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INTERVIEW

ICYMI Maurice Benard Interview

Maurice Benard (Sonny, GH) Weighs In On Sonny’s Mental Illness And His Own STATE OF MIND.

Soap Opera Digest: It’s been an interesting ride for Sonny since he came back from Nixon Falls, to say the least! Have you been enjoying this arc of the story?

Benard: I’m ecstatic. I’m ecstatic with what’s happening in the story, I’m ecstatic with Laura [Wright, Carly], I’m ecstatic with Cynthia [Watros, Nina]. The fact that we’re all on the same page, it’s just amazing. Being able to work with one and then the other is just great, and that they’ve written it in a way where how everybody feels is justified. I’m into it.

Digest: Sonny’s really torn up about his feelings for Nina, and I always think it’s interesting when he is faced with something that he can’t use his mob power to fix.

Benard: Yeah, he can’t fix this on his own. It’s like I’ve always said: “You’ve just got to go talk to someone about it and figure it out.” But that’s not where we’re at in the story right now.

Digest: Sonny and Carly’s marriage has reached a breaking point now that Sonny slept with Nina. How have you approached playing the aftermath?

Benard: I thought the scenes we had after [Carly catches Sonny with Nina] were great scenes, because he’s trying to apologize and she was just, you know, coming at him. I decided, “I’m just going to fight now, just like old Sonny,” and we both just went off on each other. It was great! It was vicious. I did some scenes yesterday with Cynthia that probably weren’t as great as I think they are, but what we were doing was subtle, man, and I was like, “Yes. This is like movie acting!” I told Cynthia, and I think I told Frank [Valentini, executive producer], “Our relationship is like Robert De Niro and Sharon Stone in Casino.” I don’t think Robert De Niro played as much love in that relationship, I think he just played control, whereas in this situation, I’m like that but I also care about her, even though I’m trying hard not to act like it. But it’s cool! She gives it right back to me. She’s just a real actress and it’s fun.

Digest: Speaking of great actresses, I loved the scenes between you and Genie Francis when Sonny and Laura discussed Luke’s death.

Benard: You know, she’s — she’s Genie Francis! Definitely an icon. I think maybe now, working with her is the first time I’m not nervous. I’ve been nervous working with her like a mother, always. I don’t know how to explain it. I mean, I used to be nervous a lot, like with Tony [Geary, ex-Luke]; not after we started working a lot together, but in the beginning, I was nervous. But with Genie, it never ended, those nerves! Now that I’m much more relaxed, the last scenes we did together, I thought she was amazing and the relationship is great and I love it. I love the history of it. She’s a good friend.

Digest: I hate to bring up a sensitive subject, but how is Sonny handling the loss of the moss in his kitchen?

Benard (groans): Oh, God, I hate that thing. I hate that thing because everybody talks about it! You know I put stuff up on Instagram, it gets a lot of views, it’s great — that freakin’ moss got more people commenting and talking about it than, like, Mike dying! More than that story! It was crazy!

Digest: Do you think that Sonny’s reaction to Jason’s death is different than it would have been were it not for the recent weirdness between them over Carly?

Benard: To Sonny, that wasn’t like [adopts bored tone], “Oh, Jason and Carly got married. Oh, okay.” I understand the history with Jason and Carly and the whole thing, but you don’t want your wife with your best friend! I know it doesn’t sound right, but that’s the way it is. Don’t be with my best friend, because that means you’ve always had something for him, get my drift? We didn’t make a whole big thing about it; they kind of just let that one go. But in Sonny’s head, it’s not easy. These egomaniac kind of guys like Sonny, it’s a bruise to his ego and it hurts. He loves both of them, but he doesn’t want them together. So, sorry people who think, “But they thought he was dead!”

Digest: Tell me about working with Cameron Mathison (Drew).

Benard: Cameron, I love him. He’s a great guy and he’s a big fan of STATE OF MIND [Benard’s YouTube series]. He always asks me what I’m doing, who I’ve got as a guest, and I think that’s sweet as hell. The scenes where Sonny is having a breakdown and goes into the nightclub and loses his s**t, goes off on Drew, I thought, “This is what mental illness is.” This is good freaking story and writing! I’m telling you, since Sonny’s come back from Nixon Falls, especially in the last few months, they’ve done a lot of thinking and the writing is good. I loved when Sonny grabbed Nina’s wrist and she looked at Sonny with tears in her eyes and said, “You’re hurting me” and he let go like he’s just killed something — for him, that moment is horrific because he doesn’t want to be like his stepdad [Deke, who was abusive].

