The crisis that jumpstarted the career of General Hospital baddie Carlo Rota

You wouldn’t think it, but General Hospital actor Carlo Rota, who plays the show’s latest villain, Jenz Sidwell, used to be a chef and restaurateur who never even thought about becoming an actor. However, by age 30, he realized a change was in order and made the bold leap to becoming an actor. Rota recently opened up about what exactly changed for him, which transformed him from a mild-mannered chef to a soap opera bad guy.

Acting wasn’t on his radar

Rota told Soap Opera Digest that in his 20s, he didn’t like folks who were actors. Because he ran restaurants in Toronto, many of the people who applied for server jobs were actors, and he despised that because whenever they’d finally get an acting gig, “they just wouldn’t show up for work!” As a result of having to deal with actors as employees, he admitted, “The furthest thing from my mind when I was working in the restaurant business was becoming an actor.”

He explained that because the restaurant business is so chaotic, on top of working with his mother, siblings, and father, who was a chef, everything came to a head when he turned 30. “It just became overwhelming,” he explained, adding, “to the point where I don’t know, I had an early midlife crisis — or, one might call it a…mini nervous breakdown! I don’t know what it was, but one day I just said, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’” Although he’d made the decision to change careers, he realized he didn’t have the skills to do anything else.

But, after talking with friends, he found out that he had talent as being the guy in the front of the house who greeted guests and had empathy for people. As a result, someone made the suggestion that he should look into acting. He took a course, and after doing his first scene, he enthusiastically remarked, “For me, it was a lightning bolt — a 'culto del fulmine,' as we say in Italian. It was transporting! I just loved it. I was moved by it. It was the most exhilarating thing I’ve ever done. And I said, ‘I have to do this. This is what I want to do!’ ”

From there, he nabbed several television roles and has appeared in such things as 24, La Femme Nikita, and Grimm, among others, as well as many films, including Saw V and The Boondock Saints. Now, as possibly the guy who just blew up Michael Corinthos (Chad Duell), he’s going to be causing a lot of trouble on General Hospital, and Port Charles may not be prepared for Sidwell’s onslaught.

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