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LA Times Interview with Tony
« Thread Started on Apr 3, 2007, 6:04am »

Hey kids!

Here is the LA Times Interview with Tony!

Q&A: Anthony Geary
"Luke" on "General Hospital" and the current state of soap operas.

Anthony Geary, 59, began playing Luke Spencer in 1978, and has won five Daytime Emmy Awards since then, including one this year. On Genie Francis' first day back after a four-year absence as Laura Spencer, with whom Luke has iconically been linked since 1979, Geary spoke about "General Hospital" and the current state of soap operas.

Question: What's the difference between being on the show now and being on it 30 years ago in terms of the business of soaps?

ANTHONY GEARY: It's changed enormously. In the so-called heyday, for one thing, producers were more autonomous. Certainly Gloria Monty was. There wasn't so much influence from focus groups and polls and all that, which I think is a malady for American culture. Because art is not a democracy — it shouldn't be. And I do consider this to be a minor art, acting and telling stories. [Now] it's show business with a capital B, so decisions are made that have nothing to do with creativity but have more to do with the bottom line and with the marketing. Luckily for me, I don't have to think about that too much. Because when I do I start to grind my teeth.

I long for the day when we would lead an audience and not follow them. I long for the day when we would do things that the audience didn't like, that would confound them or cause distress. Certainly, my character was born of something that would never be done today — out of a rape and a woman falling in love with him. Not only is it politically incorrect, but they would run that through so many committees and so many audience polls that nobody would want that.

Q. There's a stuntish nature to Genie's return, though. Isn't bringing people back like this, which you like, part of the kind of thing you're talking about: trying to please people? Is bringing Genie back, bringing Tristan Rogers back as Robert Scorpio, a focus group thing or the opposite?

GEARY: I don't know, it's probably a little bit of both. I don't think it's a total focus group thing. It gets down to minutiae. For example, I was told by the hair department that the public likes my hair a little longer. And I said, "You know what the public can do with that." Hair has been a big thing with this character. There was the 'fro, I've shaved it, I've flattened it. Not to please them, but to please myself.

But bringing characters back, I think it's nice that the audience is asking for that. I would say that's on the plus side of it. But I don't think that's the reason so much as story. You know, writing a show like this is like running in front of a train. And we're always in the second act, we never get to the third act. And that means there's never any real, true resolution. So there are a lot of characters that fall off the canvas and go into this sort of purgatory, and then they can be plucked out at any time. Usually they pluck them out for story reasons. Now, the audience has been — I'm sure — clamoring to have Genie back. She's one of the most successful characters in the history of daytime. Whether they tipped the scales on this one, or not, I couldn't tell you. I think it had more to do with the fact that it's the 25th-year anniversary, and as I said before, it's kind of the last opportunity to get as much milk out of this old cow as we can. I stand by my statement that the polls and slavishly following the audience's desires is not good.

Q. How have you managed not to fall off the canvas?

GEARY: Well, I don't know. It's peculiar. I think I had a strong beginning. Douglas Marland, one of the greats of our business, created this character originally with Gloria Monty, also a genius of daytime. And [Luke] was, and always has been, an anathema in the beginning of daytime. Certainly for a major leading character, to have a guy with no visible moral structure, who could do all the wrong things for the right reasons, and the right things for the wrong reasons. It's a true antihero. And that's what Gloria Monty set out to create. So I would say the genes of this character are very, very strong.

I have worked really hard for the last almost 29 years to, no matter what, hang on to those initial character traits. There's a lot of blood on the walls upstairs from fights about this character. Not with the producer we have now, but producers we've had and writers who come and go and are constantly trying to reinvent things that I just wouldn't allow. So I would say I'm here because of a combination of good beginning genes, and knowing that was my gold and my bedrock, and I was going to hang onto that no matter what. He's a rebellious antihero anarchist until the day I'm no longer doing this.

And then the other side is the audience, for some reason, took to this guy and remains faithful to him. If I try to analyze it too much, I get very anxious. You don't want to look at things too closely when they're working really well. Longevity has its rewards.

Q. Genie Francis did not leave the show on great terms in 2002. Did you think she'd ever come back as Laura?

GEARY: Well, at that time, I wasn't sure. But as time goes on, I know that ABC made it clear that the door was open for her to come through if she wanted. When I left the show in 1982 for a hiatus of about eight years, I was doing several plays downtown. And a Norwegian director who I worked with on five different plays asked if I would ever go back to the soap. I remember saying to him, "I would rather put hot pokers in my eyes than ever do Luke Spencer again." And I've come to eat those words. Pokers were never put in my eyes. And here I am, happier now than I ever was.

Q. Why do you think that Luke and Laura as a pair are so inextricable from each other? That seems so rare in any ongoing narrative.

GEARY: I don't know. I would say again that the roots of this character and Laura's are very strong. They made us oddballs. Never a typical man and woman. As the medium became more and more focus-group driven, and there've been more homogenized characters, Luke and Laura stand out more.

I think there's been some really good acting too. And the connection between the two of us is palpable. Not to toot my own horn too much but these characters have been not only well-conceived but well-played.

Q. Every year, though "General Hospital" remains one of the most popular soaps on the air, the audience goes down. Is that something you see ever changing?

I'd like to think that it could change, but I think the medium would have to change first. I think that obviously the other choices for entertainment are so vast now that the audience does become smaller all the time. You've got TiVo, you've got Soapnet now. So that in its first viewing, you might end up with a fraction of the people that actually see the show. I don't know that that would ever change.

But I do think that the medium itself is due for a radical renovation. Stories need to be told in some other kind of way. As far as I know, the last renovation was in 1978 with Gloria Monty. We used to do more exterior location shoots. We're going to do one with this Luke and Laura reunion, but it's got to be the first one in three or four years — except I think we've been in the parking lot. But Gloria was always trying to push the envelope and get the network to give her more freedom to innovate. And I'm sure there are other producers in this medium who do that. We still seem to be in a radio-with-pictures kind of storytelling — when I see a show like "24," I think, "Why can't we do something different?"

Obviously, serialization is here to stay. It's been with us since thingyens or something. But daytime is tired, I think. And I think it's going to remain tired and we're going to continue to hemorrhage audience until we find a way to startle them.

You'll never startle them by giving them what they want.

Q. You said that you knew Genie would come back, but you weren't sure whether you would be here. How do you see your future here?

I have the best deal possible, you know? I work 30 weeks a year. And I live in Amsterdam most of the year. I sort of have a long commute to work. I can't imagine anybody having a better deal. As long as I've still got stories to tell and I still have a network that's interested in having me tell those stories, I'll be here.

Kate.Aurthur@latimes.com

« Last Edit: Apr 3, 2007, 6:17am by Lukesfan »

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