David Lautman Thanks GH Co-Star Nancy Lee Grahn

It may still surprise David Lautman when he is asked to come back to GENERAL HOSPITAL for more episodes as Smoltz, but he knows he has co-star Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis) to thank for helping him get settled into the soap and his role as the sleazy journalist who just keeps popping up like a bad penny!

Lautman debuted on GH back in February 2022 when Smoltz showed up at The Invader to pitch a story about Nina destroying Sonny and Carly’s marriage. Alexis may have turned down the reporter’s gossipy muck, but Grahn very much wanted to keep Lautman around!

“I owe a lot to Nancy,” he told Soap Opera Digest in a recent issue. “First off, she is an extraordinarily talented actress who has a great habit of making her scene partners look like rock stars, which clearly has been substantiated by her multiple Emmy Award wins.

“When I first came on the show,” he continued, “she took an immediate liking to me, even proclaiming after I wrapped, out loud for all to hear, ‘I love this guy, we gotta bring him back! He could be like, my quirky sidekick.’ I jokingly volleyed back, saying, ‘That sounds good to me, I’m down for anything. I can do light dusting around the office, organize files, whatever you need, Alexis!’”

And although Lautman hasn’t had very many scenes with Grahn since, he’s still grateful to her for helping ease him into the hectic pace of daytime. “I think right from the get-go we had great chemistry together and the scenes seemed to click,” he mused. “Part of that could be attributed to the fact that Nancy is really great at making sure we find the time to speed-read our scenes together a bunch of times before shooting so we really get the rhythm, words, and blocking of the scenes in our bones.”

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