Photo Credit: HutchinsPhoto.com

There is a new dynamic duo in the world of daytime drama these days that not only has brought great dramatic tension to every scene they are in, but some laugh out loud moments as well!  The often creepy and twisted tale of General Hospital’s evil-doer Dr. Liesl Obrecht (Kathleen Gati), and her plans and plots to seek revenge on Anna Devane (Finola Hughes) have been must-see can’t miss TV!  Since Anna is the woman of Cesar Faison’s (Anders Hove) obsession, it does not sit well with Dr. Obrecht, and that’s putting it mildly.  And with that on-screen set-up, it has brought GH fans many stellar, heartbreaking, shocking, and riotous performances from Hughes and Gati!

If you take a look at Dr. Obrecht’s rap sheet in the past year or so, it has included: keeping Anna’s believed-to-be-dead daughter Robin (Kimberly McCullough) captive for over a year, putting Robert Scorpio (Tristan Rogers) in a coma, giving Duke Lavery (Ian Buchanan) an almost lethal dose of propofol intended for Anna, posing as “Anna” in a prosthetic mask to get Faison out of prison and pretending to be “Anna” in front of Robin, kidnapping baby Ben, and much more!

As Halloween week approaches, On-Air On-Soaps thought this was the perfect time to chat with Finola Hughes and Kathleen Gati, especially with all the masks and masquerading that has gone down between their characters!  Plus, where we left off in story seems apropos for the fright night of the calendar year: Anna is locked away in Robin’s lab on Cassadine Island with Robert.  Jerry Jacks (Sebastian Roche) remains on the island too sick to travel needing the cure to polonium poisoning, and keeping watch on his new prisoners for leverage.  Dr. O has made her way to Port Charles and Wyndemere with Robin, Faison, Nikolas (Tyler Christopher) and Britt (Kelly Theibaud) in tow.  Will prosthetic masks be running rampant on Halloween night?

Finola and Kathleen fill us in on what they think of being on-screen rivals, battling as the dueling “Annas”, Dr. Obrecht’s performance of Peggy Lee’s “Is That All There Is?”, and a preview of what is to come as all roads hopefully will soon lead to Anna being finally being reunited with her daughter, Robin!  So get ready for a candid interview with two of the greatest actresses of the genre today … and some good laughs too!

MICHAEL:

Finola, what was you reaction when you first found out there was going to be a prosthetic masked “Anna” running around, and it was supposed to be Dr. Obrecht underneath it?  Did you see it in the script first?  Did Frank Valentini (EP, General Hospital) tell you first?  What went down?

FINOLA:

Courtesy/ABC

Frank told me and I went “NOOOOOOO” exactly like that.  I went, “No. You’re kidding!  No!”  He just stared blankly at me.  (Laughs)

MICHAEL:

Then you had to perform it!  You had the fight scenes where you are battling yourself.  Anna is fighting “Anna” (AKA Obrecht).  I assume there was a stand-in for you to create the performances?

FINOLA:

Yes.  There was a fantastic stand-in and her name was Kelly.  I don’t know where they found her.  I just actually think they made her and cloned her! (Laughs)  She arrived at the studio, and the reason she was so fantastic was not only could she do the fights, but she also learned all of Kathleen’s dialog, and my dialog.  She was really good and a fantastic stunt woman too!  So really, it was all kudos to her.

MICHAEL:

In the scene inside Steinmauer Maximum Security Prison with Faison, when Dr. Obrecht puts the “Anna” mask back on, she also slides back into talking just like Anna!  These masks also have vocal impersonation powers? (Laughs)

KATHLEEN:

Ah, technology is fabulous! (Laughs)

MICHAEL:

How has this whole journey been for both of you playing on-screen adversaries? What can you say about working with each other?  It’s been absolutely exciting to watch.  Kathleen, you have infused so much into the character of Dr. O!

