Interview: ‘GH’s’ Brandon Barash
BY CINDY ELAVSKY
Apr 12, 2009
Johnny Zacchara came to Port
Charles in 2007 as a sort of reluctant
mobster. Coming from the
famed Zacchara family pretty much
guarantees a life of crime, but Johnny,
with the help of Lulu Spencer,
has tried to overcome his presumed
destiny. However, every now and
then, a little bit of “mob life” slips
into Johnny’s life.
It’s this constant walking on a
tightrope that finally breaks up
Johnny and Lulu. Brandon Barash,
who originated the role of Johnny
on “General Hospital,” pulled out
all the stops while filming the heartwrenching
break-up scene.
Brandon explains: “It’s a pretty
emotionally charged scene — a lot
of upset people and upset feelings.
Johnny does a pretty good job of
raising his voice to her, and that
sends her into an emotional tizzy.
It’s always fun to go there. You
can’t just turn that on and turn that
off. You’ve got to really dig deep
for what it is that is going on with
these two characters.
“Rehearsing it, I wasn’t yelling at
her, I was just firm. And then in the
scene, we just started lobbing the
ball back and forth, and that’s
where it went. If you open your
mind a little bit and really play with
the material, some really good organic
stuff can happen.”
While Brandon is sad to see the
end of Lulu and Johnny, he is proud
of the direction his storyline is taking.
“This is kind of a dose of real
life. On soaps, the medium allows
for some really outlandish
things to happen. But this
was really nice because couples
go through this. Couples
do break up – some of them
get back together again, and
some of them never see each
other again. I think Johnny and
Lulu are great together, so don’t
misunderstand me there, but it’s
nice to see something real going on,
something gritty.”
Now that Johnny and Lulu are
over, this leaves the door open for a
possible romance with Maxie, a
woman who is perhaps better suited
to the lifestyle of a potential mobster.
Brandon agrees: “Something
that attracts Johnny to Maxie is he
doesn’t feel like he has to be somebody
else for her. Johnny has a kind
of a street mentality, and I feel like
that attitude comes out more with
Maxie than Lulu. I feel like Johnny
is always held back with Lulu as far
as who he really is.”
Whether Johnny and Maxie will
be a couple is up in the air; Brandon
says: “It’s a lot of fun telling
this story. I am not sure what the
writers have planned for us.”
He has a suspicion that the mob
life is in Johnny’s immediate future.
“He realizes that no matter how
hard he tries to escape it, it catches
back up with him. He has known it
all of his life and has seen the damage
it can do, but at the end of the
day, it’s really all he knows.
“The possibility is definitely
there for Johnny to get sucked back
into the whole thing. Right now he
is still grappling with it. I like the
edge that Johnny used to be written
with, and I am hoping that comes
back soon. ”
“GH” airs at 2 p.m. weekdays on
ABC, channel 8.
Associated Images:
‘Some
really
good
organic
stuff can
happen.’
Brandon Barash.
Bob D’Amico / ABC
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