Photo Credit: Sue Coflin/Max Photos

This week on General Hospital, Dr. Robin Scorpio Drake (Kimberly McCullough) walked back into Dr. Patrick Drake’s (Jason Thompson) life in the most dramatic fashion … right when the guy was saying, “I do” to the new love in his life, Sabrina Santiago (Teresa Castillo)!  After two years struggling to get back to the good doctor and their daughter, after he and the whole town of Port Charles believed she perished, Robin was alive and well and standing right before Patrick!

And that set the stage for the dramatic conflict, and highly charged emotional scenes that gave Jason Thompson some heavyweight material as Patrick was reunited with his beloved Robin, while Sabrina’s heart is breaking into a million pieces!  What is a guy to do?  And that is the million dollar question as General Hospital sets up the next leg of the storyline.  Can Patrick reconnect with Robin and go back to the family unit they had with their daughter Emma (Brooklyn Rae Silzer)?  Or, is the new life he was creating with Sabrina, who got him through the most difficult times of his life, the ticket for his future happiness?

On-Air On-Soaps chatted with the Jason Thompson for this very exclusive interview where we took a look at all angles of this heart-stopping storyline where Patrick finally learns Robin is alive, and how he was able to deliver some of the most powerful moments in recent history as an overcome Patrick anguishes over his predicament … the joy of having Robin walk back in his life, and the sorrow over hurting the woman who was set to become his new wife!  And then there was that pressure to deliver to the fans of the series who have been clamoring for the reunion of one of the most beloved couples in soap history.  Jason reveals what it was like for him knowing he was about to play one of the most important moments in Dr. Drake’s soap life!  Here now is our special chat with the talented Mr. T!

MICHAEL:

First off, what has it been like for you having Kimberly McCullough (Robin) back on GH?  Did it feel to you like she never left?  Was the first scene you taped with her since her return, when Robin came forward in the church during Patrick and Sabrina’s wedding?

JASON:

Courtesy/ABC

First of all, it’s fantastic to have her back, obviously.  It’s an embarrassment of riches.  It was really nice to have my friend back in the hallways, and to be able to go and grab breakfast, and all that sort of stuff, and the familiarity, for sure.  Kimberly was doing her work stuff, and I was doing mine, and we weren’t really keeping tabs at what we were doing separately.  The first scene we had together was when Robin walks into the church, after Patrick had said, “I do”.  So she walks in, and obviously it’s shocking enough, and it was a whole other challenge for me.  I was really nervous about it.  I had a hard time for a couple of weeks leading up to that moment knowing what was going to happen.  I knew Robin was going to walk in.  I knew it was going to be one of those things where I was trying to find the right balance.  I was trying to find the human element of this moment, of somebody that you lost walking back into your life in the most shocking, dramatic, kind of way.  It’s just not something that you really kind of wrap your head around.  I thought about past loved ones, my dog, and people who came back into my life.  I was thinking how I had been so happy and so shocked, but then thinking… what is going on?   Knowing that Patrick went through these hallucinations, let’s say, or the moment of seeing visions of Robin in the past … was it just another one of those?  Or, wanting it to be true, but Robin is holding Emma, so what is going on?  All of those moments in my own mind and my own process I was trying to figure out.  It was daunting.  I knew it was an important storyline, too!  There was that extra added bit of nerves because of it, and trying not to let that influence my reality in that moment.  I would do it a disservice to play the soap of it without trying to be as honest as I could with it, but at the same time, understanding what it is.  It is Robin coming back from the dead in Patrick’s world!  That is a very dramatic soap moment.  I think it’s an amazing opportunity in the medium in which we work to be able to do something like this.

MICHAEL:

Everyone has been waiting to see the reunion of Patrick and Robin.  And as the actor portraying that key moment, and knowing it was coming for weeks and weeks, did you feel an enormous amount of pressure?  Did you ever think to yourself: “Can I pull this off?  Will the audience be satisfied?”

