It’s no secret that GENERAL HOSPITAL’s Brenda was tight with Sonny, but few know that in real life, her portrayer, Vanessa Marcil, is like a member of her former screen husband’s extended family. “I’m very close friends with Maurice’s wife, Paula,” he actress confided to Soaps In Depth, adding that she always wanted to be respectful, especially during the hottest parts of Sonny and Brenda’s romance.
“It is a weird thing to have your husband be in love with somebody on set, even though it’s just acting. But the one thing I’ll say about Maurice and Paula is they know they could call me at 3 a.m. and ask me to hide a dead body for them, and I would be at their house with a ski mask on, no questions asked. We’re that kind of close.”
The added bonus of being the keeper of someone’s secrets is that you know them pretty well. So we asked Marcil if there was something about Benard that, despite all that’s been written about him, might still surprise fans.
“I don’t think people really know how funny he is — ferociously, intelligently funny — because his character’s certainly not supposed to be a super hilarious guy,” Marcil laughed. “And even with how vulnerable he gets in his work, I still don’t think people truly know how much of a softie he is in real life.”
