Why General Hospital baddie Carlo Rota was pleasantly surprised by the show

When General Hospital’s new big bad Sidwell (Carlo Rota) nearly killed Anna (Finola Hughes), Jason (Steve Burton), Lucky (Jonathan Jackson), and Holly (Emma Samms), it seemed like his story was done. But then he went to Port Charles to retrieve the diamonds Holly swiped from him. After that, it seemed he was done with the town and its denizens, but now he’s back, setting up shop in Wyndemere Castle. He may be the one who planted a bomb in Sonny’s (Maurice Benard) penthouse that set Michael (Chad Duell) on fire, and there are a few other nefarious happenings that he might be behind. Rota recently opened up about his shock at how different working on a daytime drama was for him.

He loves his job

General Hospital’s Carlo Rota sat down with Maurice Benard on a recent episode of State of Mind and opened up about his upbringing and how he got into acting. The actor is a seasoned professional, having worked on amazing projects like 24 and Saw V among a cavalcade of other roles. The conversation eventually got around to General Hospital, and Benard asked Rota if he liked working on the soap. “I love it,” he answered in almost a whisper. “God, I love it.”

Rota continued, stating, “I love so much about it because so much is a surprise.” Working in the soap world is vastly different than working on primetime shows, and it was a whole new experience for him. He explained that he didn’t dislike soaps, “I'm just saying I didn't know the genre. And so as a result of not knowing the genre I kind of discounted it…and then I go on the show and I'm like…'first of all everyone here is at the top of their game'.” He continued praising the cast with, “Some of the performances, considering the speed, are…it's exceptional.”

He also told Benard that he watched a scene with Sonny and Sasha (Sofia Mattsson), and commented, “It was so good…it was so grounded…and she was excellent.” The fast pace of a daytime drama continued to impress Rota, who added, “I mean this is a great show with great performances. The speed of it…is crazy. It's like jumping off a cliff every single day.”

Benard explained how he felt General Hospital was “the best job in the world” because it was shot indoors in the warmth, and the hours were much less than other productions. Rota agreed, and noted that castmate Steve Burton also said the same thing about working on the show. He praised Burton with, “He's obviously a very solid individual…he gave me, like, great advice as a newbie, which I needed.”

Rota remarked that when an actor goes into a daytime production like General Hospital for the first time, it can be “overwhelming.” He further stated that, “It's a lot when you…go on set your first day [and] you've got 40 pages of dialogue.” Benard related saying that actors who usually work in film come in and want to do a scene again, but that’s not an option since production speed doesn’t have time for redos. “That's what happened to me,” Rota remarked, adding, “I'm like, ‘Great…do you think that I could…?’ and then, no one was even listening to me.”

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