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INTERVIEW

Quick Take With Maurice Benard (Sonny, GH)

Your scenes with Max Gail (Mike) have always been so strong, but as Mike’s illness has progressed, they’ve just become all the more poignant. The scene where Sonny had to feed Mike, for example. “Yeah, I got chills when you even said that because I haven’t watched it. I think it’s too much for me right now. But I remember doing it and thinking — and I told people this — that it was the best work I’ve ever done. It was the best work because it was so easy. Even though it was hard, and those emotions were difficult, it was so easy, going into it was easy, because with beautiful writing, boom, it’s easy. He’s brilliant, so we just kind of did it.”

I like that Elizabeth has entered the story, too, because we don’t get to see the Sonny/Elizabeth relationship that much. “Yeah, it seems like everybody really likes that relationship. I think that relationship should be on more, because it’s history, and people love history! I think there should be a lot more of it.”

When you and Max go to the set to do scenes like that, do you talk about the emotions of it first, or do you just let it rip? “Well, we have a kind of thing, like he’ll say to me, ‘What about trying this?’ or, ‘Why don’t you do that, because I think maybe it’ll be good, what do you think?’ ‘Yeah, yeah.’ Or I’ll say to him, ‘Max, I think maybe you should do this.’ That’s all we do, not anything more than that. We don’t talk too much. He’s so real in what he’s doing that it just kills me, breaks my heart.”

The emotion Mike brings out in Sonny really rounds him out; you get to see his heart, not just his mobster side. “Yeah, it’s always nice to have the two. A lot of times you can’t, but it’s nice because he’s got this new [rival], Cyrus Renault, and I think it’s been a while since I’ve gotten to show both sides.”

Do you like working with Jeff Kober (Cyrus)? “Yeah, man! He’s nice, he’s cool, he’s real, he doesn’t overdo it. He looks kind of trippy, kinda tough. He’s big — he’s a big dude! I like him.”

And, of course, the “CarSon” fans are happy that Sonny and Carly’s marriage is on such strong footing right now. “Yeah, Laura [Wright, Carly] and I are like two peas in a pod, in a sense. We’ve been doing it for so long and she should be involved in all of this, especially with Mike.”

Sonny has also had more to do with Laura, which is always great. “Yeah, I like that, too! I love working with Genie [Francis, Laura]. That’s history, again. All we need is Tony [Geary, ex-Luke] back and we’re all good [laughs]!”

We also saw the debut of Sonny’s new living room not too long ago. What do you think of it? “Well, initially, I just didn’t think it was Sonny, but it grew on me. As I was acting in it, I started actually liking it a lot. Plus, Carly was the one who did the redecorating, so it wouldn’t have been Sonny’s taste as much, anyway!”

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