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Could we just hand Tony Geary next year's Lead Actor Emmy *now* and forget the pretense of a contest? For the first time since his 1991 return to General Hospital, daytime's greatest male star has a story worthy of his talent. The result is a chilling, spit-in-your-eye performance that is shocking fans and sending his peers in the industry scrambling for superlatives. ABC is not about to overlook his reascendance to the throne: On November 15th, the network celebrates Luke and Laura's 15th wedding anniversary with an episode focusing solely on Geary and Genie Francis. He will also be prominently featured in a special prime-time hour of GH airing December 14.
TV Guide: Luke's return to the dark side--his enraged estrangement from Laura and the intimations that he'd resort to murder, if necessary, to be rid of her first-born son--is brilliant. But it's also scaring the hell out of the audience.
Tony Geary: Well, baby, that's what I do. The more dangerous, the better. No good ever comes from homogenization. When Luke and Laura were returned to the show and were the sweetest couple in town, nobody gave a damn--including me. Luke had become a sofa cushion. In my mind, he is reborn.
TVG: But *murder*?
TG: I put in every one of those references [Geary is probably the only star in soaps who actually has it in his contract that he can rewrite dialogue]. The scripts originally had [mobster] Sonny Corinthos offering to have somebody bump Nikolas off, and Luke saying, "Oh, no, that's out of the question." But it's *not* out of the question. Luke is not a forgiving man. He considers Nikolas a child of rape [by Laura's third husband, Stavros Cassadine]--and rape is a real hot-button for Luke Spencer. We may be painting ourselves into a deep, dark corner, but this is the Luke I know and believe in. He will do anything to protect his family from perceived threat.
TVG: What if you lose Jonathan Jackson [Luke's son, Lucky]? As of press time, renegotiations have not gone well.
TG: I get a lump in my throat just to think about it, so much that I went to [the GH powers] and said, "If we lose him, then let's kill Lucky." Jonathan is too much a part of us to replace him. He is an inspiration, an amazing actor. We're riding on *his* coattails.
TVG: That aside, you're content?
TG: I've finally separated my work from my life to the degree that I now do them both a lot better. I'm not so consumed with the future: Will I be on a soap the rest of my life? Will I ever be a movie star? Should I be on Broadway? I've come to see that it's all about stamina and how much you can tolerate the B.S. And, as the years go by, as I get up in the morning and my body is stiffer and my eyesight is weaker, I can tolerate it *all* a lot better.