'General Hospital' star Vanessa Marcil-Giovinazzo (Reuters)
She said she'd only stick around a year and she meant it.
Emmy-winning diva Vanessa Marcil Giovinazzo will conclude her current run as Brenda on General Hospital the week of July 18. The star gave TV Guide Magazine the scoop on her exit, what she really thinks about the way Brenda's return was written and the likelihood of coming back.
You'll be surprised which character VGM wants Brenda to bed next!
TV Guide Magazine: So it's happening, eh, baby?
Marcil Giovinazzo: It's happening! My time's up. It happened awful quickly and I'm really sad about leaving, really depressed, really emotional, but this was always supposed to last just one year. I was always very careful to call this a "visit." Always.
TV Guide Magazine: Let's assess this year in the life of Brenda Barrett. How have you felt about what's been done with — and to — the character? A lot of fans have taken issue with it.
Marcil Giovinazzo: When things go really well, I don't take credit, and when things don't go well, I don't take credit. I don't listen to the good stuff or the bad stuff. I work really hard, come home, hang out with my family. I've been really oblivious to what's been said about Brenda's story and how the audience is responding. And I don't see the show. In our house, we don't watch ourselves on television. [The actress is married CSI: NY star Carmine Giovinazzo.] It just works better that way. Fame is fleeting. It comes and goes, ebbs and flows. I learn so much from failure. I don't really know what you learn from success, to be honest, but I think you learn a whole lot from failure. It's hard for me to really judge what this visit has been like in the bigger picture, but on a personal, selfish level, I've had so much fun at GH and I love my co-stars so much that it's been really, really worth it. As for the writing, I hand over everything to the powers-that-be. I find out what I'm doing when I get the script.
TV Guide Magazine: Last year, you and I did an interview as you were getting ready to make your return, and you said you'd nixed the idea of coming back to the canvas with James Franco because he had nothing to do with Brenda. So how come the first two months of your return story had Brenda stuck in Rome with all-new people — Adrienne Barbeau and that Brad Pitt wannabe and a bunch of the Balkan's hopelessly inept goons?
Marcil Giovinazzo: I don't know why. The only thing I will say is this: When I came back I made it clear I wanted to work with my old gang — Maurice Benard [Sonny], Steve Burton [Jason], Kimberly McCullough [Robin], Ingo Rademacher [Jax] — and I was disappointed that for the first few months I wasn't with them. But I took it on as a challenge. I tried to do something with that situation in Rome, and create a Brenda that wasn't like the Brenda the audience remembered. She'd left all the people she loved and got wrapped up in the supermodel world and become a shell of herself. I've seen people do that in real life. They can lose their real selves.
TV Guide Magazine: I get what you're saying and see the dramatic potential, but I don't think that came across. The writing certainly didn't support it.
Marcil Giovinazzo: Well, I tried to make an acting experiment out of it. I think she only became the real Brenda when Jason finally came to Rome to visit her and when she was back in Port Charles with Sonny again. But no matter what I didn't like, I couldn't be happier about this visit overall. The writers gave me the love story with Maurice and that's all I really, really wanted — to have the opportunity to work with him again, and to give the fans some sort of resolution to that love story. I understand it can't go on forever and that is upsetting, but for these two to finally get married and have their love story — at least for a minute — has been important.
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