KATHLEEN:

Courtesy/ABC

Thank you.  Playing with Finola is amazing.  She is a fantastic actress, and she is professional, serious, and hard-working.  I like to think I am like that too.  I have really enjoyed the fact that we can get together and work on our scenes.  It’s been really fun working opposite her, and it’s been a pleasure.  But it’s so funny, when Frank told me about the dual Annas, he did not clarify exactly.  He said, “You’re going to be playing Anna!”  I did the same thing as Finola and I went, “NOOOOOO.” (Laughs)  I said, “I am going to be the laughing stock!  I am twice her size!”    And, I am going to be playing opposite her, and it’s absolutely ridiculous.  But Frank didn’t quite explain all the details. It actually came down to Finola playing me, playing me playing her.  I don’t even know how many layers that is! (Laughs)  It was then I realized, it’s not on me.  It was incredible to watch Finola playing me opposite Faison!  Some of those scenes were breathtaking.  I told Finola a couple of times, “I feel guilty.”  Some people are so convinced that it was actually me with the mask on.  The mask was actually brilliant.  Joe Blasco showed me the mask, and he also made the “Duke” mask.  It is seriously great artistry!   It was so well done that I have gotten tweets and emails congratulating me for being Finola.  (Laughs)   So I had to say, “OK, guys.  Let’s take a step back here.  This is fantasy land.”  I had to say, “No, no guys.  It was all Finola.”  It has been a very fun and crazy process, but it has been incredible to watch her.  And even some of her facial gestures were so brilliant.  I was crying from laughing so much.

MICHAEL:

Finola, did you see the episode with the hilarious facial gestures where you are playing Obrecht under the “Anna” mask?

FINOLA:

Yes.  I saw the episodes afterwards.  I thought honestly of myself, “What are you doing?”  I don’t watch the show a lot when I am on.  But I am happy to watch other people’s story, because it affects me weirdly if I watch myself.  However, I have to say something about Kathleen.  I had just come back from a holiday and I walked on the set.  I was thrust into a straight-jacket.  Dr Obrecht was part of that story.  I was like, “Who is this woman?  Who is she?  Who is she?”   I remember Ian Buchanan (Duke) telling me Kathleen did a lot of Indie movies.  So I went home and I looked her up.  She was in one of my most favorite films … The Future.  So the following day I came back, and I went up to her and said, “Oh, my God. You are amazing in this role,” because we sometimes have people come on that are playing a different nationality, and you are like, “Oh, my God. What is that accent?”  But with Kathleen, there were so many levels that were working, not only the emotional part was there, but also the statuesque evil part was there.  It was very well-controlled. She wasn’t going around mashing at the furniture, or anything.

Courtesy/ABC

KATHLEEN:

That came later!  (Laughs)

FINOLA:

Yes, that actually has come! (Laughs)  And then I love the fact that there is that actual emotional thing going on between Dr. Obrecht and Faison, which is really great.

MICHAEL:

All the talk in soapland has been the scene where Faison asked Liesl to wear the “Anna” mask in order to have sex with him!  It was so humiliating for her!

KATHLEEN:

Oh, that is the ultimate rejection … beyond humiliating.  Then, that awkward moment trying to seduce him, and she is not that good at it, and then trying anyway she can, and being totally rejected.

FINOLA:

Courtesy/ABC

It’s horrible!  I did see that.  He has the mask on the bed and it was awful! Brilliant!  So good!  Fantastic!  And then the next day, you worked with me and you told Robert and Anna what happened.  That was also great, because Obrecht was sitting on the floor.  It was so poignant, but also crazy at the same time.

KATHLEEN:

Some of the stuff in the writing has been so brilliant.  It’s pathetic … it’s got pathos … it’s got humor … it’s campy, and broad and real.  It’s been so much fun to play, plus finally having something to sink my teeth into.

MICHAEL:

Kathleen, the way the lines are written for Dr. Obrecht, and the German references or slang contained in them, are those in the scripts … or … are you ad-libbing them?

KATHLEEN:

No.  I try to be as verbatim as possible, because everything is written so flawlessly.  My character is written stylized, broad, and it’s very detailed.  I hate to mess with even one word, or an apostrophe.  I am very careful not to mess with it.

FINOLA:

But you change it all into the accent.  They don’t write in the accent.

KATHLEEN:

Courtesy/ABC

It is all written in English.  I develop the accent at home.

MICHAEL:

Kathleen, when you as Dr. Obrecht donned the blonde wig disguise and were singing the Peggy Lee tune in the Floating Rib, “Is That All There Is?” …  did you not laugh?  How did you keep a straight face?  I thought it was so clever, and yet so pathetic of her!  It was brilliant.

