How General Hospital's Van Hansis adapted to medical jargon

General Hospital newcomer Van Hansis has stepped into the role of Lucas Jones and hit the ground running with a major storyline. Lucas is a doctor who married Brad Cooper (Parry Shen). But when their newly adopted baby died, and Brad got embroiled in a scheme where he swapped the child with a living one, Lucas called it quits, they got divorced, and he left town.

Now that he’s back, Hansis’ Lucas has been catching up with family and friends. When Lulu Falconeri (Alexa Havins) needed a liver transplant, Lucas’ sister Sam McCall (Kelly Monaco) was revealed to be a match, and she insisted he do her side of the surgery. Sadly, Sam died while in recovery from a heart attack, and Lucas was distraught.

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There’s a new doctor in the house

Hansis spoke with Soap Opera Digest about getting the part that he at first didn’t know would be a doctor. When he was first a candidate to play Lucas, General Hospital’s executive producer Frank Valentini asked him:

So, how are you medically?

Initially, Hansis mistakenly thought Valentini was asking him about his actual health, and he jokingly quipped that he almost said:

Well, I tore my meniscus a couple of years ago, but besides that, I feel good [laughs].

He finally realized Valentini was asking him if he was deft at handling medical jargon as an actor because he was being considered for the role of a doctor. Hansis was thankful that he didn’t make the egregious mistake of telling Valentini about his own health.

He explained that many actors are adept with medical jargon and like to play medical-related roles, but it wasn’t necessarily something in his wheelhouse. However, he did a great deal of research to learn the terminology necessary to make his character convincing. He recalled a previous role in which he did lots of research:

There was a film I did where I worked for NASA, and this is kind of the same thing — in order to know what you’re talking about, you’ve got to know what you’re talking about! And to look up all of this stuff was really cool.

Hansis previously played Luke Snyder on the soap As the World Turns, and when he got through a medical-heavy scene on General Hospital, one of the cameramen asked him if he had played a doctor on that prior show. The actor had to explain that Luke was a 16-year-old character at the time and then hilariously told the crew member:

No, I didn’t have any medical jargon there!

Hansis also explained that Rebecca Herbst, who plays General Hospital’s head nurse, Elizabeth Webber, was an absolute professional with all of the lingo and even proper equipment use. He was also impressed with the fact that she didn’t need any guidance from the on-set nurse advisor, who ensured that the procedures were portrayed realistically.

Hansis was thoroughly pleased that Herbst had a calm demeanor, which helped him ease into the role, and he looked forward to more scenes with her.

Watch full episodes of General Hospital on ABC and Hulu.

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