GH:: Tony Geary Interview

[cassadine1991]

I always think Laura could be the new matriarch

[cassadine1991]

I noticed that, especially when Jonathan Jackson returned, how Geary was

[KMan101]

Geary's bitchy and he wants his way. That's all I got out of it. I do envy his Amsterdam lifestyle.

I can't say I fault his dislike of constantly having to rely on Luke and Laura.

I think he was soured mostly due to the constant returns and reunions, IMO, but I'm just speculating. It was getting tiresome. Every anniversary, Laura would return, we'd get L/L AGAIN (worse each time) and then we'd be back to Luke doing awful things, and then disappearing.

It's ALL just OLD at this point.

He's entitled to his opinion. I admit I wasn't fond of the 'domestication' but there was no need to trash and ruin things over the years. But a lot of that was Guza, too.

I think he has this view of how things should be and he needs to just show up, do your work, collect your check and go about your way. I've never seen an actor SO worried for nearly all of the wrong reasons about their character. He's a little out of touch but Luke's been dead to me for a long time, so ...

[John]

Lucky was created in the 80's. Ruby got a cal that Laura birthed Lucas Lorenzo Spencer Jr in 1985. So who ever was HW then created the character, not AG

[MissLlanviewPA]

So Anne Howard Bailey, I guess. I know she created Robin.

[ChitHappens]

I don't agree with Geary about JJ and Lucky, but I have the utmost respect for wanting the character to move on from LnL. That has been done! Not sure why many are having such a hard time with this!

[ChitHappens]

TG is a drama queen more times than not, but it does not invalidate his feelings on LnL, which has nothing to do with his feelings on GV. LL was 30 years ago and it was great for GH, and forgive the man if he would like to leave that behind him. As an actor, why would he want to be stuck in the same place? The fans need to move on.

I think its hilarious now how many who were LnL fans just Monday now want Stephan back for Laura? Twitter had me cracking up, but the upside is now we will have less people whining about LnL!

[SFK]

That's why I put "created" in quotes. While Tony didn't create the blank canvas baby, he and his writing partner devised their return s/l so he had a hand in creating the concept of Luke and Laura's tween son.

[ChitHappens]

Jhill Perran ‏@JhillyB 5m

@valentinifrank @carlivatiron OMG! OMG! OMG! Let's run home 2 Watch Luke & Tracy's NOmance on #GH said NO ONE EVER!!! #GiveUSLaura #LnL8

Good grief!

[MissLlanviewPA]

Haha, I can think of a bunch Lunacy fans here who would disagree--they all hang out in Tracy Q Lovefest thread!

[VirginiaHamilton]

Us T&B stans have nothing on the L&L stans and I mean that in the best way. Warms my heart to see that those true GH fans are dragging his ungrateful ass & the show to filth.

[DRW50]

If they want Stefan/Laura back they enjoyed 1999 and 2000 far more than I did. Stefan/Laura made me want to take a nap.

His feelings about Luke and Laura and Luke in general trickle down to the characters and actors who play his family. I think his behavior is unprofessional. I don't give a fig about Luke and Laura, and I don't see the point of reuniting them, but I'm sorry that his diva attitude helped lead to situations like GV being run off the show and that greasy-haired drip Nathan Parsons being given a handout for several years.

[titan1978]

Oh and Tony may have written the return storyline, but Guza's team used the Labine idea of a bone marrow transplant to bring back the Cassadines. That was one direction they were exploring for Luke and Laura's return.

Also, in that great We Love Soaps interview, Claire knew full well what Tony thought of her work on his character. He also was a champion of the other stories during that run, just not his own.

[Vee]

I found Tony's attitude re: Ethan and Nathan Parsons vs. Lucky to be unseemly, and I was not a big Greg Vaughan fan. He seemed so utterly enamored of him onscreen too that it was frankly a little creepy. You can't retrofit a "new Lucky" out of thin air, and Ethan was always so obnoxious.

Oddly enough I actually had a past history with Nathan Parsons - believe it or not, he had been a child voice actor on a dubbed version of a Japanese animated series I watched back in college, where they'd used actual kids to voice child characters for once, and he played a little French boy exploring the world, accent and all. My ridiculous memory made a note of the name in the credits, but years later I had no idea it was the same person on my screen on GH. Sure enough, it turned out it was. I think Parsons is talented, but I felt working with Geary so much made him as lazy and smug onscreen as Luke. Especially when Ethan would speechify about Laura, a woman he'd never met.

I think Khan hit the nail on the head. I respect a lot of Tony's concerns and legitimate criticisms, I always have, but I also think at least 50% of the stuff he says is horseshit. All that latter-day crap about Luke only seeing Bobbie as a whore, or regularly cheating on Laura, or whatever - come on. He keeps talking about "preserving Marland and Monty's vision," but the fact is Doug Marland was gone before Luke really became the Luke the world loved, the Luke that both Tony Geary and Gloria Monty continued to carefully mold and have very vested interests in. Luke came from the gutter and redeemed himself, not just in the eyes of Laura but in the eyes of the audience; he became a better man. Geary and Monty presided over that metamorphosis, however idealized it was. It was not a mirage, and it was not something neither of them were privvy to. It happened, and for its time it was done quite well. Luke was in love with life, in love with Laura, in love with being in love and having a family and being the better man, however volatile and fiery and dangerous he remained.

I think Tony Geary has somehow convinced himself that a very small sliver of time is the only Luke that matters at core - like, the campus disco period, pre-Left-Handed Boy - but that's the Luke that pre-dates so much of what came after, including his and Monty and the rest of those teams' hard work that made him a star. And yes, whether he likes it or not, that vibrant, passionate, joyful and volatile Luke also had valid representation in the Labine years, though sure, probably not enough.

I think you can do a honest reunion of Luke and Laura, that deals with the stuff TG claims to want to deal with. But I also think Luke has to fight for her. I think he has to fight for his own soul. I think he has to stop drinking, and admit what he did to Jake. And I'd personally start with something with the touchstone for an era TG claims to hate - I'd have Luke, having hit rock-bottom, work to rebuild the Ward house, where he and Laura and Lucky and baby Lulu lived. That life was part of the Luke that Geary denies, but it's also the Luke Luke denies. He was happy there. He just doesn't admit it. If he admits it, I think it would be a huge change for the character.

[EricMontreal22]

Vee what was the anime show? Mysterious Cities of Gold?