‘General Hospital’: Nathan Dean Teases an Edgier Ethan & the Real Reason He’s Back

Nathan Dean will make his General Hospital return as Ethan Lovett on April 17, six years after he last appeared in Port Charles.

The opportunity to revisit the role began to take shape late last year, after the passing of Anthony Geary, who played his on-screen father, Luke Spencer. “I wanted to come back for a little bit after everything with Tony, just to sort of pay my respects for everything he did for me over the course of the many years that we worked together,” Dean explains. “And I guess they had the same thought because Frank [Valentini, executive producer] and Mark [Teschner, casting director] reached out right before Christmas break and were like, ‘Hey, would you come back?’”

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Dean says Geary had a profound impact on him, both personally and professionally. “Tony was really one of my best friends,” he relays. “He was my mentor on the show. He was like a brother to me. We were very similar people, off set as well, and I kind of always joked that it was like looking in a mirror sometimes.”

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Another loss since Dean’s exit is Tristan Rogers, who played Robert Scorpio, a key figure in Ethan’s past. “I didn’t get to work with Tristan until more recently, but he was awesome as well, and I wish I’d had more chance to work with him,” Dean notes. “But those are two legends, and we’re still talking about them today, and I imagine we’ll talk about them for many, many years to come.”

Though he has worked in prime-time on Roswell, New Mexico and The Originals since leaving the soap, Dean admits to some first-day jitters upon returning. “It’s been a long time since I’ve worked in that environment, and it’s a very, very different environment than other shows that I’ve been doing,” he points out. “I was sort of like, ‘Oh, I hope I still got it.’ My first week, I definitely had some growing pains. I was very nervous. I was just tearing a hole in the floor, pacing around, but it’s been great. I’ve gotten to work with Maurice [Benard, Sonny Corinthos] and Jane [Elliot, Tracy Quartermaine], and obviously, Frank and Mark are amazing. I got to see some familiar faces and meet some of the new faces, and everyone’s been very nice.”

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Working with new scene partners — including Alexa Havins as his on-screen sister Lulu Spencer — helped reestablish the rhythm of working in daytime. “My very first scenes are with Lulu, and there’s a new actress playing her,” Dean says. “And she’s awesome. We hadn’t ever had communication, so she was sort of curious about what Ethan and Lulu’s dynamic was, so it was very fun to rekindle that. And it was good for me to rehash it a little bit, because it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, I remember this happened.’ It was a good way to ease back into it.”

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Despite the time away, Dean says stepping back into Ethan’s shoes went smoothly. “He was still there, and I credit Tony with the fact that we were able to create our family dynamic and really establish who Luke and Ethan were, and how these characters are kind of gray area characters,” he explains. “They’re not good guys, they’re not bad guys, they’re kind of a little bit of both. And so, it is really fun to jump back into that. I’ve noticed in the writing, it’s definitely giving Ethan a little bit more of an edge now, which I like. It’s been really fun to work with that.”

As for whether Ethan’s mother, Holly Sutton, played by Emma Samms, will resurface, Dean is hopeful. “We’ll see,” he offers. “That’s definitely been brought up as a possibility. I don’t think they’ve written that far ahead yet, but it would be amazing to reconnect with her. She was a delight.”

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Story-wise, look for a slightly different version of Ethan, something Dean is eager to explore. “He’s definitely changed a little bit,” Dean teases. “We know that some other mysterious people have been popping up in town. As we start to learn a little bit more about them, maybe we’ll reveal the real reason why he is back, as opposed to just, ‘Oh, I miss my friends and family.’ I’m very excited to dive into all of it.”

Another change? His last name, from Parsons to Dean. “That was something I had wanted to do when I was 15 years old, actually,” he reveals. “I got my first [Screen Actors Guild]  film in high school, and you have to pick your SAG name. I said, ‘I’m gonna be Nathan Dean.’ My birth name is Nathan Dean Parsons, and I just like the name Nathan Dean. It rolls off the tongue better, and it’s a little shout-out to James Dean, who’s one of my favorites. And then they came back, and they said, ‘Oh, there’s already a Nathan Dean in SAG. You have to pick another name.’ So I said, ‘Fine, I’ll be Nathan Parsons.’ And then flash forward years later, a lot of things happened in my life, and I found out around that time that just because your name on your SAG card is one thing, you can go by whatever name you want. So, starting with Roswell, that’s when I started making the changeover. It was a big role, it was a new opportunity, and sort of a way to reinvent myself. And now, we’re in the process of legally doing it, and it’s going to be super official at some point, and we’ll go from there. But it’s cool that I get to come back and do General Hospital with my new name.”

And with his first episode about to air, Dean is eager to see what’s next for his character. “I’m very excited to be back and see where they want to take Ethan and bring all the fans along with us,” he concludes. “This is such a wonderful place to have as a world to dive back into when you can, and I’m just very grateful that I was able to do this.”

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