Soap Opera
‘General Hospital’s’ Maurice Benard Has a Surprise Reaction to Sonny’s Biggest Doubters
Sonny Corinthos faces doubt from loved ones after a Pentonville prison attack on GH. Maurice Benard defends the characters’ reactions in a Facebook Live Q&A.
General Hospital’s Sonny Corinthos is in the hot seat now that he has been accused of ordering the attack at Pentonville prison that landed Curtis Ashford (Donnell Turner) and Jenz Sidwell (Carlo Rota) in the hospital. His closest family and loved ones don’t believe Sonny when he proclaims his innocence. Maurice Benard, who has played Sonny since 1993, understands these characters’ point of view.
As fans spent much of the weekend outraged at Sonny’s loved ones for not giving him the benefit of the doubt, Benard expressed his surprise at seeing such audience discourse in a tweet, saying, “I haven’t seen this much fanfare in a long time … I think I’m gonna go on Facebook live Monday morning.”
The actor kept his promise and took questions from fans for close to an hour as the soap opera week began. The latest GH promo video had already revealed that Justine (Nazneen Contractor) wouldn’t believe Sonny during their confrontation that would air later in the day, leaving fans furious at all the characters who refused to believe Sonny. That was one of the first topics Benard tackled, defending the characters in Sonny’s life.
In the story, Sonny recently left his criminal life in the mob behind and has decided to go legit. However, Drew Cain (Cameron Mathison) and Ava Jerome (Maura West) have set Sonny up to look like the person who ordered the prison attack. The evidence is damning and Benard understands why some upstanding Port Charles citizens wouldn’t believe a lifelong criminal, even his own son.
“Listen, this whole Dante thing, and everybody else,” Benard started during his Facebook Live session. “You guys don’t think he’s justified, but Sonny’s been telling him that he’s getting out of the mob, that he’s a good guy, that all of a sudden there’s footage of Sonny’s guys there, so maybe Dante overreacted a little bit, but I think he would have overreacted a little bit.”
Benard then went on to discuss a few other characters who are doubting Sonny, and why they are justified in their feelings.
“Gio loves his grandfather,” Benard said. “I don’t know about him later going and saying he didn’t believe…that was a little weird. But Trina, her father got beat up, why wouldn’t she [be mad at Sonny]?”
Despite all the characters coming down on Sonny, Benard is enjoying this story and can’t wait for the audience to see it play out, telling fans: “You guys seem to think it’s not fair, but I’m having a great time watching it.”
