Three-time Emmy award-winning actor Rick Hearst chatted about his latest ventures and playing Ric Lansing on the hit ABC daytime drama.
American author, speaker, and leader John C. Maxwell once said: “Dreams don’t work unless you do.” This quote applies to Rick Hearst.
‘Men of GH’ fan event
On September 27th, Hearst will be a part of the “Men of GH” fan event at The Stress Factory in New Jersey, and that will be followed by a private dinner in Astoria on the same day. On the following day, the “Men of GH” will be at Rockwells in Pelham, New York.
Hearst will be joined by his “General Hospital” co-stars Josh Kelly and Bradford Anderson. All of these events are produced by Coastal Entertainment.
“It’s great. Any time I get an opportunity to do something on the East Coast is great because that’s where I’m from, so I’m ecstatic,” he added.
Hearst on the Secaucus Coffee and Chocolate Festival
On November 16th, Hearst will be a part of the Secaucus Coffee and Chocolate Festival at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in New Jersey, where he will be joined by co-star Rena Sofer.
The Secaucus Coffee and Chocolate Festival is a celebration of all things coffee and chocolate related… and then some. It is produced by the Everest Events Group.
“You can’t have one without the other,” Hearst said. “So yes, I am really excited about this upcoming event. That’s a unique event,” he explained. “I am looking forward to do this for the first time.”
“It’s the first time I’ve actually had the opportunity to do an event with Rena,” he admitted. “While I haven’t worked with Rena on ‘General Hospital’ yet, we have had many conversations over the years together.”
“Rena is an awesome person as well. She’s an East Coast girl, and she’s coming back,” he added.
Playing Ric Lansing on ‘General Hospital’
On playing Ric Lansing on “General Hospital,” he said, “First of all, playing the character is such an incredible challenge. When I first stepped in, there was so much mystery surrounding him and who he was.”
“When it was finally revealed that I was Sonny’s brother that really took on a whole new dimension,” he said. “It really gave me kind of endless directions to go with the character. Ric is always a very multifaceted and multidimensional guy.”
“Ric is not just the villain,” he admitted. “Ric is the guy you love to hate at times. Somewhere deep in that, fractured psyche of his, there is actually a heart.”
“This time, it has been great to reprise the character because he doesn’t have that detestable, at times irredeemable edge, that he had in the previous inception,” he revealed.
“The writers have really given me the opportunity to give a little bit more of a cynical and caustic edge to him but almost have a comedic edge to him as well,” he said.
“That has really been great and shown by the relationships with the character of Ava (Maura West) while still being able to revisit the existing relationships that he had with Elizabeth (Rebecca Herbst) and Alexis (Nancy Lee Grahn), and now really diving even deeper into his relationship with his daughter,” he elaborated.
“That’s really the heart of who he is, and it has been fulfilling to play with this quality, coming back now,” he added.
Hearst on his three Emmy wins
Throughout his career, he has won three Emmy Awards, two of which were for playing Ric on “General Hospital.”
“I actually won two Emmys for this role,” he said. “I won the 2004 and the 2005 Emmy Award for ‘Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Prior to that, I won a ‘Younger Actor’ Emmy for playing Alan-Michael Spaulding in ‘Guiding Light’ in 1991 when I was on CBS.”
Dialogue-heavy
When asked how he handles being dialogue-heavy, he responded, “It comes with the territory. It’s a muscle like anything. The more you repeat and work, the stronger the muscle is going to get.”
“So, I’m a guy who just literally tries to immerse myself as much as possible if I’m heavy in dialogue,” he noted.
“Some days it’s more difficult than others, but, you know, the more you know the character, the easier it is sometimes, depending upon the scene, to be able to retain it,” he said.
“It’s more than just retaining the dialogue, it’s really about being able to convey what the dialogue is supposed to mean, and the story that we’re supposed to be telling. The most challenging times for me is when I have courtroom dialogue-heavy scenes,” he elaborated.
“Not only taking on the role of an attorney, but having the sound, being convincing as an attorney and getting the legal terminology correct,” he said.
The digital age
On being an actor in the digital age, Hearst said, “I have a love-hate relationship with the digital age because I feel like we all walk around with our phones all the time. Then again, media has to adapt!”
Hearst continued, “It used to be just three channels on television, right? Now, it’s hundreds and sometimes thousands depending upon what you’re doing and between all the streaming and all of that.”
“I mean, it’s good in the sense that we have the opportunity to be able to share stories in so many different ways and so many different levels of audience,” he said.
“At the same time, it almost feels like things become oversaturated and attention spans are very challenging for anybody that is younger than my age, who is 60,” he said.
“So, the challenge is to be able to know how to grab that audience at the time for as long as you can,” he said. “The average attention span for anybody viewing anything online is four seconds. So, you’ve got to engage them in those four seconds.”
“Back in the day, for film, it used to be that you had to grab them in the first 10 minutes, otherwise you lost them. Now, if you don’t grab them in the first four seconds of a TikTok or something, you know, they’re done. They’re like, ‘I don’t want to watch this’,” he explained.
Advice for young and emerging actors
For young and aspiring actors, he said, “Oh, it’s a different world out there. I still am a big proponent of no matter what you’re going to do in this lifetime, be well-trained, however that is and whatever that means. You know, as actors, you have to go through experiences.”
“You can’t be a spectator,” he said. “You have to live it in order to really convey it. If you’re playing a heroin addict, it doesn’t mean go start shooting up heroin. You need to understand what you’re playing and have empathy for them. You know that you’re there to tell a story, whatever it is.”
“Get as close to that character as you can and understand that you may or may not be that that character,” he said. “So, it’s really about being as understanding of that experience and of that person as possible.”
Rick Hearst on Rory Gibson
Hearst had great words about actor Rory Gibson, who has taken over the role of Michael Corinthos on “General Hospital,” and he has been killing it.
“I had the good fortune to work with Rory Gibson on one of his first days on ‘General Hospital.’ Rory is such a good guy,” Hearst said. “I adore him. Honestly, when I first saw him on the screen, I told myself ‘wow, he’s magnetic.’ Rory has just got it, and he is so talented!”
Stage of his life
On the title of the current chapter of his life, he said, “I’ve always been somebody who tries to reinvent. Right now, I’m in a period of mourning, unfortunately. My beloved mother passed away a couple of months ago. So, it’s hard to say what my next chapter is.”
“My mother would always encourage me to know that there’s always a new day that’s dawning and you’ve got to be prepared for it, and that’s really what I try to do,” he underscored.
Hearst shared that he enjoyed doing the Coastal Entertainment Zoom events with the fans with his mother, especially since “food was her love language!”
“I try to remain open to what is front of me,” he said. “Regardless of what that is, it always involves, first and foremost, my family. They are my responsibility, and my role is in this life to make sure that they are taken care of first.”
“She was an incredible businesswoman for 40 years in a very high-level cosmetic and treatment company. Her passion aside from sales was really food and feeding people.”
Success
On his definition of success, Hearst said, “Success means being able to do what I love and pay my bills, and have the ability to continue to enjoy life.”
Message for his fans
“Aside from my family’s support, there is no greater support than the fans,” he said.
“The fans are responsible for giving me the level of success that I’ve had. Of course, any time I am doing something, the fans are always right there in front of me. I could never repay the fans for their devotion and support,” he said, effusively.
To learn more about Rick Hearst, follow him on Instagram.