JASON:

Yes, there was pressure there.  It has been almost two years in the making of people asking me, “When is Kimberly coming back?”  I would be rich if I had a dollar for every time someone asked me when she is coming back.  And, that doesn’t mean they are not happy with the show.  Some people really like Patrick and Sabrina together.  So there is that whole other storyline, and this other couple that is there.  Somebody is going to get hurt.  There is a group of fans who don’t necessarily want to see the couple they have invested in for over two years.  But that is what we are doing here.  We are giving and taking away.  It’s this story being told, and it’s what these shows are based on.  As an actor, it’s hard not to get ahead of yourself and not let the story tell itself.  It’s like reading the end of the book and then going to the beginning of it, knowing what is going to happen.  It was hard to not influence the way the moment was going to happen, but at the same time do my homework, and make it as right as possible for Patrick in that moment.

MICHAEL:

Courtesy/ABC

So in the end analysis, do you think it came off as you hoped?  Do you think the fans are happy?  I have to tell you, the fans have been screaming “Emmy” for your performances!

JASON:

Personally, you never know if you are really going to deliver what a viewer wants in that moment.  These are a moment in people’s lives, and let’s say ten people watched and ten people could have a completely different idea or reaction of how this could happen.  There is a lot to live up to on head writer Ron Carlivati’s level, executive producer’s Frank Valentini’s level, mine, Teresa, and Kimberly’s.  If you are a fan of Patrick and Robin, this is a moment that you waited for!  We just hope it lives up, or surpasses what your vision is.  That would be an amazing gift to give people where they say, “Wow! That was a little more special than I expected.”  I am sure there will be a lot of opinions back and forth, and I get it.  People might think, “It’s breaking my heart knowing that Sabrina is going to be crushed.”  These are characters on a television show.  However, there is a lot of investment that people give to these characters.  I think it’s a classic soap story.  I hope we did good by it.

MICHAEL:

Did you ever imagine, when you signed on to play Dr. Patrick Drake years ago, that you would be this integral part to several amazing historic stories, and what came with it, the 50th anniversary of GH, and the fan fervor from passionate fan bases such as Scrubs and Patina?  All that comes with being on a soap.

JASON:

No, none at all!  And to be honest, I have had that moment a couple times this year with talking about what I went through, and Patrick went through with losing Robin, and the 50th anniversary, and here we are again doing this classic kind of soap story knowing the weight of everything.  It kind of blows my mind a bit, but it is everything you want to do.  I am falling more in love and grateful for my job the further along I go.  This character with this story … and the people I get to work with … it’s just becoming richer to me.   It’s everything you want to do.  You want to have those challenges.  You want to think, “Oh, my God.  I don’t think I can do this, or pull this off.”  I know it’s kind of big!  Robin is such a huge part of General Hospital.   To have Kimberly back and be part of a storyline like this, and to acknowledge what Patrick and Sabrina have built also, and to understand it’s a struggle for people, makes me, really, really proud.  I am really glad that people like Patrick and Sabrina together.  It just means Teresa did a great job over the last year and a half.  I was part of a storyline that people felt something for, knowing this other thing was about to happen.

MICHAEL:

Courtesy/ABC

I wanted to clear the air on something: Many fans believe from things you have said, or has been inferred in other interviews you have given, that you don’t like working with Teresa Castillo (Sabrina).  Can you address that once and for all?

JASON:

I know, and that’s the most ridiculous thing.  I honestly don’t know where that came from.  Now, I have said stuff about me personally trying to do Patrick in a way that I can understand.  I try to think what this would really be like for a human being to go through.  So, the questioning of a new relationship… the questioning if he will ever love again … those are things that Patrick would be going through.  Never really forgetting about Robin and always wondering, “Am I ever going to be in a relationship like the one I had before?”  That was hard for me.  I did not want to just fall back on Kimberly’s gone, and look at the page today without playing the history that I have gone through.  Now, saying that, I don’t know anybody who could have come in and done what Teresa has done with as much grace as she has done it with.  It’s a very hard thing she had to do, which was to come in between these two characters, although Kimberly wasn’t there anymore, or let’s say, when Robin was gone.  I am so thankful that I have been able to do this with Teresa for the last year and half, because it’s a really difficult thing that she has to do and the show has asked a lot of her.  The character of Sabrina went through a huge transition in a year!  She went from the “Ugly Betty” thing, which is not Teresa at all, and gone through a massive transition, knowing the whole time that Robin is being held over her.  That is not easy!   That is a whole other pressure that she is feeling, personally … let alone having to play that within the character!  I get it on my Twitter that people say I don’t like her, but it could not be further from the truth.  To come in to do a job like this and knowing the pressures that come with it, and doing the amount of pages she had to learn per day, and knowing the story itself that she has done, is doing, and will continue to do, is pretty commendable.  The character of Sabrina is not going anywhere from what I know.  Teresa has made herself a main character on our show!  That is not an easy thing to do.

