GH’s Maurice Benard on Shooting the “Difficult” Rooftop Scenes

After the emotional episode where Kristina and her family learned she’d lost the baby, General Hospital followed up with another powerful show where Sonny hallucinated Morgan trying to talk him out of jumping off the roof of the hospital. And those scenes were even more affecting because Maurice Benard (Sonny) shot them after returning to work following a serious struggle with his bipolar in real life.

“It was my first day back,” the actor revealed on Twitter/X. “The first day I came back it was just raw for me. I really felt that I could fall off that ledge.”

In fact, the whole storyline of Sonny’s meds being tampered with and eventually replaced with placebos so that the character would go off the rails has been rough for Benard. “It was very difficult to play,” he admitted of the emotional tale. “It sure has been a different beat. Difficult at times. I’ve never really played Sonny this way.”

Viewers praised Benard and guest star Bryan Craig (Morgan) for their heartbreaking performances in the episode, and many are sure this will be remembered come Emmy time next year. Although knowing that Benard suffers from bipolar in real life, a lot of his fans expressed their concerns about how filming such material impacted his own mental health. “Those scenes were difficult,” he confided, “but I am feeling fantastic now.” 

Soaps have long had a history of telling socially relevant storylines and bringing awareness to issues such as mental health, HIV and AIDS, abortion, cancer, and many other topics. Benard has been an advocate for mental health awareness for many years, bringing the issue to light regularly in his State of Mind YouTube series. And the message of Sonny realizing that he needs help and asking for it was a powerful one for GH to send.

“It’s always about the message if we’re lucky,” Benard declared