One Life to Live Alum Erika Slezak on Her ‘Completely Different’ General Hospital Role
Fans of One Life to Live icon Erika Slezak were thrilled to learn that she would be joining the cast of General Hospital, even if it was only for a short-term role. The actress became a daytime star when she took over the role of Victoria “Viki” Lord on OLTL back in 1971 and remained with the soap through to its final episode on ABC, even continuing to play her character on its short-lived online revival in 2013. During her decades on OLTL, Slezak won six Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress, setting a record for female soap performers that holds to this day.
Back to Business
Following her four decades on OLTL, Slezak has worked occasionally in film and television, but hadn’t entertained a return to soaps. But her former executive producer at OLTL, Frank Valentini, who now helms GH, reached out to her to play a particular role that the soap has kept very hush-hush.
“We’ve been friends for a long time,” Slezak told TV Insider. “He called me in April and said, ‘Would you like to come out and play at General Hospital?’ And I went, ‘Sure, sometime.’ And then he said, ‘Well, how about in September?’ And I went, ‘Sure, September is far enough away.’ And then he filled me in on what he wanted for the story arc, and I said, ‘That’s very interesting, because it’s completely different from what I played on One Life to Live.’ And slowly, over the summer, it was dawning on me, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going back to work.’ ”
Adjusting to the new environment at the GH studio was aided by the welcoming and generous cast and crew, particularly Jane Elliot (Tracy), whom Slezak had encountered many years ago in New York. In between stints on GH, Elliot had starred on another of ABC’s East Coast sudsers, All My Children (where she played Cynthia Preston) and also played Tracy on The City, in addition to working behind the scenes as a producer on Loving. Slezak shared that when she first reported for GH duty, “Jane was in my dressing room, making sure everything was nice and neat and clean and turning all the lights on. She said, ‘Well, I wanted to make it comfortable for you.’ “
Valentini and Elliot weren’t the only faces from Llanview that Slezak encountered. Amanda Setton (Brook Lynn; ex-Kim, OLTL) and Lisa LoCicero (Olivia; ex-Sonia, OLTL) are in the cast, and the crew includes yet more OLTL alumni, such as Director Gary Tomlin, Producer M.K. Weir, and Cameraman Bruce Cooperman. “It’s just a pleasure to look out and see him behind camera one,” she enthused. “It makes it more comfortable; it makes me at ease.”
Slezak also reconnected with two of her former TV children: Jessica Tuck, who played Megan Gordon on OLTL and the doomed Cassandra Pierce on GH, is now working behind the scenes there as a director, and Chris McKenna, who played Joey Buchanan back when he was a preteen, joined the cast earlier this year as Jack Brennan. Slezak reported, “When they broke that I was coming on the show, he texted me, ‘Oh my God, Mom, Mom, Mom.’ And I said, ‘You’ll always be my little Joey.’ And when I saw him, this is a kid who’s six foot something, so handsome, so tall, so beautiful, with a family of his own.”
The actress will share some upcoming scenes with Maurice Benard (Sonny) — one of the favorites of her husband, Brian Davies, who has taken to watching GH in recent years. Relayed Slezak, “I called home the second day I worked with Maurice, and I said, ‘Brian, he’s a really nice man. Very calm, very gentle. He’s not Sonny at all.’ “
Slezak has already wrapped her run, she reported on her official website, ErikaSlezak.com. In a message posted on Thursday, September 25, the star summed up, “The past three weeks have been an incredible yet exhausting journey. I worked every day with amazing, friendly, and lovely people.” She noted how much she enjoyed reconnecting not only with McKenna and Tuck during her time in California, but also former OLTL brother Roger Howarth (ex-Todd; ex-Franco, et al, GH) and Tuc Watkins (ex-David, OLTL).
“While this has been such a terrific experience, I am very happy to be heading home,” she wrote. “I have missed my family, my puppies, and my pussycat so much.”
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