Digest: Did you and Cynthia talk beforehand about how physical you were going to get with her?

Benard: In the scene, they wanted me to hold onto her a long time. I said, “Frank, that don’t work. That’s too long. I don’t want to look like a crazed animal.” Too much is too much, you know? The great thing about Cynthia is, I’ve been talking to her about stuff since Nixon Falls. What I said to Cynthia [when we started working together] was, “Here’s the deal, Cynthia. I don’t know if this is going to work. Actually, I think it’s not, because I don’t think the audience is going to buy this. So let’s have fun, let’s just do the best we can, I’ll play this cowboy and you fall in love and we’ll just have a great time.” And I think that helped, because there was no pressure. I think also, you know, we did have a certain chemistry that was sweet, because that was Mike.

Digest: Michael is super-annoyed with Sonny for not wanting to make Nina pay for keeping the secret that he was alive. Your take?

Benard: He’s a jerk! I want to beat his ass! But he’s my son, so I have to be cool with him and stuff. But, you know, Sonny has nobody but Dante [on his side]! Dante’s cool with him and I love that.

Digest: Wait, what about Ned? They had some nice scenes recently.

Benard: You know what? I’m going to give you all my secrets. When you’re bipolar, in life, what you do is you pick certain people. Say you were in front of me and there were four other people and I looked at you and you said something that maybe wasn’t cool, or maybe you didn’t say anything, just your look, and I would pick you to hate, that person to love, that person to hate, that person to love. That’s how my mind was before. So, my brother, at one point, I sat him down. I was going through a breakdown. And I said, “I just want you to be honest.” And I’m intense, right? He said, “What?” I said, “You never believed in me. I just want you to be honest with me and tell me yes or no.” And he said, “No.” I said, “Okay, cool. Now we’re good.” Because I just didn’t want him to lie. So, that’s what you do when you’re in that state. So, when I did the scene with Ned, I picked Ned as a friend. We’ve had some nice scenes, man! Wally [Kurth, Ned] is a good actor, I gotta tell you. I worked with him and I went, “Damn! This dude is bringin’ it, bro!” But I love that Sonny and Ned became a little bit of friends.

Digest: Let’s talk about STATE OF MIND. I really enjoy being a fly on the wall to such honest conversations between you and your guests.

Benard: That’s the biggest compliment for me because all I want is for this to be two people in a room having a conversation with each other and somebody’s looking through a peephole going, “Wow.” No interview. I tell everybody the same thing — the way I free people’s minds is I say, “Look, whatever you say you don’t want [in the finished product], I’ll cut, so you don’t have to worry about, ‘Oh, should I say this?’ ” And out of 90 interviews, only one person has had me cut something.

Digest: How much do you plan out the conversation in advance?

Benard: I like to have a beginning, middle and end, but a lot of times it starts with, “Where are you from?” and then it becomes like a date, a first date. A lot of times, like with Johnny [Wactor, Brando], there was no, “Where are you from?” I don’t even know where he’s from, we didn’t get there! We just started talking about the beast within [laughs]! His dad whipped him and my dad whipped me. My mom called me and said, “Uh, now that your dad’s dead, maybe you should stop talking about the abuse.” I said, “Listen, Mom, when I talk about my dad’s abuse, I don’t say it in a negative way, I always put a bow on it by saying that beautiful thing that happened when I confronted him and he said he was sorry. And aside from all that, Mom, you have to understand something. When you talk about abuse, it helps so many people, and that in itself is why I should talk about it.” And she understood. She was cool about it.

Digest: I remember you telling me in the early days of STATE OF MIND that some of your co-stars were reluctant to speak with you publicly about their mental health issues. It’s been remarkable to watch that tide shift over the course of the series, and to see more and more actors talking so frankly with you. It’s like watching the stigma disappear in real time.

Benard: That’s beautiful. You know, what I love about STATE OF MIND is that it gives me a platform to say whatever I want, which is cool, but it gives daytime actors a place where they can be interviewed about things like what they went through in their childhood. I’m proud of being in daytime and I’m proud of being an actor, but if I can just have a platform for them, I’m happy. I’m happy as hell! I love it. When I was in bad shape during the pandemic, I was really thinking about stopping STATE OF MIND. I thought, “I can’t do this anymore.” Then I got a comment from a woman who said, “Watching you talk about your mental illness, it makes me feel that I’m not alone.” And I said, “That’s it. I gotta keep going.” And I did.

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