Heroes in Business - Carolyn Hennesy Actor Diane Miller of General Hospital, True Blood, Author

Episode Date: February 19, 2021

TRUE BLOOD, General Hospital (500 episodes) and MORE...Carolyn Hennesy, Actor, Author, Ovation Award winner is interviewed by David Cogan founder of Eliances and host of the Eliances Heroes Show. Broadcast on am and fm network channels, internet radio and online syndication.  

The sky, look, it's captivating, it's energizing, it's Eliance's Heroes. Eliance is a destination for entrepreneurs, investors, CEOs, inventors, leaders, celebrities, and startups, where our heroes in business align. Now, here's your host flying in, David Kogan, founder of Eliance's.

That's right, and we're back. And there is so much activity that's going on on the E-Liances Heroes Radio Show, just like when I interviewed and we had on the founder of E-Entertainment Network. So make sure that you go to Eliancer.com to watch his past episode, E-L-I-A-N-C-E-R.com. Again, this is David Kogan with the Eliance's Hero Show. So wait until you see who we have coming up next week.

She is known as the Queen of Spades, right? We're talking now 500 episodes. Now, Carolyn, I'm going gonna have you steal the thunder but before i do carolyn hennessey emmy winning act actress she's been in true blood ncis terminator uh disney's jesse she's an author tons of awards and all that but But what's this key thing, the key word today? 500. Carolyn, what's the 500 for? 500 and counting, thank you very much, episodes of General Hospital. Now, why is that interesting as far as I'm concerned? Because there are lots and lots of actors and actresses who hit the 500 mark, butiane miller all hail uh was supposed to be two days of work 14 years ago so it went from two days of work 14 years ago kind of growing

growing growing and the fans god bless all of them um they just demanded more diane and so so so yeah two days of work turns into 500. all right So talk to us about the difference between being the first time on the set for you and now, you know, years later and all of the way in which the character has developed up to now. The difference that really the creativity that's gone through you and what you're thinking from the first two when you hit the 500. Well, first of all, now I almost know everyone's name on the set. Almost. on through you and what you're thinking from the first to when you'd hit the 500 well first first of all now i almost know everyone's name on the set almost um die i came in being able there was there were no parameters for the character at all so there was a lot of me that was brought obviously to diane because it's all got to come through me. So there was the humor and what I like to think are smart and sass and, you know, all of that. So they responded to that.

And as a result, Diane has kept all of that. And it's the humor. There's a lot of humor in Diane. And when the first couple of episodes, I was hugged by this character, Damian Spinelli, who threw his arms around me in a moment of kind of gleeful exuberance. And Diane reacted to that as I would react to that as if anyone, this, you know, this sort of nerdy little kid, and he's this high powered attorney. And so he, who doesn't say, you know, you don't really get to throw your arms around Diane, but he did. And so my reaction to that was something that the higher ups at, at general hospital kind of noticed and said, oh, we can play with that. And the way she interacts with Sonny that first day, we can play with that. And so it has simply, there's not a lot that's changed about Diane. She's still a clothes horse and she still loves money. And she still adores the Carinthos family. And in a way, Damien's, you know, so she's, there's all of this that kind of came into play, but it's just been expanded upon.

to play, but it's just been expanded upon. And it's kind of grown exponentially. And they gave her a boyfriend, which was a lot of fun. They gave her a best friend, Alexis Davis. And that was really exciting because it started out as this adversarial relationship with Nancy Legrand and I. And then it became over the course of an evening in a biker bar in the, in the dead of winter,

a fabulous friendship. And to see women of a certain age, not going to lie, not being catty, not trying to dig, drag each other down, but to actually help each other and be in the, and be in there,

be in each other's corners. The audience, again, really responded to that. And out of the, out of the 500 plus and counting of the episodes of General Hospital, which one stands out? I mean, it's fantastic. But out of the 500, which one stands out the most for you that you're like,

you know what, this one just really, I was touched by. So something that you were touched by, maybe perhaps personally or something like that out of those 500. Max having gotten shot, this was within the last few years, Max, my boyfriend, having gotten shot and Sonny transferring for for various reasons the control of the corinthos empire over to max and now max has got a big target on his back and and he actually hadn't gotten shot but um or had he gotten shot i can't remember but diane is is terrified she's absolutely 100 percent agonizing over this decision by sunny because now the love of her life has got a big target painted on his back. And so she has this conversation with Carly.

