One Life to Live Fave Heads to General Hospital: ‘I Was Still Very Nervous’
Fans of One Life to Live are going to see one of their favorites return to daytime this week. Susan Batten, who played half of one of the most memorable Llanview couples, Luna and Max (James DePaiva, ex-Dr. Bensch), will be guest-starring on General Hospital, as first reported by Soap Opera Digest.
Batten will play the role of home shopping-star Flora Gardens and will appear in scenes with Sasha and a few others.
Having remained close with the ABC soap’s Executive Producer Frank Valentini, Batten had expressed how much she missed “that whole energy of being part of a collaboration of actors” and her urge to do it again and asked, “If anything comes up that you think might be fun for me to do, just let me know and I’ll do it.”
When Valentini first called and said, “Okay, there’s this character named Flora Gardens,” Batten replied, “Does she have teeth?” And after a little laugh, she immediately agreed to take the role and “just had a blast.”
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Since she last appeared on One Life to Live in 2012, of course she was a bit nervous before taping. “I think because I’ve been writing so much, I hold a lot of words in my head so the brain had not turned to jelly. But I was still very nervous.” In fact, she couldn’t recall how everyone remembered “this much dialogue” and wondered how they did it years ago.” After rehearsing with her husband, “it all kind of fell into place.”
During the week that she was on the West Coast, Batten enjoyed spending time with Valentini and reconnecting with other former One Life to Live colleagues, including Director Gary Tomlin and Senior Producer Mary-Kelly Weir. “Being surrounded by those familiar faces really just made me so happy… I kind of grew up on One Life to Live and everyone there became my second family.”
We can’t wait to see her back in daytime — this time, in Port Charles!
Before you go, look back at more past favorites in an album of One Life to Live then and now photos.
