General Hospital's Tanisha Harper reveals Sawndi Wilson has calming effect on her

At a glance, the average person wouldn’t realize that General Hospital’s Jordan (Tanisha Harper) can kick some serious butt. She looks more like a supermodel than a former police commissioner and DEA agent, but it wasn’t too long ago when she thwarted an assassination attempt on Isaiah (Sawandi Wilson). Playing a character who can jump into action and beat up bad guys — while wearing high heels — when the need arises could give the average person anxiety, but Harper found someone who tempered her own nervousness.

She revealed her softer side

General Hospital’s Tanisha Harper talked to Woman’s World and explained the interesting path her career took. Initially starting out as a model, she landed a very small part on The Bold and the Beautiful where she only had a couple of lines. “That was the start of me going into acting,” she stated, adding, “It was fun, so my modeling agency just kept sending me out for different projects and I kept booking them.”

Harper found a niche doing comedy and semi-comic material. Appearing in films like Forgetting Sarah Marshall and TV shows such as Hacks, Harper explained that she thrived doing funny material. However, a fear of being typecast lit the fire under her to do something else. “I always wanted to try something different. I wanted to do drama,” she admitted, continuing, “For me to be able to take that leap, it had to be the right role and when Jordan on General Hospital came up, I felt like, ‘This is it!’ I just knew.”

While the initial story she jumped into when she took over the part after Briana Nicole Henry left was dramatic because Jordan and Curtis (Donnell Turner) had gotten divorced, she found comfort in the latest storyline. When Isaiah first landed in the hospital — and after she saved his life from a hitman — she remarked that not much of her character’s history was known. But with Jordan and Isaiah slowly starting to connect, Harper saw it as an opportunity to explore Jordan’s “more vulnerable, emotional, and playful side.”

She further noted, “Having this opportunity to have a love interest and show her softer side is fun, and it’s going to be great to explore that so the fans can see a more human side to her.” Harper also enjoyed pointing out that Wilson took to acting in a soap opera like a fish to water. Being new, with the fast pace and everything an actor has to learn and everyone they have to meet, she marveled at Wilson’s calm demeanor. “I loved how he just took it in stride. He was very calm and didn’t let it affect him,” she praised.

General Hospital's Tanisha Harper then revealed a more personal detail about how she handles new situations in real life: “I get anxiety, especially when I first started, and I get all in my head.” However, with Wilson on the scene now, he’s been affecting her. “He has this wonderful way of pacing himself and not letting it get to him, and that rubs off onto me,” she stated, further noting, “He’s a wonderful human being and I’m very fortunate to work with him—because that’s not always the case, especially with love interests.”

Any possible future between Jordan and Isaiah is still up in the air, but their chemistry is real, so we’ll wait until the fireworks start launching.

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