The General Hospital legend who almost didn’t make it to the screen

There are a few General Hospital actors who were so memorable that fans continue to clamor for their return. Vanessa Marcil is one of them. Her character, Brenda Barrett, started off as a troublemaker and soon became an important member of Port Charles, enmeshed in many characters’ lives. But there was a fleeting moment when that almost never happened.

The magic was hidden underneath

Since 1989, Mark Teschner has been the casting director for General Hospital, and over the years, the actors have had nothing but praise for him. He’s got a good eye for talent and knows what he’s looking for when auditioning actors. His most recent huge success story was casting Nicholas Alexander Chavez in the role of Spencer Cassadine. Chavez would go on to great fame when he starred as Lyle Menendez in Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.

Other actors throughout the decades have also gone on to great success, some remaining in the soap world and others branching out. Marcil was one of those actors who played Brenda from 1992 to 1998, then on and off from 2002 to 2013. But Brenda almost wasn’t played by Marcil.

Teschner told Soaps that a casting director knows it in their gut when they’ve found the right person, even if they have to interview hundreds of people to find the right actor. His advice, especially after his initial meeting with Marcil, has been for actors to understand that they’re auditioning because the casting director has yet to find the right person for a part. “So you have as great a shot as anyone in that room, whether you recognize them from the work they’ve done or not,” he stated, adding, “Everybody has an opportunity, or we wouldn’t hold an audition.”

He recalled that Marcil attended the audition for Brenda in 1992. He explained that there were an additional five women in the waiting area when she arrived, and “Vanessa looked over the room, and she thought to herself, ‘These girls are so beautiful, I’m never gonna get it.’ She started to leave the audition!”

Teschner continued, stating, “As she was walking out, I opened the door and said, ‘Vanessa.’ It was her time. She turned and saw me, and she said when she did, she knew she was gonna get the job, but if I had been a minute later to open the door, she wouldn’t have auditioned for the role!”

Although Marcil was an inexperienced actress, he could clearly see that she had talent beneath the surface just waiting to be exposed for the world to see, feeling the “magic” within her. He also found it incredibly ironic because she would soon afterward be cast in Prince’s video for The Most Beautiful Girl in the World which prompted him to remark, “So, basically, the most beautiful girl in the world thought she wasn’t pretty enough and almost left an audition.”

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