MICHAEL:

Many fans would always say something to the effect of: “Patrick would never be with a dingdong like Sabrina!”  Given that, there must have been a time where you too thought Patrick would never fall for a girl like Sabrina, after being with a woman like Robin, especially perhaps because of the original presentation of the character where she was more like “Ugly Betty”.

JASON:

Yes, absolutely.  There were all of those moments you go through like you do in life. For Patrick, it was not love at first sight with Sabrina.  He grew into this.  Patrick realized he has someone in his life who loves him, and who will care for his daughter in a way that her real mother would have, and they fell in love that way.  It was not a fairy tale in that way for Patrick, but maybe it was that way for Sabrina, but that was kind of the way it was written for her.  It was a choice moving forward in his life with somebody who truly loves him and would do anything for him.  And at the same time, Patrick is going to be the man she needs in her life.  It’s not the most “soap” choices that I made along the way, but that is me trying to play it as real as possible within the context of a daytime drama.

MICHAEL:

Courtesy.ABC

After you and Kimberly completed taping the highly emotional scenes where Patrick sees Robin for the first time, did you and Kimberly have a moment afterwards (because of all the build up) where you said to each other, “Thank God, we got that over with!”

JASON:

It was a full day of shooting, and probably one of the hardest days I had.  We did so much back and forth.  We did it five times, I think.  They had to get different shots, and then there are all of the reactions, but it just kept going!  I felt I was hit by a truck by the end of the day.  There was just a lot going on: Being there in the moment and being 100% truthful with Sabrina and knowing that is happening … and then there is a small percentage of Patrick being in the reality of, “Oh, my God!  Here I am again.”  This was almost the third time Patrick got married, because he got married almost twice to Robin, and then there was the funeral.  There is this one moment where I, as Patrick, felt something directly before saying the “I do’s”, and then I came back to where I was.   It was like letting go.  It was the final time Patrick was questioning what he was doing and buying into it, and going with it.  And then of course, Robin shows up.  There were all the different kind of layers that were happening, and they were exhausting, but we continued through it.  Then, ten hours later, we are done for the day.

MICHAEL:

I know actors are the toughest critics on themselves.  Did you think you hit the mark when you left the studio after that tape day?

JASON:

I don’t know, because I always think there is more you can do, or make the slightest adjustment here and there.  But there is also the acceptance of it, and you have to have it.  That it is what that is and you’ve got to move on, because I went home and looked at my script for the next day, because it continues.  Life goes on.  What I did that day becomes part of Patrick’s history.  I have to accept that and not alter it, or change it, because that happened.  You never know if you nail it.  Sometimes it feels great, and sometimes it doesn’t.  We will see what happens!

MICHAEL:

Now, Patrick is so anguished!  He is genuinely seemingly torn at what to do, since he loves two women!  So, Patrick doesn’t know who to choose?

Courtesy/Veronica Puleo

JASON:

I think Ron Carlivati and the writing team did such a great job with this story.  There was one thing I felt really torn with and that was the word, “choose”.  Who is Patrick to choose?  What if the girls bail on him?  And that could happen!  So now Patrick had to decide which one he is going to take?   It’s not an apple or an orange.  These are two human beings.  Patrick has changed.  Two years is a long time.  At this point, Patrick doesn’t even know fully what Robin went through, and she was locked up and tortured!  Patrick doesn’t know how different Robin could be.  What if she has changed?  And rightfully so!  What if that love between them is just different now?

MICHAEL:

Are you saying that what if Robin and Patrick can’t connect in the same way?

JASON:

Right!  But maybe it’s a great thing that people go through this; because they get a second chance at maybe something they thought was lost.   I can sit there and I can make an argument for each one of them, and that is just me looking at it and thinking, “I just don’t know what to do yet, because I don’t know the reality of who she is!”  Yes, this is something Patrick’s dreamed about, but it’s a very confusing situation.

