Josh Swickard on Working With Maurice Benard on General Hospital

Ask any actor who has appeared on a daytime soap and they’ll tell you the same thing — the pace is relentless! And Josh Swickard learned just that when he joined GENERAL HOSPITAL as Detective Harrison Chase. “It’s like drinking from a firehose,” he admitted to Soaps In Depth. “You’re trying to ingest so much information in such a short time. There are days when we’ve been on set for a long time, and when I finally get in my car, I go, ‘What just happened?’”

Thankfully, Swickard found himself warmly welcomed by the other actors on GH who helped him settle in nicely. “I’ve shared scenes with almost everybody now,” he confided, “and they’ve all helped me in any way they could. And the veterans are masters! I’m blown away by their talents.”

Swickard was thrown in without a life jacket on his second day at GH! (Photo Credit: ABC/Todd Wawrychuk)

Of course, in his second GH episode, Swickard found himself sharing a scene with one of those vets and was more than a little anxious! “Forty pages with Maurice Benard, arresting Sonny’s father and getting in Sonny’s face about what he can and can’t do,” he recalled. “That was a lot! And I was so nervous! There was one point I jumped Maurice’s line — I said mine before he was done saying his. Now, you don’t want to do that to anyone. But to do it on my second day with the godfather of GH? He looked at me and I had to check my pants. He is just so intimidating!”

Thankfully, that feeling didn’t last long and Benard has become a true friend on set. “Once I got to know Maurice, he was the guy I turned to most with questions and concerns,” Swickard revealed. “We also have a lot of common hobbies. So we talk about those. He’s great!”

For more on your favorite GH stars, keep reading the ABC edition of Soaps In Depth magazine!

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