Sawandi Wilson's memorable first day on General Hospital

Sawandi Wilson and Steve Burton on General Hospital
Sawandi Wilson and Steve Burton on General Hospital

Sawandi Wilson made his on-screen General Hospital debut as Isaiah on August 26—and he started his run in a Somalian prison. He was soon revealed to be Lucky Spencer's friend, not his enemy, before escaping the prison and heading to Port Charles without Lucky. However, things didn't go so well when he got there.

Isaiah's Port Charles fate

Sadly for Isaiah, Port Charles didn't turn out to be as safe as he had hoped. Not long after his plane landed, Isaiah was run down by Ava and her captor while he walked along the side of the road. Jason found him in the rain and quickly called 9-1-1.

Poor Isaiah is now a John Doe at General Hospital, fighting for his life. Jordan and Portia are searching for his identity, and Lucky is fighting for his own life in Somalia.

An eventful General Hospital first day

Since GH episodes are not taped in order, Wilson's first day at work did not include his first on-air scenes. Instead, Wilson got a taste of how soaps put action scenes together on day one when he taped the hit-and-run right off the bat.

Thankfully, Steve Burton helped put Wilson at ease almost immediately.

"I had a call time for about 7 a.m. and basically, I got to set and was still figuring out, 'Okay, I’ve gotta go to my dressing room. I’ve gotta go to hair and makeup,'" Wilson told Soap Opera Digest. "People were starting to walk through the door and the first person I see is Steve Burton. And he’s in the zone, he’s getting ready for a scene, for the first thing he has to shoot. He shows me where my dressing room is, where hair and makeup is, everything — he just shows me around and I’m like, 'Ah, great, amazing. Thank you!'"

After that, the fun began as the hit-and-run came to life.

"And then the very first scene that I shot, because we filmed things out of order, was me getting hit by a car. I was like, 'How are they gonna do the whole car thing?' They brought this car [onto the set] and they shined a light on my face and immediately, I’ve got to jump backward onto a mat," Wilson explained. "In my head, I was like, 'I’m so lucky that I started this art form with breakdancing because I know how to fall with that.'"

More about Wilson and Isaiah

Wilson has been an active breakdancer since his younger years on Long Island, NY, and toured the US as a breakdancer before performing and teaching the art internationally in places like France, Spain, and Korea.

With Wilson set to become a regular part of the GH scene, he offered Digest an assessment of his mysterious new character.

"I would say that Isaiah is a hotshot surgeon who definitely believes he’s the smartest one in the room, who has the answers to everything, except the answers to his own past and dealing with himself," Wilson said. "He’s got the answers to everything that’s right in front of him but lacks the answers to everything that’s inside of him."

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

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Edited by Lisa