GH Exclusive: Rick Hearst On ‘Work Wives’ Rebecca Herbst And Nancy Lee Grahn
Double Your Pleasure: Rick Hearst loves working with GH vets Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis, l.) and Rebecca Herbst (Elizabeth).
Ric’s morally dubious decision to sign on to Ava’s blackmail scheme on General Hospital has put his relationships with two of his ex-wives at risk. After all, it’s Ric’s one-time spouse Alexis that’s the target of the blackmail — and agreeing to stay mum about Kristina’s role in his recent car wreck requires him to lie to the other former Mrs. Lansing, Elizabeth Webber. And while “Rexis” and “Liric” fans may not be too thrilled about this turn of events, Ric’s portrayer, Rick Hearst, is over the moon about it, as it guarantees that he’ll have plenty of opportunities to spend his days at the studio working with the two talented actresses who bring Ric’s former wives to life, Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis) and Rebecca Herbst (Elizabeth).
Ex Marks The Spot
The actor says that every time he’s in a scene with Herbst, “There’s just an ease with Becky. We laugh, we joke. I always say, ‘Where’s my girl?’ She’s like my work wife, that’s what she is! And we’re not like an old married couple, even though we are older now [laughs]. We just get each other, and as Ric and Elizabeth, we are those two people who found each other and despite how dissimilar they are, they’re drawn to one another. We both come at [the characters’ relationship] from a place of, ‘They genuinely, deeply love each other.’ And — from a platonic standpoint, obviously — I absolutely love Becky with all my heart. We’re pals, we really are. And, like I said, it’s just very easy and natural with her; it’s always an organic feeling that I have working with her.”
Hearst enthuses that when he works opposite Herbst, “There’s an enjoyment, there’s a gratitude there. She’s very much someone who, even when she doesn’t have a story, she’s still a tentpole in this cast. She’s a [vessel], basically, for the history of the show. Her character has been through so much and I love being her antithesis, in a way.” The evolution of Elizabeth since she married Ric for the first time back in 2003 is evident in their characters’ current relationship, Hearst notes. “She’s in a better place, in a place that speaks to who Elizabeth really is, having learned so much over the years. But she’s also made mistakes and she’s not lily white, and I think that gives Liz the ability to be around the character of Ric. There are [questionable] things that she’s willing to do, or has done before, so maybe she sees [some of herself] in him.”
Hearst’s Ric and Herbst’s Elizabeth in much happier storyline times.
The actor considers himself equally lucky to be in the storyline mix with Grahn. “Nancy is my other work wife,” he grins. “I love Nancy’s ability to just engage in a second, and then disengage when she needs to —meaning, ‘It’s all done, I walk away [from my character].’ She’s so fierce in her approach to [her work]. I love Nancy for her passion, I love Nancy for her pragmatism. I love how she’s an advocate. She’s such an advocate for her character. After all the time and effort and energy she’s given to this show, she doesn’t just throw it away. There’s a reason she’s still there, and that’s because she has such an elevated sense of what she wants to say about Alexis. With Nancy, I can be real. You can be as real as you want to be with her, and that’s how we are with each other. We get the jokes with one another, and I love that you don’t know where she’s going to come from.”
Over the years they’ve been sharing the GH stage, Hearst says, “I feel like I’ve been able to do some of my most challenging work with her — and I mean that in a positive way! I’ve been able to discover [Ric’s] humanity. She’ll look at me and she’ll just go [in reference to Ric], ‘You’re such a bastard. You’re so evil!’ And I’m like, ‘I am!’ And then I say to her, ‘But you wouldn’t have me any other way [laughs]!’ We joke about, ‘Remember the Christmas tree [bit between Ric and Alexis in the early days of their coupling]? Remember how fun that was?’ She said, ‘Remember how we used to do comedy?’ I said, ‘We’re still doing comedy!'”
Case in point: the tenative truce Ric and Alexis recently called for Molly’s sake, which occurred under Diane’s watchful eye. Hearst shares, “We don’t really have the time to quote-unquote work out the moments anymore. So we had run it a couple of times, but everything you saw come about [on screen], all the reactions — especially from Carolyn [Hennesy, Diane] — were one hundred percent on her. And then, with Nancy and me, the handshake [between Ric and Alexis] was something they wanted, but the nuances of it, we kind of put ourselves into it.”
All in all, Hearst declares, “I have the best job in the whole entire world right now. All three of these women that I get to play with — Nancy, Becky, Maura West [Ava] — are people that I love and admire and respect and I just hope they have as much fun and I do when I come to work!”
Ric and Alexis were once the picture of domestic bliss alongside wee Kristina and baby Molly.
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