‘General Hospital’: Kimberly McCullough and Maurice Benard on the Co-Star Who Was ‘Kind of a Jerk’
General Hospital is known for the drama it’s filled with. According to Kimberly McCullough and Maurice Benard, there’s been plenty of behind-the-scenes drama among co-stars through the years as well. In a recent interview, McCullough and Benard talk about the actor who “could hurt people’s feelings.”
Kimberly McCullough joined ‘General Hospital’ when she was 7
By the time McCullough was 7, she was already building quite the career for herself.
“I liked being around other creative people,” she told Benard during a recent episode of his vlog, State of Mind. “I liked being around adults. I seemed to have this talent that other people rewarded me for. There was a lot of discipline involved and a lot of sacrifice, but I really enjoyed it.”
While McCullough loved the work she was doing, she was burning the candle at both ends. Eventually, her schedule took a toll on her.
“I was doing too much,” she said. “I had a lot of responsibility, and I was having a lot of fun, but I’ll just go, go, go. I’m like the Energizer Bunny.”
She developed an ulcer by the time she was 12.
Steve Burton gave Kimberly McCullough a hard time for going to class on filming days
McCullough’s mother decided her daughter ought to go to school during the day in an attempt to achieve some normalcy.
“They decided from that point on that I would go to regular school during the day, then everybody would rehearse without me,” she said. “And then I would show up and we would tape the scenes.”
McCullough’s schedule rubbed actor Steve Burton the wrong way.
“When I was a teenager, I remember Steve like yelling down the hall, ‘Thanks for joining us, McCullough!’ after I’d been through seven classes at school and driven an hour to Hollywood,” she said.
This didn’t surprise Benard.
“Steve was kind of a jerk early on,” he said. “He’s not that now, but he could hurt people’s feelings… I mean, we both kinda were. But he didn’t know when to stop. I kind of did.”
The ‘General Hospital’ behind-the-scenes drama in the ’80s
McCullough and Benard also spoke about how different things were in the ’80s. Apparently, tempers ran high at the General Hospital set.
“I do remember there was lots of holes in the walls from people like busting doors open,” said McCullough. “And there was a lot of ‘So-and-so won’t come out of their dressing room,’ ‘Can you go to so-and-so’s house because they’re not answering the phone?’”
It also wasn’t uncommon for the cast to go to lunch at a nearby Mexican restaurant where “everyone would get trashed, and then they’d come back to work.”
Of course, McCullough made a point to say that times have certainly changed. Today, a lot of that behavior wouldn’t be tolerated.
