and Sawandi Wilson (Isaiah).