General Hospital alum Ignacio Serricchio reveals how he became a serial killer

It’s been quite some time since the notorious Text Message Killer was mentioned on General Hospital. Using text messages to lure his victims, the murderer turned out to be Diego Alcazar, played by Ignacio Serrichio. Not only was it shocking because nobody expected the troubled Diego to turn out to be a serial killer, but it was also distressing when the kind Georgie Jones (Lindze Letherman) fell victim to him. Serrichio recently opened up about his career journey and explained who on GH was instrumental in giving him tips and pointers on acting in a soap.

He started off in theater

Serrichio appeared on State of Mind, a web series created and hosted by General Hospital’s Maurice Benard (Sonny). The actor was asked how he got the part of Diego, and remarked that his experience was “trippy,” explaining, “I moved out to LA and I didn't know anybody, I didn't know how anything worked.” He added, “I knew you had to get an agent, so…I put on a one-man show,” which turned out to be a performance known as Freak, which was written by comedian John Leguizamo, whom he considered one of his idols.

He explained that Lequizamo had created the performance in 1998, and when he came across it, his reaction was, “Oh my God, this is the greatest show ever, and there's like 50 different characters.” In the age before Google, Serricchio explained that after an extensive amount of research, he was able to get Leguizamo’s address and sent him a letter explaining how he wanted to put on the play to “show my parents that all their sacrifice was worth something.” The iconic comedian shockingly gave him the rights for free.

Soaps were a great middle ground

Serricchio explained that an agent saw his performance and signed him up, first landing him a job on House. He and Benard jovially remarked at the irony of how Hugh Laurie’s titular character was also a fan of General Hospital, which ended up being his next job as Diego, which he did for a couple of years, left, and returned as the Text Message Killer.

“That was the best,” he exclaimed, explaining that he received a call stating, “‘Hey we're doing this text message killer story. We haven't revealed the killer yet. Would you want to come back [and] bring Diego back?’ And I was like ‘Absolutely.’ ” He lovingly noted that all of his memories of being on GH were wonderful, and he remarked, “I feel like the luckiest guy in the world because I was introduced, between theater and film or TV, I feel soap operas was like…a great middle ground.”

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He likened the fast pace of shooting a soap to the adrenaline rush of a live performance in theater, which was his main background. The actor hilariously noted that in his first few episodes, he looked rather sleepy because he’d been told to dial back his theatrical exuberance. But soon after, he realized that he’s a very expressive person and added that back into his character, just on a more subdued level, and he would eventually become a feared killer.

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

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