MICHAEL:

Photo Credit: Sue Coflin/Max Photos

But wouldn’t it just tear Patrick up to hear how Robin was in captivity all this time, trying to get back to her family, and all the twists and turns she suffered at the hands of a whole set of villains?

JASON:

Yes, of course.  I am sure he eventually will find out, but Kimberly and I were talking about this at work.  Patrick and Robin have not talked about that.  It was quick, “What? Who had you?”  But we don’t go into detail yet, and I don’t know if they are going to.

MICHAEL:

That would be terrible if they didn’t address that completely!

JASON:

I know it would be a little bit weird, right?  At the same time, Patrick turns around and sees this devastated woman there, and that the last thing he ever wanted to do was hurt her, because of how pure and good Sabrina is.  I mean that in the most loving way.  Sabrina is such a good person, and Patrick knows that.  But to see her turn around and collapse at the wedding was heartbreaking.  I hope people can see why this is not an easy situation, and whether deep down you know he has to be with Robin, he doesn’t want to hurt either one of them.  So at least, he is trying to make the right choice going forward, and trying to do this with the least amount of collateral damage as possible.

MICHAEL:

Do you think because of Patrick’s indecision over Sabrina and Robin the fans will be hating him … and you?

JASON:

Possibly, I don’t mind that.  I don’t want people to hate me, or get mad at me, but I don’t want it to be easy.  I don’t think it’s as interesting, and that’s just me.  That is why some people may not like me as an actor, or don’t like my portrayal as Patrick, or they don’t like the character.  I think Patrick could become vanilla if he always made the right choice, or didn’t play these kinds of moments in the way that he does.

MICHAEL:

Photo Credit: HutchinsPhoto.com

What do you think about the character of Carlos, and working with his portrayer, Jeffrey Vincent Parise?  Carlos has actually, in his own way, been the voice of reason for Sabrina, and could potentially cause some serious damage to any chance of happiness Patrick could eventually have with Sabrina!

JASON:

Unfortunately, most of the villains on this show are such great guys in real life, so it’s hard to hate them!  (Laughs)  We are having so much fun working together.  I think the show did a great job at bringing Carlos in, and for him being the voice for what a lot of people were thinking.  He was able to say to Sabrina, “Patrick doesn’t love you in the way that you think.”   It could not have been said by anyone else on the canvas.  I was really glad when they brought him on the show.  Going forward with him, Carlos wants Sabrina.  He has that love everybody dreams about.  Carlos loves her to the death kind of way.  Although Patrick doesn’t like the way he goes about it some of the time, I think Patrick deep down kind of gets it.  There is a weird kind of acceptance of what Carlos is doing, because Patrick knows he is right, in a way.

MICHAEL:

How is Patrick going to handle Robin coming back with little Emma (Brooklyn Rae Silzer) and what this means for their family?  And in addition, Emma truly loves Sabrina!

JASON:

That is a whole other component to this having Emma in there.  Emma is at that age where she knows and loves Sabrina for what she has done for her.  We are going to be getting into Christmas now, and it’s going to be a confusing time, because at this point, Sabrina knows Emma better than Robin does, realistically.  So there is that reality also for a little girl who doesn’t really understand what is going on.  She is just caught between everything!

MICHAEL:

Photo Credit: Sue Coflin/Max Photos

I recently spoke with Finola Hughes (Anna) in a joint interview with Kathleen Gati (Dr. Obrecht) where she talked about one of her favorite scenes with you was when Anna and Patrick were remembering Robin while chatting at Kelly’s Diner.  Have you had a scene just between you and Finola since Patrick saw Robin alive?  Has there been a “come to Jesus moment” where Anna comes to Patrick and asks him not to hurt her daughter, after all she has been through?

JASON:

Not really, not yet.  I really hope there is.  You know how much I love working with her.  It’s always such a treat.  She is fabulous in pretty much everything she does.  Finola and I have such a comfortable thing between us personally.  We went through so much together with Robin being “dead”.  There is always this fun history we get to play, but even on a personal level, we are such good friends that you relax into the situation and let these two characters live.  That happens all the time with her, and it’s so fun as an actor!

MICHAEL:

Another project you have been working on, Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story Of The Dytalov Pass Incident, was just released as a book!  Tell me your involvement in this.

