Josh Swickard (Harrison Chase, General Hospital) is the special guest on this week’s all-new episode of Soapy Hosted by Rebecca Budig and Greg Rikaart. The GH fan favorite and leading men opened up about his life pre and post GH, his marriage to actress and producer, Lauren Swickard, and some of his toughest and most memorable moments during his eight-plus years as officer Chase of the PCPD.

One of the most heartbreaking moments came when Josh had to say farewell to his on-screen brother Finn played by soap veteran, Michael Easton. It was back on the Thursday, June 27, 2024 episode of General Hospital.

In it, Chase drives Finn to a rehab facility and the two brothers share a heartfelt talk in the car. Finn thanks Chase for allowing him to say goodbye to his daughter, Violet (Jophielle Love). Chase promises to take good care of her. However, Chase warns Finn to not to take any shortcuts on his way to sobriety and to always think of Violet’s wellbeing. It is apparent, the brothers don’t want to say goodbye, but on the count of three, Finn leaves Chase’s car and walks through the door of the rehab facility, while Chase in tears beats the steering wheel before drives away.

Photo: ABC

MISSING HIS TV BROTHER

Josh spoke to the “Soapy” podcast hosts about it and recalled, “In our last scenes together, and it was like his last day. Michael was like, ‘It’s okay.’ And I was like, ‘No, it’s not.’ I was supposed to be crying in the scene, I think. I was like a little glassy-eyed, a little glazed over. And then they were like, “And cut.”  I was like, “Great.” I just like went behind the car and wept.”

Speaking of his professional and personal relationship with Easton, Josh expressed, “Michael is an awesome guy. He’s such a sweetheart. We’ve done fan events together in New York and he would show me things, like, ‘This where I used to live  …’ He’s like an older brother to me.”

Not only did Josh lose his on-screen brother, but he also lost his on-screen father, Gregory, played by Gregory Harrison, when he was killed-off the show after the character battled ALS. “I think I was more just mourning friends that play family on a show, but a show that goes year after year, year round, and so they become family,” explained Swickard. “So, that part’s been hard for me of just losing friends that while, yes, you get to see each other, you get to call each other, it’s different (when they leave).”

Photo: JPI

CHASE IN A COMA IS FAVORITE OF JOSH’S

When asked, what has been his favorite storyline during his run on GH thus far, Josh took it back to when Chase became became critically ill after being poisoned by a toxic from Peter August (Wes Ramsey) meant for Finn. Eventually, Finn had to rescue his brother with the antidote for the toxin. That story played out from April to June 2021.

Josh explained, “Where I was in a coma and I was seizing and coughing and I had no blocking for like four months! It was great! It was a storyline where I was about to die and I had to say goodbye to a lot of lovely people and it was so exhausting. You get in the car and you feel like you got hit by a train every day because your body doesn’t fully know what acting is, apparently. I remember multiple days being like, ‘Oh, this is why I signed up for this.'”

Swickard also answered if there were moments in the storyline if he felt Chase was not going to survive. The GH star answered, “There were moments that I wondered.  However, I think they were pretty upfront with me. They were like, ‘This isn’t what’s going to happen.'”

Check out the full conversation with Josh on the ‘Soapy’ podcast via the comment section below.

Now let us know, what has been your favorite scenes of Josh as Chase on General Hospital during his run? Do you miss the relationship between Chase and his brother, Finn? Let us know via the comment section below.

More casting news from Days of Our Lives, and for now, the soap opera seems to be breaking their new additions to Salem via their Instagram account. Now comes word and picture on August 24, that General Hospital and The Young and the Restless alum Brytni Sarpy has joined DAYS!

The Peacock soap opera’s Instagram account, showed a photo of Sarpy standing in front of her dressing room in the hallways of Days of Our Lives’ studios. The caption read, “Someone new is checking into Salem… Welcome Brytni Sarpy to the Days of our Lives family! Stay tuned.”

The casting of Sarpy comes on the heels of the announcement of Sydney Malakeh coming to the show in September, and earlier this year General Hospital favorite, Sofia Mattsson (ex-Sasha Gilmore, GH) joining the show in a mystery role when she began taping back around the end of March of this year. Now Sarpy is the “mystery role” category too!

In addition, the Days of Our Lives social team dropped a video ditty of the cast spoofing Love Island, where Sarpy appears as the new “bombshell” of the villa. Other cast members such as Rob Scott Wilson (Alex), Abigail Klein (Abigail), Casey Moss (JJ), Sal Stowers (Lani), Paul Telfer (Xander) and Linsey Godfrey (Sarah) pop-up in it too, among others.

