{alltv} Vanessa Marcil Giovinazzo Q&A

Her return to General Hospital has thrown everything in Port Charles completely upside down, but they ain't seen nothing yet, as Brenda Barrett's secrets haven't even begun to be exposed. With all these revelations swirling around, it's got to be an exciting time to be Vanessa Marcial Giovinazzo, the woman behind Brenda. Vanessa's return this past August was a grand homecoming for the fan-favorite actress. We got a chance to talk to Vanessa about her feelings about Brenda and the secrets about to be revealed that even SHE doesn't know about ...

So what's it like, being back on the show?
It's so fun. I'm having the best time. I don't know, exactly what I imagined it would be.

Have things changed a lot, or was it familiar to you when you came back?
Couldn't be any more different. But, because of the people, who were the reason why I came to visit -- my co-stars, from the time that I was a kid. And they're, to this day, still my favorite actors that I've ever worked with, and I learned so much from them and grew up with them. And you know, it's kind of like an amazing high school reunion in a way. I like to joke that it's like having a reunion where we all get paid to go to acting class, because I always learn so much from these actors and there's so much fun and spontaneity. It can feel almost like a class, or like the Actors Studio, because we do so much in a day. We'll do 40 to 50 scenes in one day, so that kinda reminds me of what it's like when you're in class.

Yeah, I was going to say, what's it been like getting back to that pace after being on primetime?
Rough! Rough. I mean it's been 13 years since I did this regularly, except for the stint when I visited last time. And we used to always joke that we could run circles around primetime people and movie people, because of the muscle that you have to have and shape to do this much dialogue a day. So now I'm those people who I was laughing at! I haven't quite yet pulled it together yet, so ... you know, it's like I've decided that I'm gonna go on a ride with Lance Armstrong without any training (laughs), because I'm used to doing four pages of dialogue a day for the last thirteen years. And, on top of that, which I actually didn't realize until I got here, now they shoot three, four -- I mean, last week I shot seven episodes in one day. So it's a great, great challenge and experiment as an actor, to work a completely different muscle ; it's like a theater kind of muscle? Or like a sitcom because of the four cameras? So it's a great thing to work a different muscle and it's always a good thing to do something that you're not great at because, you know, I like to live by that: if you're afraid to do something, that usually means you need to do it. So it's really scary to come in and try to keep up with them, especially when you have people as talented as Maurice [Benard], and Steve Burton, so you're trying to keep up with them, just literally, dialogue-wise, and then on top of that, they're good, so you've got to step it up.

Did the chemistry with those guys pick up right where it left off?
I feel like it did. To me, it feels like no time has passed. Maurice still makes me want to pass out -- I can't be in the same room with him without feeling like I'm 20 years old again. And he's already teaching me again. And Steve Burton, I feel like not only was the chemistry right there, but it even got knocked up a notch.

It seems to have blossomed in these last couple of weeks.
Oh good, well I'm glad that that's reading, because that's how we feel. I just love working with him. With the new actors that I wasn't used to working with, because there wasn't all that history….it was challenging in a different way.

The show seems to be acknowledging Brenda's eccentricities more explicitly -- like, the characters will talk about it. Has that been sort of fun to play, just how eccentric Brenda can be, especially as she comes across to other people?
You know, it's interesting, because when I get the script, I only tear out my scenes, so I don't really read the rest of the script. So it's always interesting for me to hear, just from fans or from people, or really in interviews like this, how anyone is talking about her, or how anyone perceives her. It's always fascinating to me to see how she's perceived by people, because I'm so specific about how I think she feels and who I think she is, and how I play everything. I mean you could ask me any question, because I'm a theater geek, so I do all kinds of crazy stuff. You could ask me any question about Brenda, and I could answer it.

Right, who was her third grade teacher, that kind of stuff?
Where she came from that day, what she eats, what she sleeps in, how she feels about -- I mean, I get pretty elaborate about it. So, it's always fascinating for me to hear how how she's being spoken about, or how she's being perceived. I have a little tunnel vision because I can get really affected by listening to what other characters are saying about her, or reading stuff, or, Bob [Guza, General Hospital's head writer] will tell you, I don't like to know what's going to happen. I like to find out right before I do it.

That was actually another question I was going to ask, because there are all these secrets that are coming out now --
It's cool, because I'm such a fan that I will get caught up in the same way that the fans do. And then I think it will affect how I play her if I know too much, you know?

So it's when you end up getting the pages themselves that you actually find out what's being revealed, what these secrets are?
Yeah, for sure. It's very multi-layered -- so one of the secrets that we revealed, I found out on set, right before we shot it. Brenda was having a flashback -- and I don't read the bold print either, I just read my lines, because I don't like to try to decide the emotions I'm supposed to have, or how I'm supposed to act, physically; I like to just see whatever happens naturally. And so one day I was having a flashback, and then we shot it, and then they stopped and they came out and they said, "You know, when you're having this flashback, 'A-B-C' happens --" no pun intended -- "this is what happens in that flashback, and I was like, 'WHAT?!!' (laughs) 'What happens?!'"

