Departing General Hospital star Jane Elliot opened up about some fascinating similarities she shares with her onscreen alter ego and many more intriguing topics.
We’ll See
You know what they say. Or at least we at Soap Cities say it: If they meant no, they’d say no.
So would Elliot come out of retirement to reprise the role she made a soap classic, that of tough but tender Tracy Quartermaine.
“Is it up for discussion? Maybe. I’ll see how I feel in a year or two. But, right at this moment, I have no need to do it ever again,” Elliot told TV Insider’s Michael Logan.
She added that should anyone need her to do them a favor by performing in a work of theirs, such as her director son, Adrian, she’ll put on her acting hat again.
She said her best friend and daytime royal Deidre Hall (Marlena Evans, Days of Our Lives) lamented her decision to leave show business.
Can’t Get Him Out of Her Mind
Like Tracy, Elliot wants to make her father proud.
“My father was a lawyer and, if he’d had his druthers, I would have been a lawyer too. Or a doctor. I finished high school and started working as an actor within weeks so I skipped the hard part–getting a degree in something, getting into a profession that demanded higher education. That gnaws at me,” the actress offered.
What Will Become of the Q’s?
Elliot said that Wally Kurth (Ned Ashton, GH; Justin Kiriakis, Days of Our Lives), her onscreen son, has the potential to be the new head of the Quartermaine family now that Elliot has decided to leave Port Charles.
“There could be something really great there,” she said.
Why Soaps Tend to Over-Focus on Younger Characters
The daytime vet said that despite the “constant cry” from viewers for shows to focus on beloved veteran characters, soaps tend to overemphasize the young crowd.
And you might be surprised to hear who’s to blame: advertisers. Elliot said while advertisers see older viewers as set in their buying ways, they see young people as moldable consumers who are more likely to change their purchasing habits.
“They [advertisers]believe they will attract a younger audience that way [pressuring the soaps to focus on viewers], because young viewers are the ones who haven’t yet decided whether to buy Kleenex or Puffs and they can be swayed by advertising,” she said.
Do you agree, dear Soap Cities readers, with this assessment of our buying habits by advertisers?
Give us your input in the comment section below. Check back with Soap Cities for more GH spoilers, recaps, news, and fun! Follow us on Twitter at @soapcities, on Instagram at @soapcities, and come chat with us in our Facebook group. Catch “General Hospital” weekdays on ABC.
