When it was announced that Rick Hearst was returning to General Hospital and that his scenes would air the week of Aug. 19, it was the week of July 29 that the actor was going to be back filming. And he shared a selfie from his dressing room to show fans what they could expect when Ric Lansing is back on screen! “Slid into this guy’s skin again pretty easily,” Hearst shared on social media. Of course, the suit helps.”
Among all the fans cheering the actor’s return to GH were some of his old neighbors from Port Charles. “Cheering you on, Rick Hearst… I mean Lansing,” joked Ted King (ex-Alcazar). Kin Shriner (Scott) cheered: “Yes, Rick! Once in costume, half the work!” Tamara Braun (ex-Kim; ex-Carly) and Kathleen Gati (Obrecht) both declared: “Looking good!” And Cynthia Preston (ex-Faith) let a row of applause emojis do the talking for her.
As he began taping his return, Hearst also made an appearance on the Daily Drama podcast hosted by GH’s Steve Burton (Jason) and Bradford Anderson (Spinelli) to discuss coming back to the soap. The last time the actor had been on GH was back in 2016, but it was only for a couple of episodes because he’d already moved to Atlanta at the time. (He now resides in New Jersey.)
When Anderson couldn’t remember why Ric left the last time, Hearst explained: “There was no exit story. There really wasn’t. The last thing I had gone off was some fact-finding mission for Sonny to find Josslyn. That was a long time ago. That was the last thing that I had done.”
So we’ll have to wait until Ric is back on the canvas to find out exactly where the guy has been all this time. “I did try to catch up on the show and see where all of the pieces fit together,” Hearst revealed. “Because my cousin, who used to work in production there as well… he said to me, ‘So, have you thought about where Ric has been at this point?’ I said, “Yes, but I’m reserving the right to make sure I understand where these writers… there voice, what their intent is, where they think.”
Stay tuned, because Ric always brings the drama!
