Lily Anne Harrison makes her entrance into Port Charles society this week as Andrea Gates, a young woman who meets with TJ and Molly about the possibility of serving as their surrogate.
The actress, who is the real-life daughter of Gregory Harrison (Gregory), previously auditioned for various roles on the show, predating her father joining the cast in 2020. “I’ve been in to read for [Casting Director] Mark Teschner many times over the years. I actually went in to read for a different role [recently], which was a quite sinister role. They said, ‘We want her, but we want her for something else,’ and I ended up with Andrea. They called and said, ‘You’re better for Andrea. Do you want to do it?’ And I was very excited.”
Harrison describes her new alter ego as “super-wholesome and genuine and just really loves her family and is [doing surrogacy work] to support her family. She sort of hits it off with TJ and Molly right away — she’s genuine and warm and open, just a really lovely person.” And she wasn’t surprised that GH’s higher-ups envisioned her as better suited to that type of role. “It’s funny because over the years I’ve read for sort of the bad guy [character] in various things and I always hear the same thing from the casting director, which is like, ‘That was really great, but I’m just having a hard time believing it on your face.’ It’s a compliment, but I’m also an actor and I could do it! But I do think my energy tends to lean a little bit warmer, so generally, I don’t think I’m a shoo-in for the evil role! But I would be thrilled if I got to do something evil for once [laughs].”
After Harrison got the good news that she’d booked GH, which is her first foray into daytime (“I’ve done some TV movies and Hallmark stuff, but I’ve never done a soap”), she got some insider information from her dad, who was himself a daytime novice when he first assumed the role of Gregory. “He was like, ‘Look, it’s a lot of lines, but it’s a lot of fun once you get into the swing of it.’ He was actually really helpful. Daytime is its own machine and he just sort of ran through how it goes — you know, when you’re working and sort of the order of things and what to expect. And this is very sweet; he was working, and he often stays in my house when he has to work the next morning since [my parents] live about an hour north. He was like, ‘Why don’t you just come in with me tomorrow and I’ll show you the ropes?’ So I went in with him and it was sort of a funny daddy/daughter work day. He was like, ‘This is my dressing room and this is where makeup is, and this is who this director is and this is what the soundstage looks like.’ So, on my actual first day, I didn’t feel it was so intimidating because I sort of knew the lay of the land.”
Even with that unofficial dry run under her belt, Harrison was still nervous on her first day. “Daytime is a completely different animal [from the other mediums I’ve done] and it’s just amazing what they’re able to accomplish in a day,” she marvels. “I was intimidated! I definitely had ‘first day of school’ nerves, but I worked with a really lovely director on my first day and everybody was so friendly and so lovely that I was excited to come back. I was like, ‘Oh, okay, great! I can do this! This is workable!’ ”
On her first day, she worked exclusively with Brooke Anne Smith (Molly) and Tajh Bellow (TJ). “They were both so friendly and welcoming and open. It all went pretty smoothly. I mean, it’s definitely an adjustment getting used to all the cameras and sort of the differences between doing a soap and doing, like, a TV movie, for example. It’s sort of like learning a new muscle memory for something. I’m sure I was a little jittery, but I got my lines out and they made it really easy. My first day was sort of like a really fun blur! When I got home, I was saying to my fiancé,” — actor Peter Facinelli, with whom she shares son Jack, 11 months — “It was sort of like the best acting class scene ever! I jumped right in and we just sort of, like, played around and everyone was so sweet and open and the director was so warm and it’s just the ideal scenario for going to work.”
Harrison’s father also benefited from his daughter’s casting. “They gave me my dad’s dressing room to use, which was really sweet,” she reports. “And I did leave a few trinkets in there because it was pretty bare. I was like, ‘What is happening here? You come here so often and there’s no evidence of you!’ I was like, ‘I think you need some snacks, I think you need some waters, I think you need a couple of pictures in here.’ So, I left him some treats behind and when I go back again, I’m sure I will continue to annoy him by leaving other trinkets in there!”
