‘General Hospital’: Rena Sofer & Ellen Travolta on Reuniting and Mother-Daughter Dynamic
Q&A
The Doctor Is In
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General Hospital’s Lois Cerullo, played by Rena Sofer, wants to help her mom Gloria, played by Ellen Travolta, out of the jam she’s gotten herself into with the Russian mob. Danger is nothing to laugh about, but Sofer and Travolta have been all smiles since Gloria popped back up in Port Charles just in time for Thanksgiving.
The action picks up again on November 29 as Yuri (Cyrus Hobbi) and Brook Lynn (Amanda Setton), Gloria’s granddaughter and Lois’s daughter, lend some aid to get Gloria back to playing Bingo safely. TV Insider chatted with Sofer and Travolta about the latter’s return to GH, a few of their co-stars, and why soaps are underrated especially in today’s society, which Sofer feels is suffering from “an epidemic of loneliness.”
You two picked up your on-screen dynamic as mother/daughter like no time had passed. I can’t believe we haven’t seen Lois and Gloria together since the 1990s!
Ellen Travolta: Rena and I are exactly alike. We had a wonderful run. It was great fun.
Have you two stayed in touch over the years?
Travolta: I did. When we were initially together, it was a perfect fit. It was nice to work with someone whom you start out like and then, quickly you learn to love. It was great to work with someone funny and beautiful [Wryly] — like her mother!
Rena Sofer: Yes – and no – about staying in touch. Ellen and I have spoken on and off over the years. When I came back to GH, I said, “By the way…bring Ellen back!”
Travolta: It’s all Rena’s doing. I’ve since moved to Idaho. When I was here, we’d see each other and have dinner. We’d go to each other’s houses. It’s very easy to drift apart [once you stop working together].
Lois’s return wouldn’t be the same without Gloria. Soaps are all about family.
Sofer: There’s an epidemic of loneliness in this country. It’s only getting worse with social media, Zooms, and the pandemic. So often soap operas get a bad rap, which is unfortunate. What not everyone may realize is that when people are lonely in this country and they’ve grown up watching these shows with their parents and grandparents, they get to see these people every day, five days a week. They tap into something that literally alleviates their loneliness for one hour a day.
ABC/Bob Long
I don’t think that this has even hit me just how important our job is. I’m not trying to pat myself on the back, but I think what soap operas give to people who’ve watched, in our show’s case, for over 60 years, is a sense of connection, community, and continuity — which we don’t have a lot of in this world anymore. Soaps get teased by a lot of people but I think they’re incredibly necessary. You’ve seen [the importance of family] with Ellen’s return and also how seamless we are with Amanda.
Travolta: It brings to mind the old adage, does art imitate life or does life imitate art? When you watch a soap opera, you see every problem a family has ever had. There’s a feeling of, “Oh, yeah, them, too!” There’s a feeling of inclusion that doesn’t happen in a lot of other media that does happen in a soap operas. When people say [that situation] “sounds like a soap opera…” Yes, that sounds like life.
It wasn’t surprising that Lois picked right up on something being wrong with Gloria (and the Bingo incident and the Russian mob).
Travolta: Absolutely. They can smell it, and they know each other so well. And now, that includes Brook Lynn. I know when I care about someone, there’s an intuitiveness. When you are part of someone’s life, you pick things up. It may be slight, but you do. You pick it up.
It’s great to see Lois and Gloria having each other’s backs — no question, no hesitation.
Sofer: Yes. That’s what’s different about this particular family in the soap opera genre. Of course, the Quartermaines have each other’s backs, but they’ll stab each other in those backs. What I’ve always loved about Lois and the Cerullo family is that there’s a sense of honor with them. They are true. They’re honest. They have integrity.
I think Brook Lynn also has that [integrity] in her as well. There’s a goodness to her that’s not part of the Quartermaine world. I am impressed that they were able to keep that with her. A lot of that, I feel, is Amanda. I think Amanda is somebody who’s got so much integrity. You want to see her play that character. Frank [Valentini, executive producer] picked the right person to play Brook Lynn because she fits into [the Cerullo family] that we started 27 years ago.
Travolta: The Cerullos share an unconditional love. They’re solid. The Quartermaines have a lot of conditions – how well you’re doing, how you’re accepted, how much money you make. The Cerullos have a tremendous amount of integrity.
Sofer: We’re a very traditional, Italian, Catholic family. We feel, “I love you no matter what. I’ll bake you a cake and bring it to the jail, and it’ll have a file in it.” The Quartermaines will help you out as long as [you give up] controlling interest in ELQ. Then, [they] will do whatever you need.
You worked with Cy Hobbi after his character Yuri offered to help out Gloria (in scenes taped, fortunately, before Hobbi’s real-life Thanksgiving Day football injury!)
Sofer: We did.
Travolta: We did. The Russian! He’s adorable, a lovely guy, [and] a lovely actor.
Ellen, can GH entice you back for some more shows?
Sofer: Yes.
Travolta: You’ve got to talk to my agent — Rena! She’s in charge. She tells me where to go and where to stay.
Sofer: I was almost annoying. I was making sure she had everything she needed when we worked together. Ellen, with the grace of the woman I love so very much, just let me do it. But she would look at me as if to say, “You know I can do all these things on my own?” But she knew I wanted to take care of her, so she let me.
General Hospital, Weekdays, ABC