And it's like, you knew Carly. And no one told me. I cannot prepare for this. And so it was a lovely thing to play. Lovely to be able to play. There's also Nancy. Alex is coming in and catching Max and Diane in flagrante delicto on Sunny's couch. And, you know, she just said, you know, my eyes, her eyes burned out with the sight of that.

It was fun. We get to see how bendable Max is. So that was a great episode, too. But Diane's concern over Max is. And you've been nominated for a 2020 Emmy. You've been in a gazillion, though, TV shows and others and True Blood, Revenge, Cougar Town, NCIS. I mean, the list just goes on. In fact, your Wikipedia is, I mean, I couldn't even print it out. It was so many pages long. Out of all of those, which role have you played that was just most surprising to you to play? Something that also, too, you look back and you go, that's one that I'll just remember forever. It's actually one that you haven't named. And it's a film.

It's a film called St. Agatha. And it's a film. It's a film called St. Agatha. And it's a horror film. And I was the lead in that horror film playing a vicious, psychotic nun, a mother superior. because this woman is hell bent, no pun intended, on getting her way, making sure that things run right, controlling those around her. And she does it in vicious ways and tapping into that and not being really funny and understanding that, that she's on a, she's on a mission from God. And understanding that she's on a mission from God, that was very surprising to me. The subtlety, because I'm not, I can be, but I'm not really a subtle person. So driving that instinct was a boatload of fun. Everything else. I mean, Penelope Ellis in Revenge.

My gosh, how much fun can you have playing a Southern woman who's also psychotic? I do a lot of psychotic. And that was tremendous fun. Jessie, for kids and really understanding that you can't comment on the character, you have to actually go balls to the wall with this particular character. Otherwise it's not going to resonate and it's going to be hollow and the kids won't respond to it. They'll, you know, but, but you know, you do. And they did. And, um, and, and there again, Diane Cougar, I mean, Cougar town, how, how you can't get more fun than Barb.

You just can't period. And then true blood, you get to wear fangs. You just can't. Period. And then True Blood. You get to wear fangs. You get to sit across from Alexander Skarsgård. Life's good. It's good. You know, it's like you're leading all these multiple lives, multiple personalities, multiple lives. Right. Humor and psychosis, usually, that's the through line, except for Mother Superior in St. Agatha. I love it.

And you know what? You're listening, watching me, David Kogan, host of the Alliance's Hero Show, where I get the amazing opportunity to interview heroes like Carolyn Hennessey, Emmy-winning actor, over 500 episodes on General Hospital, but it was only supposed to be two. Two episodes. So, like, when you start the role and you're like, okay, episodes on General Hospital, but it was only supposed to be two. What was the... Two. Two episodes. So, like, when you start the role and you're like, okay, I'm only going to be

here for two episodes, and then, like, what was the... What was going through your mind when, after the two, did that's when they approached you and said, well, we want you to come back for a third, or how did that work out? They didn't say, hey, we, you know, they didn't come to me and say, hey, you know, we really like you. They just kept calling me back. And I would, and, and I, in,

I believe it was in large part, truly, A2, Bob Guzza, who was the head writer at the time, Jill Farren Phelps, executive producer at the time. But I also credit Maurice Bernard because I was, I was, I think it was day two of the two days. And I was in an episode with Sonny in his living room. And he, I tell this story, I'm sitting, I'm across from his desk. I'm standing over him. He's sitting down. He can do that because he's the power in the room. And I start yelling at him.

I start, I'm not yelling, I'm emphatic about what he needs to do in some situation. And the speaker, it comes over, the voice comes over the loudspeaker saying, Carolyn, you can't, you can't talk to Sonny like that because he'll kill you. Oh, okay. But Maurice responded to it. And I saw something in his eyes. And he started kind of, you know, as Maurice will do, doing his brando. He kind of started mumbling his lines a little bit. And I was going, okay, I don't know if my cue line is in there anywhere, mother lover. But I'm not going to let you run rush shot over me.

