Sarah Joy Brown News

A couple weeks ago, we posted part one of an interview Sarah Brown gave to TV Guide. In it, the actress spoke enthusiastically about her return to General Hospital.

Now, take a look at highlights from part two of the conversation:

TVGuide.com: Of course, Laura Wright is now playing Carly, so you are creating a new role....
Sarah Brown: I'm going to be playing Claudia Zacchara. She is the eldest daughter of Anthony Zacchara.

TVGuide.com: Is Claudia totally a tough cookie or does she have a soft spot somewhere?
Brown: Oh, she has a soft spot, because she's being played by me. [Laughs] I can't fathom playing a one-dimensional tough cookie on a daytime show. I don’t think that works, whereas it might in other mediums, like prime time. So let me tell you about Claudia....

TVGuide.com: Is she a sexual woman?
Brown: Very. She's a very, very sexual woman. That’s what I'm gathering. There are some really wonderful reasons for that. Like any tough cookie she's tough because she's really fragile, and she's really fragile because she has an Achille's heel. She has a couple of them, and they will develop over this first year. But one in particular she comes to town with, and it's a really good one.

TVGuide.com: What's the dynamic between Claudia and Johnny (Brandon Barash)?
Brown: It's going to be complicated. Johnny was little, apparently, when I left, so Brandon is playing pretty young, I guess. Johnny was young when I was banished and sent away to live with my mother, who had been banished earlier. But I grew up with my father until I was 16 and Johnny was about 8. I was very protective and loving of my "baby brother," so it's parallel to Into the Wild, though there's a little more scab-picking to be done between the two of us.

The brother and sister in that movie are close because they're growing up in a loony bin of a household. There was yelling going on [at the Zaccharas'], a manic-depressive bipolar father.... I haven’t spoken to him since I was banished.

Read the full interview with Brown now.

As everyone knows by now, Sarah Brown is coming back to General Hospital in the role of Claudia Zacchara.

Here is an ABC promo, hyping the return:

With Laura Wright now embedded in the role created by Sarah Brown, the actress resurfaces on General Hospital on January 31.

The new vixen to be portrayed by brown? Claudia Zacchara, the prodigal daughter of mob boss Anthony. Below, the star speaks on this come back with TV Guide:

TVGuide.com: When did the talks to return to General Hospital first start up?
Sarah Brown: Oh, I want to say about five months ago. It was a really interesting happenstance.

TVGuide.com: Was it a call from [ABC Daytime president Brian] Frons or...?
Brown: No, it was nothing like that. First, I haven't seen Maurice Benard or anybody from the show — except for Tava [Smiley, ex-Chloe] and Stephen Kay (Reginald) here and there — in six or seven years. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, I'm at the car wash and Maurice, who lives in my neighborhood, is there. "What's up, Mo?" [Laughs] Meanwhile, I'm running into Kin Shriner (Scotty) every other day at my gym.

So Maurice and I chatted for a bit, and then three days later I run into [GH executive producer] Jill Farren Phelps, of all people, at the local café. I'm like, "This is weird. General Hospital is everywhere." So I felt like that was a really good time, for a lot of different reasons, to approach Jill and give her a big hug. It built from there.

TVGuide.com: Did you have any reservations about returning to the show? Concerns about "Who's going to have my character's back?"
Brown: A lot of "Who's going to have my back?" went through my mind. It took us five months to really work out all the details. It's been so many years, but right away they let me know, it wasn't ever going to be about me playing Carly, and that's always been interesting to me. They talked to me about that years ago, about a month before I did As the Worlds Turns, like:

"[You can be] Carly's evil twin sister!" Because I had really dark hair at that point. We kicked it around, always in good fun, but it was never really something that we got into in terms of negotiations. I'm funny the way about the way that I work with soaps — I like to figure out creatively what we're going to do, and if it makes sense, I have no issues with the boundaries between daytime and prime time. I see other actors do it. Tamara Tunie does As the World Turns and Law & Order: SVU really successfully, and why not?

You should be able to navigate both worlds. So I don't have any reservations about daytime per se. They pitched the hell out of the character and I responded to it right away. "That sounds like fun, sign me up!" [Laughs ]

Continue Reading...

With Sarah Brown on her way back to General Hospital, one actress is especially nervous about working with the legend:

Laura Wright.

After all, she's the one who has inherited the role once portrays Carly, the role once played by Brown.

“I have to tell you I'm a little intimidated,” Wright told Soap Opera Digest. "I can see it now - the first scene I shoot with her I'm going to be like, 'Oh, my God. Is that okay?' What'd you think?' She originated this groundbreaking character. She's got to be a little bit like, ‘Don't do that !’

Playing against someone that strong as an actress? God help me rise to the occasion.”

Rumor is now fact: Sarah Joy Brown will be coming back to General Hospital.

The actress will portray Angela Zacharra, Anthony's daughter and Johnny's sister. Look for her initial scene in January, as the character will be her showing up at Sonny's to talk, but finds Jason (Steve Burton) instead.

Angela will be calling upon the Zacchara rivals because she wants to help them take control of her father's territory. Why the treachery? Because Angela loves her brother Johnny... but hates Trevor. The final, juicy General Hospital spoiler we can spill?

Angela will also have a past with Ric (Rick Hearst).