KATHLEEN:

I get the script and I laugh and I go, “Oh no … they didn’t.”  I am breathing down Anna’s neck with a bottle of propofol in my hand, and I keep saying, “I have got to find her!” Plus, I am going, “Ha-ha-ha.”  I mean, it’s hysterical.  So I laugh, and I laugh, and I laugh, and I try to get out all the giggles.  Then, when I get to work I try not to giggle.  But there was one line in the recent bedroom scene that very few people responded to, but I could barely do it with a straight face.  Faison says, “Do me one favor?”  And I go, “Zee clamps?” (Laughs)

FINOLA:

That’s right.  I heard that!

KATHLEEN:

I could not do that with a straight face.  I had to do that like 100 times!  You can laugh before, but you shouldn’t laugh in front of the camera.  It was such a great line, but that line, “Zee clamps”… are you kidding me?  I thought they cut it out.  (Laughs)

FINOLA:

It was so funny.  There have been things that I heard people say, and I am like, “Wait what?  You didn’t just say that?  No, no, no.” (Laughs)  I have to say, when Kathleen was doing the Peggy Lee song it was not like that on the set.  You could hear a pin drop when she was singing the song.  Everybody was watching … all the crew … everybody.  There were people crowded around the monitor, because it became all of a sudden very Kurt Weill!  She is singing the song and when she finished, everyone applauded.

KATHLEEN:

Courtesy/ABC

I am blushing!

FINOLA:

It was not campy at all.  It became very good, and everyone clapped.  It’s very different when we are in it. The audience is allowed to laugh at it.  That’s what makes it funny, that all of us are in it, and in the moment.

MICHAEL:

Finola, you first worked with Anders Hove (Faison) back in the early 90’s.  What has it been like to work with him all these years later … and to reignite the twisted tale of Faison’s obsession with Anna Devane?

FINOLA:

I love working with him.  He is just such a giving actor, and he is so surprising.  Anders is so inventive, and electric.  You never know what he is going to do.  There were some tweets of his expression when I, as Anna, am like pouring my heart out to him, and crying and bawling.  His expression is like, “What?  Whatever.  Sure.”  Some people on Twitter put his face up and asked me, “How did you keep a straight face when he did that?”  Then they would write the line that I had just said to him.  And the line I would say to him was, “You mean, you took my daughter and kept her all this time, hoping that then you would bring her back to me, and then I would love you?”  And then his expression was like, “Well, yeah!”  It’s hysterical.  It’s so good and so funny.  You have one side of the scene that is all dramatic and this and that, and then the other side going, “Well yeah, this is what I was intending on doing.”  There was one point where Faison puts his hand to his ear like, “I can’t hear you.”  I remember him doing that.  I was just blowing through it and then at one point he was like, “Kiss me!”  And I was like, “I will kill you!”  Anders is phenomenal to work and he is unparalleled .  I adore when they bring him over from Denmark.   It is just fantastic.

KATHLEEN:

Courtesy/ABC

I first met Anders a year ago when we worked briefly together.  When I found out in January that Liesl and Faison parented a child and worked together, I was ecstatic going, “Please bring him as soon as you can”!  I worked in Europe before.  I love working with European actors.  It’s a different sort of connection, and sort of an instant bond I feel.  Anders and I connected right away.  We had a little interaction back then, but now when I heard he was coming back, I could not have been happier.  Now, because of our on-screen chemistry, we hate each other, love each other, and it’s this crazy thing.  It’s just like Finola was saying, there would be a very dramatic scene where I want him to look at my face, and he is like, “Well, what’s the big deal?” (Laughs)  I am dying inside and he is like, “Just put on the ‘Anna’ mask.”  The contrast and layers have been amazing to play, as you will see in the stuff coming up.

FINOLA:

The day that Britt (Kelly Thiebaud) and Obrecht were on-screen and it was coming out that she was your daughter and Faison was the father, I literally DM’d (direct messaged via Twitter) Ron Carlivati (head writer, GH) and in capitals went, “THAT IS BRILLIANT” because it tied in everything great.  Plus, there is kind of a familial resemblance in a way, and so it could really work.  Then, the recent scenes with Kelly and Anders … they were so good!