JASON:

I have been a friend for 16 years with Donnie Eicher who wrote the book.  We have always worked on projects together.  We were talking about this other script idea, and Donnie was away and he came across this story.  He brought it to my attention.  We started to research it, and it got to the point where Yuri Kuntsevich, the key holder of a lot of the Dyatlov Pass incident history, said, “You have to come to Russia.  We can’t do this over the phone.  If you are going to be serious about this… that is what has to happen.”  So Donnie and I went to Russia for three weeks to try to uncover the story, which became bigger and more vast every day.  We came back from that trip continuing to research it for another two years.  Then, for the last year and a half Donnie has been writing the book.  He also went back to Russia and did the actual expedition that follows the footsteps of the hikers that perished on the mountain.

Courtesy/Chronicle Books

MICHAEL:

So you were wearing the producer hat here, and you were hoping to make this story into a movie?

JASON:

Yes.  The idea in the beginning was to go over to Russia and do a documentary on it.  And as we were there, we kind of changed our thinking that this could be a great narrative story, and tell this true story as much as we can.  The investigation and the hiker’s story became so interesting.  While we were there our own story was so interesting, and what we were experiencing, while finding out the truth of these hikers.  So after all that happened, the project changed a bit.  When we got back, we put together a couple of scripts and pitched it a couple of times, and got really great responses.  But then Donnie decided to further develop this book.  Chronicle Books came on and they published it!  So he had hunkered down for a year and a half!  Donnie barely saw sunshine when he wrote this book, and so I am personally proud of him.  He wrote a fantastic book that was very heartfelt and 100% true, and told the story that has never been told as of yet.  There are some things out there on the Dyatlov Pass incident, that stretch the truth in ways, and that is not what we wanted to do.  I think the book succeeded telling a true story in a haunting way.

MICHAEL:

So, do you want to continue to shop it to get a film deal on Dead Mountain?  Would you play a role in it, if it became a motion picture?

JASON:

Yes, that is the goal.  I probably would not play a role in it, but it would depend on the final script.  I am really enjoying being on the outside of it, and the development of it. It’s a whole other pressure and emotional attachment to a project when you think of, who do we cast in a role that would be truthful in way that the real people and families involved in the story are?   The day I co-hosted The View in October, the book was released!

MICHAEL:

Speaking of co-hosting The View… how was that?   Your fans were noticing that it seemed that the ladies on the panel would barely let you get a word in edgewise! (Laughs)

JASON:

Courtesy/DisneyABC

There were three women sitting around at a table!  There is a reason we guys leave the room at that point! (Laughs)  But listen, I had such a great time.  The whole experience of doing the “Hot Topics” in the make up room with all the producers and hearing people’s opinions, and going back and forth, and then trying to have an opinion, but at the same time trying not to have an opinion, just to have an opinion, was awesome!  ABC has been really great to me having me co-host Katie and then The View, obviously a lot of it had to do with the 50th Anniversary of General Hospital and getting the word out there.  I have really enjoyed being on these shows, and it’s something I would like to continue to do.

MICHAEL:

Right!  So, could you see yourself being a morning talk-show host or correspondent?  I think you would be terrific at it!

JASON:

Yes, something like that.  I like the whole Good Morning America concept.  I like having a personality, and not being too serious.  However, there are things going on in the world that I have an opinion on, that I would like to talk about.  It doesn’t interest me to talk about what underwear the celebrities are wearing right now.  But there are causes that celebrities are involved with that I could wrap my head around and get behind.  I think finding that balance between pop culture and a world view.  That is why I like The View.  I like what they do there, and the balance they strike. I like the morning shows, and what Matt Lauer does on Today!  I think that would be fun and interesting to do.

MICHAEL:

Courtesy/Twitter

In closing, what can you preview for the fans of GH?  Will this continue for awhile with Patrick’s indecision of what to do?  Don’t tell me this will drag on for months! (Laughs)

JASON:

It probably lasts over a couple weeks in Port Charles time, trying to make the right decision going forward, and trying not to hurt either one of these two women that he truly loves.  There is no real replacement for what he had with Robin.  I think the love that Patrick and Sabrina has is different, obviously, than the one that Patrick and Robin had.  There is still a love that they have.  Not to give too much away, but I think deep down he knows what he has to do … but how does he do that?