Disney/Christine Bartolucci
Sister Act: Kristen Vaganos (Molly, l.) has loved forging a bond on-screen and off with Kate Mansi (Kristina).
GH’s Kristen Vaganos says that when she assumed the role of Molly, developing a sisterly chemistry with on-screen sibling Kate Mansi (Kristina) was a piece of cake. “It’s been so lovely getting to know Kate,” Vaganos enthuses. “We were fast friends. We get along super-well and we’re actually quite similar, so it was easy to form a sisterly bond with her — and with our ‘mom’, Nancy [Lee Grahn, Alexis] and with Kelly [Monaco, Sam]. The whole family has really clicked quite quickly and it’s been really exciting to sort of sink my teeth into it and establish this new family connection. GENERAL HOSPITAL is such a well-oiled machine and a roller coaster that has already started and you don’t have a lot of time [built into the work day] to develop relationships. You have to try to have that energy and that bond immediately and try to fit right into the puzzle. And it happens so fast! But luckily for us, it’s been really organic and really easy and we all get along and have a lovely trust and a really good time working together, which makes our scenes really fun to do.” Vaganos’s approach has been “to come in with a good amount of preparation and understanding of the arc of the scene and then run it with my scene partner to where we both can find things, find little behaviors, that might help each other or surprise each other. I really love the camaraderie of acting and of filmmaking and working together and using each other to find those moments that are so magical and human.” And she’s found great collaborators in the GH cast. “Everybody’s been really lovely about running lines beforehand and sort of rehearsing the scene because you have to sort of take it upon yourself to put that time in. Because it’s so quick when we’re shooting, if you want to give it some extra TLC, you have to take your own time to do that. But I find that really fun. Every now and again, there’s not time [to get together for rehearsal] and that’s fine, too, because once you have that sort of quick, unspoken shared language with each other, then you can really fall into place very quickly and organically. I think that’s what this show fosters, too. You really start to learn people and you learn to be able to slip right into those relationships that are so nuanced and so fully formed. I mean, these are human beings that you’re watching every day of their life, so you’ve got to have all of that behavior right there [when the camera starts rolling]. It’s been great working with the people here and figuring out what each relationship is. Obviously, there are preexisting relationships between these characters, but we have to put ourselves into it and find those moments. So it’s been really great working with everybody, and Kate and I are on the phone all the time, running stuff, working on our scenes with each other, and just becoming friends also allows our [on-screen relationship] to come naturally.”