KATHLEEN:

You immediately sense that bond of family where they hate each other, but they are family, and they know each other. Kelly is phenomenal!

FINOLA:

Courtesy/ABC

It’s like the Addams Family!

MICHAEL:

What about when Dr. Obrecht first slapped Britta?  She had hauled off and hit her daughter quite a few times … and quite hard might I add!

KATHLEEN:

You have to keep the kids in check! (Laughs)

FINOLA:

Every time you hit her, I was like, “What are you doing?”

MICHAEL:

Speaking of the kids Finola, what has been like to work with Kimberly McCullough (Robin) again?

FINOLA:

I have not done any scenes with her yet … I have not!

MICHAEL:

Photo Credit: HutchinsPhoto.com

Have you at least, waved to her?  (Laughs)

FINOLA:

Oh, yes!  We sit in each others dressing rooms and talk. That’s amazing.  I adore the girl. She is a fantastic woman.

KATHLEEN:

She grew up with you on the stage at GH, and in front of the camera.

MICHAEL:

When the story of Robin’s return kicked-off, there was a scene when Britt needed help in finding her son, Ben who had been kidnapped by Dr. Obrecht. So, she was talking to Anna, who was trying to locate her son.  Anna had a flashback to the unforgettable moment in Anna/Robin history, when after little Robin was kidnapped, Anna found her in the streets of what was supposed to be San Francisco!  It was a great use of history, since this was juxtaposed with Robin saying she knows her mother will find her in 2013.

FINOLA:

It’s the most memorable scene I have ever done, looking for her.  We actually went on the streets in Canada, which was supposed to be San Francisco, but why did we go to Canada instead of San Francisco?  (Laughs)

KATHLEEN:

Victoria my hometown … I was probably there then!

FINOLA:

We were there.  And at the time, I did not have my visa.  So, we had to talk our way over the border!  I had a picture of Kimberly and I went around asking people, if they had seen her?  When you are on location, everything seems more real.  So the culmination of that, and seeing her, I seem to remember trying to stay away from Kimberly when we were in between shots, just to build the wanting to find her.  It was a very memorable day.

Courtesy/ABC

MICHAEL:

Robin hopes that she will be now be rescued by her mom and dad!

KATHLEEN:

Believe me as Kathleen Gati, I would love to give Robin back to Anna!  My heart breaks of how many times I have to withhold her from her freedom.  I would be thinking, “How dark is this?  Give the kid back to her mother already!  This is beyond just plain mean!”

MICHAEL:

Kathleen, do you think they will have to soften Liesl Obrecht anytime soon to keep her on the canvas?  Last week, she even seemed semi-rational for one second there!  (Laughs)

KATHLEEN:

I doubt she will be rational.  These writers are geniuses.  One of the first scenes I had with Britta in the park was key.  Lucy Coe (Lynn Herring) says, “You have to be insane to do evil things.”  And Dr. Obrecht says, “You don’t have to be insane to do evil things, you might simply be evil.”  That was a fabulous line.  She basically is evil.  It was kind of fun when we were all on together on the episodes that aired this past week with Robin and Jerry Jacks (Sebastian Roche), and it was like a whole party.  My character is bored.  So, she is like, “C’mon, let’s do something dark and evil. This is boring!” (Laughs)  I don’t think Dr. Obrecht is going to do anything nice, but I am grateful that they are allowing other layers to come out, and that she is a person.  She has her emotions, and sensitivity and her soft side, not just the campy, the broad, the evil, and the dark.

MICHAEL:

Courtesy/ABC

What does Dr, Obrecht want now?  Does she want to hurt Anna, even more than ever, after Faison rebuffed her advances?

KATHLEEN:

I think that is going to be on-going for the rest of her life with Anna, just from the pain of having lost Cesar at a young age. They had something going and they had a kid, and then he was tainted by Anna and fell in love with her, and Liesl was chopped liver.  So I think there will be this ongoing hatred, until maybe one day I will get someone fresh to love, I don’t know.

MICHAEL:

So now of all things, Anna is trapped in the lab on Cassadine Island with Robert (Tristan Rogers)!

FINOLA:

It’s going to be ridiculous!

KATHLEEN:

I am glad Robert is back!

