‘General Hospital’: Nancy Lee Grahn & Lane Davies Prove They Still Have Chemistry

In 1986, Nancy Lee Grahn and Lane Davies became fan favorites when they were paired together as Santa Barbara’s Julia Wainwright and Mason Capwell.

They crossed paths again in 2002, when Grahn was toiling on General Hospital as Alexis Davis and Davies did a two-year stint as Cameron Lewis.

On May 22, Davies returns as a new character, Fergus Byrne, who will face off with Alexis in court as she fights to get her law license reinstated. Here, the duo (who were also briefly linked in real-life in the ‘80s), discusses their on- and off-screen connection.

Lane, how did your return for this General Hospital visit come about?

Lane Davies: I know Nancy was wanting to work with me again. I ran into [former GH head writer] Patrick Mulcahey at [Santa Barbara co-creator] Bridget Dobson’s funeral and we had a lovely lunch together and a lovely visit and I think it was just the synergy of all those things coming together that did it. Patrick saw me and realized that I hadn’t completely deteriorated over the years and thought, “Well, this would be fun.”

Nancy Lee Grahn: And Patrick really fashioned Mason and Julia and their relationship. The Dobsons of course, created the characters, but he was very responsible for the writing of that.

Davies: He got us early on and that sort of Adams Rib-by tone that we had.

Grahn: And the dimension and the complication and all those things.

Nancy, how did you react when you heard Lane was coming to the show?

Grahn: I was thrilled. There’s just chemistry between us in general, because we could pretty much argue about anything, and agree about…

Davies: Nothing [laughs].

Grahn: Where you want to kill each other and then make out with each other. We’re so chemical, the two of us, and it’s so fun. Later in life now, it’s still the same but different. It’s hard to find that with somebody else and I know he gets it. He’s smart and I know he can give back as good as he gets.

Lane, it’s been 20 years since you were last on the show as Cameron Lewis. Did you have any hesitation in returning because you had already played a role?

Davies: Not, not really. I call myself semi-retired but I think I’m just lazy and if something looks like fun, or pays well or gives me free travel or any or all of the above, I’ll do it. And if not, I sit by my lake or I sit in a café in Prague and just kind of watch life go by. But when this opportunity popped up, I thought, “Oh, that’s all three: I get to go to L.A., see old friends. I get to work with Nancy, which is some of the most fun I’ve ever had on TV. And it pays pretty well, which for a lonely old pensioner is a good thing.”

How did it feel to get back in the swing of things?

Davies: I’m out of practice handling a lot of dialogue in a short amount of time, so I probably spent more time on the dialogue than I used to. I used to be able to pick up a script and read it three times and do it, but my brain is not that elastic anymore; new material takes a lot longer to sink in for me. I knew working with Nancy wasn’t going to be a problem.

Grahn: There was a lot of procedural, there was a lot of speeches; it was court stuff, so we were doing, like, 15, 16 scenes back to back. I counted my pages and I had about 167 pages over three days, 50, 60 pages of dialogue every day filled with speeches. So, I had been away for the weekend. I came in Sunday, and Lane’s sleeping on the porch and I said, “Get up and get your script.” And [Grahn’s daughter] Kate played all the other parts and sat there and read with us in the living room until we both passed out.

Wait, Lane, did you stay with Nancy?

Davies: Yeah, I stayed in her guest house. Probably wanna make a big point of that so that [her fiancé] Richard doesn’t come looking for me.

Grahn: It was really fun having him here because he stayed for almost a week.

This story brings you both back in the legal space again, like your Santa Barbara characters. Lane, did you have to brush up on your legalese?

Davies: No, it didn’t get legalese-y. The biggest problem for me was I live in the foothills of the Blue Ridge [Mountains] and my chainsaw is my best friend. So having to suddenly look well-groomed and lawyerly was probably as stressful for me as learning the lines because I’m used to, “Oh, it’s Wednesday. Maybe I’ll shower,” and here I was all back in that, “Oh, my God, I have to wear a tie and I have to wash my hair and I have to get makeup.” It felt very familiar but very strange at the same time.

Is there a Mason/Julia vibe to the scenes?

Grahn: It wasn’t banter-y. We tried to get some of that Mason and Julia banter in there, but we got the kibosh put on it.

Davies: They’re not trying to recreate Mason and Julia, but they’re creating something more adversarial, which actually could be just as much fun to play down the road if this all goes forward somehow.

Mason and Julia were such a beloved pairing. What does it mean to you that the audience still cares about that duo and you as actors?

Grahn: It’s incredible, really. It makes me feel really good because not only was it just in this country, but it was popular all over the world. Lane and I worked really hard to make it look like a real couple going through real things with a lot of humor and entertainment factored in. Cruz [A Martinez] and Eden [Marcy Walker] was more the fantasy of love, and Mason and Julia was the reality and the consequence and the cause and effect of love. And we got to be funny doing it, as well. So, yeah, it means a lot to me.

Davies: On the most basic level, as an actor in, in spite of any artistic pretensions one might have, you just want people to like you, and the fact that we created this couple that people just liked so much is very validating.

Lane, you implied there could be another chapter to this story. Would you be open to returning?

Davies: I would be totally open, but that’s all up to the writers and fans and producers and network people and I’m kind of out of that loop. But if it happens, grand.

Would you stay with Nancy again?

Grahn: He could. He and Richard have now bonded. If I am trying to keep them apart so they can’t compare notes about me… [Laughs]

Davies: She doesn’t want Richard and me to start drinking together alone at any time in the future.

Grahn: No, I really don’t.

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