Cameron Mathison Opens up About Working With GH Legend Genie Francis
During his many years playing Ryan Lavery on ALL MY CHILDREN, Cameron Mathison became used to working with a daytime icon when he starred opposite Susan Lucci (Erica). But he still wasn’t prepared for sharing scenes with the legendary Genie Francis after joining the cast of GENERAL HOSPITAL as Drew!
“I’m a little bit of a fanboy, you know?” Mathison confessed to Soap Opera Digest. “It’s that sort of Susan Lucci thing, where Susan went from being somebody who was untouchable in my eyes to my dear friend. I’m not at that level with Genie, but Genie is so iconic and she was my wife’s favorite when she was growing up and everything.”
Having interviewed Francis in the past both on his Hallmark series HOME & FAMILY as well as during a GH fan event at Graceland, Mathison got to know the GH star before he eventually shared some big scenes with her during the soap’s recent Cassadine storyline that took them both to Greenland on a quest to save the world.
“We had worked together before,” Mathison admitted, “but not like this, and it was fun to see the whole dynamic — what she brings to it, how she tweaks the scripts and her character, and how bad-ass she can be. There was a scene where I had to bring her in as a fake prisoner and I was being all gentle.
“I was being too gentle – it was a bad choice, but I couldn’t help it, you know what I mean?” he continued. “I couldn’t like, manhandle Genie Francis! She was like, ‘Listen, you can throw me around. Throw me around!’ She was really giving me permission to go for it and make the scene better. It was hard for me, but she was just so cool about it. I would go home every day and tell [my wife] Vanessa all about working with Genie. It was great!”
Drew is in prison right now, but he’s still connected to Laura because her brother, Cyrus, is also in Pentonville, and only time will tell what the villain has in store for him! Stay tuned to find out!
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