Emma Samms explains how General Hospital accommodates Long COVID 

Emma Samms makes her on-screen return to General Hospital on September 4, when Holly Sutton enters the scene once again.

A new adventure for General Hospital's Holly

Samms, who debuted as a British con woman with a heart of gold in 1982, is thrilled to be back at her old soap stomping grounds and is excited for the story in store.

While Samms cannot give away too much about what Holly will be up to this time around, she can confirm that Holly will be heavily involved with Lucky's return story. Samms is also thrilled to be working with Jonathan Jackson for the first time.

"It’s such a gift that Frank [Valentini, GH executive producer] has given me, working with Jonathan, who is, obviously, a very, very good actor,” Samms told Variety. “That’s undisputed—but he’s also really nice. And we have a very similar way of approaching the work, and we realized that that is because we were both trained by Tony Geary [Luke]."

When Samms first landed the role of Holly in the 1980s, she was hired to play another love interest for Luke after Genie Francis left the soap. While Holly and Luke fell for one another, their romance didn't last long. However, Holly and Robert became a popular pair who still have unfinished business after Holly's last return in 2023.

GH gives Samms what she needs

Being able to work at all is an accomplishment for Samms, who has been suffering from Long COVID since she contracted the virus in March of 2020. She revealed a bit about her health to Variety.

"I’ve been like this now for four and a half years nearly, and it’s baffling to not just the people who have it, but it’s baffling to the doctors," Samms admitted. "They are some very smart people who are investigating and studying it and doing research, but all they keep finding is more and more damage that COVID has done to people’s bodies...I got some really good scans done and they found that at some point I had had myocarditis, which has scarred my heart."

She explained that she suffers from POTS; postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, meaning she can't stand for long periods of time. The only thing that can relieve her symptoms is to lie down.

Samms resides in her native United Kingdom full-time and has to fly to Los Angeles for her GH stints. Thankfully, the soap makes accommodations for Samms due to her condition.

"The powers that be at General Hospital accommodate that, but not every production would. They write most of my scenes sitting down. They’ve put me in a dressing room that’s really close to the elevator. Just lots of little things like that that mean I can do the job."

Trending

Will Holly end up back in Port Charles with Lucky after a Somalian adventure? If so, life is about to get a lot more interesting for her ex-husband, Robert.

Catch all-new episodes of General Hospital weekdays on ABC and Hulu.

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback