‘General Hospital’ First Look: Erika Slezak Joins in Mysterious New Role (PHOTOS)

Six-time Daytime Emmy winner Erika Slezak returns to soaps today in a new mystery role on General Hospital.

Best known for her four-decade run as One Life to Live‘s Victoria Lord Buchanan, Slezak wasn’t actively seeking a daytime comeback, but a call from GH‘s executive producer, Frank Valentini — who previously helmed OLTL — changed everything.

“We’ve been friends for a long time,” Slezak begins. “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.’”

Once back on set, it didn’t take long for reality to set in and for the fast-paced world of Port Charles to keep her on her toes. “The studio is huge,” she reports. “But people are so unbelievably kind, sweet, and helpful. The schedule is so completely different from what I’m used to, and quick. My God, they do so much in one day.”

Slezak received a warm welcome from co-star Jane Elliot (Tracy Quartermaine), which made her feel instantly at home. “Jane was in my dressing room, making sure everything was nice and neat and clean and turning all the lights on,” Slezak relays. “She said, ‘Well, I wanted to make it comfortable for you.’”

Although the two hadn’t worked closely before, they had crossed paths in New York. “I had met Jane many years ago,” Slezak shares. “She came to One Life to observe as a director or a producer. I knew who she was, and I went over and introduced myself, and we chatted a little bit. She’s a wonderfully delightful lady. It is amazing that she can play so mean. So, when Frank said, ‘You’re going to be working a lot with Jane Elliot,’ I went, ‘Yes, I will do it, because that would be such a treat to work with such a talented, terrific lady.’”

Elliot wasn’t the only familiar face on set — Slezak was happy to find herself surrounded by old friends from Llanview, both in front of and behind the camera. “There are so many people on this show that I know and worked with,” she points out. “Amanda Setton (Brook Lynn Ashton, who played OLTL‘s Kimberly Andrews), Jessica Tuck (Megan Gordon, OLTL] who is observing as a director, and Lisa LoCicero (Olivia Falconeri; Sonia Toledo, OLTL), who I worked with. Gary Tomlin (director), M.K. (Weir, producer), and Bruce Cooperman, our cameraman for so long. It’s just a pleasure to look out and see him behind camera one. It makes it more comfortable; it makes me feel at ease.”

She was also delighted to reunite with Chris McKenna (Jack Brennan), who played her on-screen son, Joey Buchanan. “Oh, my Joey. He’s so cute,” she says. “He was 11 years old when he was my son, and he stayed till he was 15 or 16. And 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. It’s really wonderful.”

While she spent more than 40 years in the ABC daytime lineup, Slezak confesses she wasn’t fully up to speed on what was happening in Port Charles, but someone at home was. “For all the years I was on One Life, we had a monitor in the makeup room, and every time you went in or out, ABC was on,” she explains. “And I used to watch General Hospital during makeup or whatever, so I knew all the characters. After the show went off the air [in 2012], I didn’t really watch, but my husband, who never ever watched One Life to Live, started watching General Hospital off and on. About a year ago, I said, ‘Really, you’re watching GH? You never watched One Life to Live.’ He said, ‘Well, I have to find out what’s happening to Sonny (Corinthos, Maurice Benard).”

When she shared the story with Benard, he got a kick out of it. “He laughed. 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.’”

Reflecting on her One Life to Live journey, Slezak acknowledges it was an unexpected, but deeply fulfilling experience. “It was not at all what I thought my career was going to be,” she admits. “I trained in the Royal Academy in England to be in the theater, and that’s how I started for five years. When I got the job on One Life to Live, I had never been on television. Once I learned how to work in television, I got quite comfortable with it, and every day was a different script. Every day, there were new people. It was not like being in the theater where you’re doing the same performance eight times a week and you’re working with the same people eight times a week. This was different every single day, so that was very exciting. And the excitement stayed all those years. Every time my contract came up, they said, ‘You want to stay?’ I went, ‘Yes, please,’ because I was having such fun. I’m very grateful for it.”

Though she enjoyed stepping back into the daytime world, Slezak isn’t looking to make a full-time return. “It’s been fun to do it now for three weeks, but I’ll be glad to go home,” she shares. “I was on the air on One Life for 42 years, and I had a routine. I knew when to get up in the morning, and I knew what day it was only because I knew what days I was working. And when it stopped, well, every day is Saturday when you’re not working, and it’s a real adjustment to make. So, this is fun to do for a short time. I don’t know that I would want to do it for a longer time, unless it were in New York.”

These days, she’s content right where she is, enjoying the quieter moments of life. “I’ve become kind of lazy,” she muses. “I like being at home. I’m doing all the things that I never really had time to do. I read, I cook, I complain, but I have my family, and I have my dogs and my cat, who’s getting old. All these little things are just part of my normal life now, and I’m happy. So, this was a very nice, different thing, and I will take away lovely, wonderful memories, but I’m happy to be going back to my normal life.”

General Hospital, Weekdays, ABC