General Hospital, like a Hawkes

Hawkes had been in to read for GH casting director more than once over the last year, but it wasn’t until Ross came along that the actor was cast. The actor told TV Insider that he knew Teschner liked him. After he read with Laura Wright’s Carly, Hawkes walked out of the reading knowing that he’d done his job, regardless of the outcome.

The actor was thrown into the deep end as he had to learn about 65 pages of dialogue in approximately six days. He remembers being on earlier this month The Rookie (which stars Nathan Fillion, ex-Joey, One Life to Live), which did about 8 to 9 pages a day. Hawkes realized that GH gets as much done daily as it does because it’s such a well-oiled machine.

Hawkes isn’t entirely new to the soap opera world. He played an unnamed thief on The Young and the Restless back in 2014. He recollected the CBS soap being shot very quickly, and he thought that being a regular on a soap would be terrifying, given the pace.

Getting to like you, getting to hope you like me

Humorously, he joked to Frank Valentini, GH’s executive producer, that he’d made his worst nightmare come true! “Luckily, he laughed,” Hawkes says. “It’s super intense, but I love the challenge of it.”

Hawkes believes that Ross is a dark soul, and that he gets the job done, as evidenced of his takedown of Anna in his premiere. Later, we saw Hawkes show up at Jack Brennan’s (Chris McKenna) door.

“Everybody has been awfully kind and sweet to me,” he reports, adding that he gets to play a great character. He’s hit it off with McKenna, too. “We’re adversarial in the show, but he’s such a good guy. Carlo [Rota, Jenz], of course, is fantastic and so much fun to work with. I’ve just started watching General Hospital in the last month, and I’m like, ‘Oh, I can see how you would just right away get hooked.’

“I just feel very fortunate,” Hawkes concludes. “It’s a great job, and it’s a great gig with incredibly gifted people. This has just been a fantastic experience for me.”