Car bombs, gun fights, blown-up exes... ah, but a few of the hair-curling horrors that soap star Maurice Benard has faced in his nearly 12-year career playing Sonny Corinthos, the hot-blooded don of General Hospital's mob. Offscreen, happily, the Daytime Emmy-winning actor's life is slightly less Sopranos-esque ‑- though it's not necessarily without its daunting tasks. There are, after all, dirty diapers once again in his California household, now that son Joshua James, five months, has joined Benard, wife Paula and daughters Cailey, 10, and Cassidy, six.
"I'm not going to lie," grins the actor, "I think I've changed maybe one diaper this time around. I mean, I've done maybe seven in my whole life." Benard is nonetheless a devoted dad, especially of late. "I love all my kids," he stresses, "but I'm doing a little bit more with [Joshua], as far as holding him and playing with him and talking to him and singing to him."
Not that there's even much time to do that, given the actor's demanding schedule on GH, which often requires at least two hours of line studying after work every night. "It's hard, but it's fun," he notes, especially considering a recent grueling story line in which Sonny deals with the return of his kidnapped/brainwashed stepson, Michael ‑- a tale that was actually born of a suggestion from Benard himself.
"I was at home watching TV and [the 1996 movie] Ransom came on. I said, 'You know, they do kidnapping stories all the time on soaps, but to have Sonny go through that, the stakes would be so high.' The next thing you know, we're doing it."
He's also busy on the show with a new costar, since Jennifer Bransford took over the wildly popular role of Carly in April from Tamara Braun. "I love her," enthuses Benard. "I don't know what she's going to do from one moment to the next."
As for Sonny's new romance with Reese (Kari Wuhrer), Benard is equally enthusiastic. "For once in his life, Sonny just wants to have fun. I think the audience is ready for Sonny to move on [from his marriage to Carly]. So it's all good."
Not so great this past year, however, was the surprising snub that came Benard's way when Daytime Emmy nominations were announced. "It's not such a surprise to not get nominated, because this was the seventh time I wasn't nominated," he muses. "I thought because of the year I had that I would maybe get nominated. But it's not about the year, it's about the show." Nonetheless, Benard already has one Emmy on his shelf ‑- he won for lead actor in 2003.
Benard also garners perspective from his very public battle with manic depression. "That whole thing is bigger than anything I do as an actor," he says. "When I was in the hospital [years ago] tied down to a bed, I just knew that somewhere deep, deep inside of me, there was a reason why I was where I was. And this is it. This is my mission."
"I get people everywhere I go ‑- 'Maurice, thank you.' I've gotten letters that would break your heart. Break your heart," he stresses. "I got a letter from a lady who drove her car into her garage thinking that she was going to leave the car on [and asphyxiate herself]. Then, she wanted a glass of water, so went inside the house, turned on the TV and there I was on The View, which was two years ago, talking about not taking my medication. Since that day, she hasn't stopped taking her medication. So you have the possibility of someone who might have killed herself, and by chance she turned the TV on. If that doesn't give you perspective, man, nothing will."