I'm just going to come in. If you stop speaking, I'm coming in with my lines. And his eyes sort of lit up and I thought, oh, this is kind of a test, isn't it? So I saw him kind of go, oh, this is, he looked at me and he thought, as he says, this is someone I can play with. This is someone I can have a good time with. This is someone who will take and give as I take and give. So I think he went upstairs and said, keep her.

Keep her. Use her. We need, you know, I need her. I need her as my lawyer permanently, in perpetuity. So I think that he was, I credit Maurice a great deal. And also Steve Burton. God bless both of them. So they just kept calling me back.

And after a while, I went, oh, okay, okay. The General Hospital fan event was coming up that year. And they asked me if I wanted to have a fan event. And I, oh, okay. Maybe there's some permanence here. Jill Farren-Phelps actually asked me the day of, the daytime Emmys, hey, you want to come down and be part of the general hospital group? It's like, well, I don't got nothing to wear, but I'll figure it out. So,

so I did. So once I realized after the first year, it's like, okay, they're going to keep, they're going to keep her going because we all had so much fun and we're still having so much fun. Carolyn, you're very interesting and I want to do some snooping here in your room. Tell me something that's unique or something that is your favorite in your room right now where we're at. I see a number of things maybe on the shelf there and different things. What's your favorite? What's unique? Please show us. Oh, show you? Okay. Well, that means I have to get up. Or you could just point. You could just point. Well, actually, I can't.

Okay. Okay. All right. Up on the shelf. Yes. Right here is an oil called the Queen's Crown of Success. What? Well, I have become, and people can look it up because it's very very interesting and it harkens and it's it pays tremendous respect to to those uh individuals who were brought here against their will shall we say a few hundred years ago and it's I I've become a hoodoo practitioner not voodoo no no hoodoo and and it is And it is Southern African American folk magic. And it's really

interesting. It relies so much on yourself, on the power of your own intention and energy and your ability to get things done and communication with spirit as you understand spirit. So I have a website called Queen's Curios and I have blended some spiritual oils, and one of them is called Queen's Crown of Success. And I credit a lot of my recent success to that. Is it crazy? No, it's not. Is it woo-woo? No, it's not.

It's hoodoo. So look that up. So there you go. That's it. We've got time for about one more question that's very interesting. I never knew that about you. So thank you so much for sharing it with our audience. You also too come from a Hollywood family. We want to hear what secrets perhaps your family had given you when you started

getting into the industry. Absolutely. My father, my aunt is an actress named Barbara Rush. Lovely. But from my father, I learned all of the great life lessons. And that is an actress named Barbara Rush. Lovely. But from my father, I learned all of the great life lessons. And that is, and this is the first one. The crew is smarter than you, more important than you. They work harder in a day than you will in a year. And I was actually able to incorporate that philosophy into a recent episode of Studio City. Please, everybody, watch it. Sean Canaan, Studio City they and they are better read they're better educated they're nicer and they have your back and you respect them more than you respect anybody who's on who's in front of the camera with you and that includes yourself so so all I and I take that and it's and you and you're nice to them not because they're going to do things for you

because they will if if they see that you're an actor who doesn't have her head up her. And but you're nice to me, but you respect them because they are human beings and they they deserve it far more than anybody in front of the camera. So so that and so I learned that from my father and and and he was he was he's my hero. He is my hero. And even- Well, Carolyn- I have people who will come up to me and say, you're Dale Hennessy's daughter. What can we give you?

Do you need lumber? Do you need anything electric? I mean, what, yeah, so. Wow, that's incredible. Well, Carolyn, you have entertained fans of your shows for years. You delight them with your incredible craft. That's a hero.

Carolyn Hennessey, actor, Emmy-winning actress, General Hospital, over 500 episodes and featured in many other TV and movie shows. You could reach her at carolynhennessey.com. This has been David Kogan with the Alliance's Hero Show.