Genie Francis on How Both Laura & ‘General Hospital’ Have Changed Though the Years

The Doctor Is In

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It’s nearly impossible (OK, it is impossible) to think of ABC‘s daytime drama General Hospital without thinking of Genie Francis. The Emmy winner joined the soap in 1977 as a teenager and by 1981, when her character married Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary), she was a household name.

Now, that ingenue is in the past and Laura Spencer is a formidable presence in Port Charles — in addition to being the city’s mayor, she’s also embroiled in the storyline surrounding her grandson, Spencer (Nicholas Chavez), and his desire to gain custody of his infant baby brother, born to his ex-girlfriend Esme (Avery Kristen Pohl).

Ahead of General Hospital celebrating 60 years on the air on April 1, our Jim Halterman caught up with Francis to discuss her daytime television journey and why she thinks the drama will endure for years to come.

What do you make of General Hospital in 2023, given your history with the show and where things are heading?

Genie Francis: I think we’re doing well, and I think we’re doing it under the hardest circumstances we’ve ever done it. Yeah. We work. We’re doing seven or eight episodes in a week, so we’re working. We’re doing a tremendous amount of material in one day. We used to think doing a one-hour show a day was just unheard  … [Now] we do more than a one-hour show a day. But it runs very efficiently, and there’s no messing about. You just to really, everybody has to really be prepared and ready to work quickly.

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When you joined GH, what was that training like for you with the pace of taping every day? This was your first regular TV gig, right?

Yes. It was very scary. That’s all I can tell you. I mean, we did it live to tape… It’s like a little play that you put up every day. You did a dry block at 6:00 AM and then you did a camera block after that. And gosh was, I think there were three or four rehearsals, but it was dry camera and dress rehearsal and then tape. And then after it was done, we would all gather in the makeup room and wait to be released. They’d say that the tapes were clear, and then we could go home, which was usually about 3:00 PM.

Wow. OK.

Yeah. Very different. Very, very different. I actually don’t know how I did it. I was so young and it was such a scary thing to do. I can’t believe I did it. I don’t know. I’d never let my kid do it because it’s just too much.

ABC / Courtesy Everett Collection

Who from the cast became your touchstone in those early years, whom you could go to and lean on if needed?

I would say Michael Gregory did that the most. So did Denise Alexander, the people who played my parents [Rick and Lesley Webber]. Peter Hansen was also someone that I went to because I thought he was so good and he would talk to me about acting, which was really fun. And then when Kin [Shriner] was there, which was not too far after me, then I had him to talk to.

When the show really blew up with the wedding and everything, were you able to enjoy any of that at the time, or were you just pushing through it all? 

It was a grind, and it was a lot of work… I mean, if you think about it, [Luke and Laura] was the thing that was making [General Hospital] money in their ratings. They’re going to work you a lot and want to get as much as they can get out of you. And so if I wasn’t working, I was doing press or traveling for press. So my life was really all work at that time.

Did you even have time to watch the show? I don’t even know if you had a chance to do that at that time.

No… I think that’s right around the time they got Betamax [VHS tapes]. So I think my parents might have recorded some of those things for me to watch. But the truth of the matter is, I would come home from work at 5:00, 6:00, 6:30 PM, something like that, and I’d have another 40 pages to learn. So I couldn’t sit down and watch TV… I ate quickly, and I went to my room and I learned my lines.

I’m curious how you feel about Laura having lived with her for this long and who she is today on the show. Are you protective of her, in a way?

Yes, [I am protective of her] when I feel like they’re drifting too far away from who she really is, which does happen from time to time. I like the way they’ve allowed her to grow up and stand on her own two feet and be strong, but still have that very vulnerable open heart that is Laura. Laura’s all about her heart. She leads from her heart, not her head.

You left the show and came back several times. What was it that always brought you back to Laura? 

Mostly, it’s because I want to work. I’m not a lady of leisure. I like to work … I was really happy to come back when I turned 50. It was kind of perfect timing for me at that point because both of my kids had gone to school … We had an empty nest, and it was just so great to be able to, at that moment, come back to the show.

Nicholas Chavez, Genie Francis; photo courtesy of ABC.

How often are you surprised still by this character you know so well, like where the writers take her?

I had talked to them about the fact that Laura didn’t know her actual biological father, so they… I knew that was coming. I didn’t know they were going to give me brothers … these two fabulous brothers, which I love. Was such a great surprise. Yeah. Really happy with that. I love these two actors too. They’re wonderful. They gave me some really interesting brothers. I keep hoping they’ll get Jeff Kober out of jail or something so I can work with him again.

There are a lot of younger people on the show, like Nicholas [Chavez] and Tabyana [Ali] and Eden [McCoy]. Do you offer up any advice as their careers are just getting started?

I try to be a guiding, loving voice for all the young kids on the show. I truly love them. I see myself when I look at them. People were loving and kind to me when I was a young person on the show, so it’s just easy to love them. They’re so sweet, and they’re so excited to be starting their careers. They’re just full of all this wonderful, fresh energy. I did a goodbye scene with William Lipton who plays Cameron, and it was just so touching. And then afterward, he was giving me a big hug and telling me, “I meant everything I said, and you were important to me.” It was just like, I just love these young people. I can’t say it enough. They make me feel good, and I hope I do that for them.

(Credit: ABC/Craig Sjodin)

What advice would you give yourself when you were starting out on the show? 

I don’t know what advice I could possibly give to myself, because I’m amazed now as an adult woman that I did that as a child. It was so hard. So I don’t know what advice I would give myself. But I recently had an experience where I went into the studio … where we [filmed GH] when I was a kid. And it seemed so small to me, but it was a just chilling experience because I could see my young self in that running up and down the hallways there. And when I was there, honestly, I thanked my younger self for her incredible courage, because it set me up really for life.

With the anniversary, there are a lot of clips being replayed. Do you like watching those old clips of yourself? 

The [Luke and Laura] wedding — I’m sick to death of it because it follows me. Well, for many years, I couldn’t go on to talk about it without that preceding my entrance. So it doesn’t anymore, but for at least 20 years, that’s how it was. So not that one. But I do like the ones that I can’t remember. That’s fun to see. I don’t even remember I did.

Why do you think General Hospital has endured and will continue to endure?

Hopefully, it’s because we’re doing it right. And because it had this huge moment, it stood out from any other soap that was done because it transcended the medium. People were watching. It was more popular than nighttime [dramas at the time] … It had this huge moment.

Sometimes when I meet people and they figure out who I am, I’ll start chatting with them, and then they’ll just start crying … It’s hard on them because it reminds them of that time with their family. Perhaps a relative has passed on since then. It’s very nostalgic for them. So I try to be really gentle that those people, when they have their big feelings come up.

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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.