So you're sort of watching the show along with the rest of us?
Oh, for sure, and so then I went "Oh, let's do that over." I had no idea that happened to her. You know, really, I find out the day of. I don't look at the stuff 'til the night before we shoot it.

So we just found out that Brenda shot Aleksander .
Oh, yeah. And that's the thing, we shot the flashback with me thinking about that, and I had no idea she'd done that. So then I went, oh, so let let's do that flashback over because that's a pretty serious thing that she did.

Right? And then, of course, there are several other secrets yet to be revealed past this.
Yes.

So, Brenda and Carly: obviously, there are big clashes ahead. Why do you think they gravitate to the same guys? They obviously have Sonny in common, they have Jax in common, they even have Jason in common. You know, it's interesting. In the right scenario I think that Carly and Brenda would probably be, you know, pretty compatible friends.

... If they weren't such enemies.
Yeah. I think that they like strong men, and then I think that they also like to take a break from all that work that goes into being with somebody, and to be with someone who's sweet and kind and loving. I mean, that's also strong in another way, in an almost more evolved way. So Jax is strong like that, and these other boys are kind of the bad boys with the hearts of gold, and I think they're the kind of men that any amazing, strong woman would gravitate towards. You know, they're the hottest guys on the show! (laughs)

That doesn't hurt. Up 'til now, we've seen Brenda being so reticent when it comes to getting back together with Sonny. What do you think scares her so much about the idea of being back with Sonny?
I think that Brenda is in many ways the male [sic] version of Sonny? Like, you know, she's just younger, but I think in a way they're both kind of ... you know ,I think Brenda could be like a female gangster.

That would be a heck of an idea.
Yeah, I think that she is in many ways. She -- even though she grew up with money, she's really -- I consider her from the streets, because she was abandoned. She had no family. And to be emotionally abandoned, I think is just as powerful or can be even more powerful than you know, being a kid who grows up on the streets with no money, on your own. And Brenda's also very prideful so, you know, she rejected her family's money. So she didn't take money from her family, and she didn't take money from her sister, and she has decided to make it on her own. So I think that she's a survivor. She's a real, real, survivor.

Well it's funny you mentioned Brenda growing up without parental influence, because the scenes with Brenda and Suzanne -- with you and Adrienne Barbeau -- it's a new dynamic for Brenda. I'm not sure we've really seen a whole lot of it -- she's a parental figure to Brenda, and we see Brenda rebel against her. How was it like playing those scenes?
Yeah, I mean really, she's basically her mom. She even kind of looks like the woman who played Brenda's mom. And you know, because everyone was saying, 'Maybe she turns out to be Brenda's mother, and Brenda doesn't know it.' Because their connection is a little weird, it's a little unexplainable. And so we were like, 'Oh she's Brenda's mom.' [Brenda's actual mom] is dead, but I think [Suzanne] is kind of taking that position for Brenda, and Brenda has equal amounts of disdain and need for a mother figure in her life. So, you know, she seems to fill that position pretty well. And you know, to be honest, I think, Maurice's character has always been, to Brenda, the father she never had. You know, he has that much of an effect on her. She becomes -- really becomes, like a child in his presence, in many ways.

What would you like to see Brenda get out of this return to Port Charles? Just as somebody who cares about what happens to Brenda as a character -- what would you like to see, how would you like to see her come out the other side of this?
You know, I really like the surprise of having someone else decide her fate, so I really do enjoy -- I still get excited every time there's a new script in my box. I get really excited to see what Bob has planned. That's really fun to me, and oftentimes when I have a bad reaction when I first see it, some of that stuff turns out to be the most fun to play, because again it kind of falls into that, you know, if you're afraid of something, that generally means you have to do it. So I figure out a way to make things work, I like trying to figure out how to humanize a situation that a character is going through, and honestly, I like doing stuff that's really out there -- that people can't decide whether or not they like it or not. It's challenging, it's more challenging than playing the safe card and doing the stuff that you know you can do, and you know the audience is going to love. So I try to stay out of it, because again, I really have such a love affair with Maurice and Steve and Ingo and I'm really loving working with Bradford, so I just want to be working with them all the time. I kind of like the idea that Brenda can be like a female James Bond. I don't really want her to necessarily settle down and have kids. It's an interesting thing to have a woman just kind of be on the run for the rest of her life, in that James Bond kind of way. So, you know, I'm also a Libra, so I have a really hard time making decisions. So I wouldn't know how to make a final decision on anything. But it's just heaven, I have to tell you. It's just heaven to watch especially Maurice and Steve, at work. It really is. As an actress, it's just a dream come true every day to just sit on set and wonder, you know, what they are going to throw at me, on a day to day basis, because they keep changing and growing, they're never boring, they're spontaneous, they're emotional, they're funny. I mean, truly the most important thing about, those two is that they're funny, which is my favorite trait in a human being.

It's been really exciting. We're really looking forward to see where it goes.
Yeah me too, I am too. Can you imagine? I have no idea what Bob's [GH's head writer] going to do.