Photo: JPI

SOAP HOPPING

Soap fans first met Sarpy when she played Valerie Spencer, the niece of Luke (Anthony Geary) and Bobbie Spencer (Jackie Zeman) on General Hospital back in 2015. She made her final appearance on the series back in 2019 to join the cast of The Young and the Restless in the role of Elena Dawson.

Elena was introduced as a love interest for Devon Winters (Bryton James). She later cheated on him with his cousin Nate Hastings (Sean Dominic). Elena began to be back-burned by 2023 with Sarpy’s last on-screen appearance in Genoa City in November of 2024.

Due to Days of Our Lives nearly year in advance tape schedule, viewers will have to wait till sometime in the early summer of 2027 to see Brytni’s arrival in Salem.

So, happy to see Brytni Sarpy has landed another soap role? Now that she is at DAYS, who you think she might be playing and paired with? Put on your casting director hats and let us know via the comment section.

 

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Last week, The Bold and the Beautiful gave three-time Lead Actress Daytime Emmy winner, Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, the material to go for a fourth in 2027. In an emotional scenes, Wood showcased her sadness, feeling of betrayal and abandoned by her husband, Finn, to her good friend and co-worker, Carter Walton (Lawrence Saint-Victor).

But here’s the catch; Wood, as well as Saint-Victor, played the scenes completely drunk. First, Steffy drinks herself silly on the plane home from Monaco after finding out Finn’s (Tanner Novlan) mother, Sheila (Kimberlin Brown) who she has PTSD about with good reason, boarded the plane with him to Europe and kept it a secret. Steffy had already thrown her ring at her husband and storm trooped to the airport after seeing momma Carter in Monaco.

Later, Steffy somehow stumbles into the Forrester Creations CEO office, and suddenly Carter also shows up. He is also schnokereed from knocking back one after the other over Daphne (Murielle Hilaire) walking out on him.

Photo: JPI

Suddenly, Steffy opens up her heart to Carter, “I need to be safe, so it’s over. We’re over,” speaking about her marriage to Finn. She says, “I keep replaying this moment. There was this shift. I saw it. I asked him if he was OK. Then, I realized what he was looking at ….Sheila. She was right there. And my husband wasn’t going to protect me… he wasn’t going to be there for me.”

Steffy is full on in upset-mode, that in that moment she put her faith in Finn’s commitment to her, he didn’t come through with “actions”, and that his word meant nothing. Carter winds up sitting next to Steffy on the desk of the office, blindsided by each of their partners.

Suddenly, Steffy becomes hysterical, and lets out all of her rage and Carter takes her in his arms and says “I got you.”  Then, in the pick-up of the next morning, it appeared as if Carter and Steffy had sex together and passed out.

When Steffy came to she freaked out. Realizing, there wer texts from Finn trying to reach her, she wasn’t home for her kids, and she panicked and had to get out of there. When Carter tried to talk to her, she couldn’t in that moment, feeling so guilt-ridden and ashamed for her betraying her marriage like this, when she truly loves Finn.

Photo: JPI

Once she gets back home as a disheveled mess, she runs into her mother, Taylor (Rebecca Budig), before Finn arrives and lays it on thick and begs for forgiveness. Trying to recover from her hangover, her night with Carter and what all went down, as Finn talks, everything is confusing for Steffy, as she cries. She wants to tell her husband what she did and confess. But will she?

By the end of last week, Carter is begging Steffy to keep her mouth shut about their booze-filled night together, but she cries that lying to her husband and it is eating her up. Carter tells Steffy the truth of their night together can never come out for so many reasons; least of all his relationship with her father, Ridge (Thorsten Kaye) and Daphne. Will Steffy eventually crumble and spill the beans or stay quiet? Stay tuned!

Throughout all the very soapy scenarios, we have to say, we enjoyed Wood’s performances as it showed a more vulnerable, letting her guard down from the often holier-than- thou Steffy Forrester. We also think its material taking out of context that would be just right for many Emmy voters next year. So with all that said, Michael Fairman TV gives the Power Performance of the Week to B&B’s Jacqueline MacInnes Wood.

So, do you agree with our pick as Jacqueline MacInnes Wood as the Power Performance of the Week? Did you think she delivered in the scenes from the time Steffy left her husband in Monaco, through the drunken binge with Carter, to back home and being confronted with Finn wanting her to take him back? Let us know in the comment section below.