General Hospital’s Rick Hearst opens up about his friendship with Tyler Christopher

General Hospital star Rick Hearst (Ric Lansing) was the latest guest on co-star Maurice Benard’s (Sonny Corinthos) YouTube mental health show, State of Mind. They talked about Hearst’s upbringing and the fact that his parents got divorced when he was six years old. The conversation turned to Hearst’s father, who was an alcoholic, and that led the two to discuss the late, lamented General Hospital actor Tyler Christopher, who originated the role of Nikolas Cassadine in 1996.

Tyler Christopher was a good friend of Hearst

On State of Mind, General Hospital’s Rick Hearst opened up about his past, explaining that his father was loving and affectionate but only truly affectionate when he was drinking. For years, he thought his parents’ divorce was his fault, but while growing up, he learned many issues had nothing to do with him, including his father’s alcoholism. That led Benard to bring up Christopher, whom they both adored. Benard mentioned that he wasn’t very close to Christopher until his last year, but Hearst was. Hearst stated he saw Christopher’s alcohol use firsthand.

Hearst explained that he was very close friends with Christopher and because there was a 10-year age difference between them:

I was like the elder statesman whenever we’d go out.

He explained that he doesn’t drink a lot because he simply has never been into it. With regards to Christopher’s drinking, Hearst remarked:

I always used to watch how much he could put away, and just be sort of even. And the term that everybody used was he was always in Ty-Land. Tyler was of a different mind.

Even though he knew what being drunk looked like from his experience with his father, he said things started to change for him on one particular occasion.

I remember being in a dressing room with Tyler, and he was so distraught, it was beyond just drinking.

“He could not stop crying,” Hearst stated, noting that Christopher was just about to go on set to shoot some scenes.

Hearst explained his shock as tears poured out of Christopher’s eyes and ran down his face. He motioned with his hands to illustrate what was happening to Christopher and indicated the late star’s cheeks were affected by his tears:

So much so that it was red and raw.

And he couldn’t get a hold of it. I can’t remember what was going on for him at the time. I think he was involved in a breakup.

Benard said that alcoholism was similar to what he dealt with in mental illness and couldn’t imagine what effect it would have had on him if he was a heavy alcohol drinker.

Hearst responded:

It’s not the drink itself that’s the disease. It’s what’s going on in you at that time.

He added that for some people, it could be an undiagnosed mental illness.

Sometimes it can be…let’s call it a ‘lay-person’s depression.’ It’s just sh*t that you are not realizing in yourself.

Hearst referenced his father’s issues and referenced Benard's words:

You talk about if you had added alcohol to mental illness. That’s a time bomb. But oft-times, I think people who are walking through life and can’t deal with things, or we have all of our coping mechanisms, how we get through, right? It’s like ‘Oh no, I can’t deal with that right now because it’s too much. I can’t let somebody see that.’ Just generally your day-to-day [way of being].

Hearst wrapped up the discussion about Christopher by remarking that some people can have their daily struggles built up so much inside of them that when the emotions come to the surface, it can be like opening:

A champagne bottle that you shook for 40 years.

You can watch new episodes of General Hospital on ABC and Hulu.