MICHAEL:

Are Robert and Anna going to share a kiss in the lab?  You know what happens when people get locked up and trapped together on soaps, especially if their exes!

FINOLA:

Courtesy/ABC

A kiss?  I don’t think we do that.  It’s fun.  It’s a caper is what it is.

MICHAEL:

Some fans have commented recently that they feel the story is dragging on a bit, and that there are one too many intrusions.  Do you think at this point the story has been overplayed?  There seems to be so many curveballs happening though, and they are fun to watch!  I think it comes down to everyone just wants Robin and her family to see each other again, and for them to know she is alive … already! (Laughs)

FINOLA:

I think that there is enough of a story there that I don’t think ‘dragging out’ is what is happening.  I am looking forward to Robin meeting up again with Anna, but it feels that there is enough to sustain the story.   It’s not going to be that much longer in all truthfulness.  We are heading into the home stretch.  But I do feel everybody may be changed by this.  There are so many things that are coming down the pike.  There have been some very interesting things to do, I must say.  It’s been great to be in a story like this.

MICHAEL:

Finola, viewers love it when Anna is portrayed as the tough woman, spy, cop, gal of action. You have cornered the market on making this one of the great aspects of the character and truly an original on the daytime landscape.

FINOLA:

Photo Credit: HutchinsPhoto.com

It is lovely to play her like that.  They write Anna great. 

MICHAEL:

So as a preview, does this story get even juicier from here?

KATHLEEN:

There is a lot of great stuff coming up … the audience will be well-satisfied.

FINOLA:

Oh yeah, and remember it’s Halloween!

MICHAEL:

That’s right!  I can see all the baddies/villains who have invaded Port Charles running around in masks for Halloween!  I bet, Obrecht will have her “Anna” mask on!

KATHLEEN:

That is a great idea, I should tell the writers!  It’s like Cesar was posing as “Duke”, and Obrecht is now posing as “Anna”, and Cesar is out of his mind, livid.

MICHAEL:

Dr. Obrecht posing as “Anna” back in Port Charles would be so good!

FINOLA:

Courtesy/ABC

Wouldn’t that be?

MICHAEL:

Many fans, and myself, are insisting that both of you make sure you submit material this year for the Daytime Emmys.  Will you do so?

KATHLEEN:

I would be honored to participate in the Daytime Emmys, absolutely.

FINOLA:

Yes, I will submit something too.

KATHLEEN:

All that stuff doing Obrecht doing Anna, those are such powerful scenes.  I remember thinking Finola is doing a better me, than me!  It was so creepy.  I remember when you came into the lab and saw Robin.  You kind of tilted your head and it looked like you had a mask on your face, and you were manipulating it, and it was breathtaking.  You looked sad and emotional, but phony at the same time.  I remember staring at the TV going, “Holy crap!”

FINOLA:

It was hard to do.  I did not know what to do with that.  Trying not to be you, but being real, and it had to be emotional, so that I could persuade Robin that I was Anna.

Courtesy/ABC

KATHLEEN:

You nailed it.

MICHAEL:

What has been your favorite top two moments for your characters thus far, in this far-reaching storyline involving the return of Robin?

KATHLEEN:

The scene that went down last week with Cesar with the mask, the clamps, and in the bedroom.  Just the extreme humor, and extreme pathos, and the depth of her pain was a favorite of mine.  The other one would be in the park saying, “You don’t have to be insane to be evil, you can just be evil.”  I would have a list of favorites, but those are the two that pop out right now.  I have to say, my favorite one is coming up!  I promise, lots of crazy stuff is coming.

FINOLA:

Yes!  It’s really nutty.  I think mine have been with Anders when I got to play some interesting weird stuff.  But there were two days leading up to setting the story for Robin’s return.  It was there I worked with Jason Thompson (Patrick) and Ian Buchanan, and they were kind of talking about Robin.  I loved the scenes with Jason.

KATHLEEN:

Corutesy/ABC

You know what scene I loved, Finola?  When we are talking to each other and you say, “Just tell me … just tell me if Robin is alive.”  Working with you is fabulous. It’s intense and exciting.  You are a dream partner to work with.

FINOLA:

Likewise.  It’s really a great place to be at right now at General Hospital.  We are having a great time, aren’t we?

KATHLEEN:

Definitely!