Kelly Thiebaud Opens Up About Her General Hospital Return: ‘I’m A Little Nervous’
Kelly Thiebaud is set to make her return to General Hospital this Friday, two-and-a-half years after her character, Britt Westbourne, died a hero saving Josslyn Jacks’s life from The Hook — also known as Heather Webber. Now, in a new interview with TV Insider, the Daytime Emmy winner talked about why she made the decision to come back, how she has changed during her time away from the soap and her gratitude for the support of GH‘s devoted fans.
Coming Home Again
This isn’t the first time Thiebaud has made a return to the show she first joined in 2012. Her first departure from GH took place in 2015, after which she returned from 2017-18. Her most recent stint lasted from 2020-23. When the actress exited then, she moved to London. “I did walk away from my last day on set thinking that I would never return,” she admitted to the website. “And that’s why I think coming back now has so many feelings attached to it.”
In time, though, she moved back to the States, and memories of Port Charles were never far away. She explained, “There were multiple signs, let’s just say, that I was receiving from people, and General Hospital just kind of kept coming back up in my life.” She began a dialogue with GH Executive Producer Frank Valentini, and the timing worked out for her to make another comeback. “A lot of different things… aligned perfectly with the opportunity to be back,” she said.
The time away from the show allowed the actress to grow and bring new energy to her work on the soap. “For me, this last time around, I went through so much; that’s the golden ticket, in a way,” she told TV Insider. “The more life experience you can add to your tool belt just infuses your work and makes you a better actor,” she added. And she was ready to put those new tools to use. “I missed the consistency of acting,” she noted. “I missed getting to be creative and play and do weird and fun and exciting things in storytelling. It’s a special job, daytime television.”
Still, her years away from GH made her feel rusty as she readjusted to the pace of the show’s production. “I feel like I have to rebuild all that all over again and get comfortable performing the way that you do for daytime,” she allowed, confessing, “I’m a little nervous to see my first couple of episodes.” Despite these concerns, she shared how lovely it was to be back with her GH colleagues. “It was so much like a family that I was coming back to, and that was just so meaningful for me,” she enthused. “I missed the people. I was so excited when I first walked on stage to see the crew, camera operators, the lighting guys, the audio people, the hair and makeup people who I absolutely love.”
Whether or not she’s playing her deceased character with a new lease on life or a brand new one wasn’t revealed in the interview, but Britt has been on the lips of multiple characters of late, since Rocco discovered that Britt gave birth to him, and viewers already know that Britt’s mother, Kathleen Gati’s Dr. Obrecht, is returning to the canvas.
One thing she did make crystal clear is how grateful she is for the warm reception she received regarding the news of her return. “It just makes me so happy, reading everyone’s messages and seeing how excited everyone is,” she told the website, noting that it was “just more of a confirmation that I’m supposed to be here right now.”
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