Eight months after the real-life passing of Leslie Charleson, General Hospital will say goodbye to her iconic character, Dr. Monica Quartermaine, beginning with today’s episode. The tribute will not only mark Monica’s departure from Port Charles but also serve as a heartfelt remembrance of the woman who played her for more than four decades.
One of those feeling the loss deeply is Steve Burton, who first arrived on the show in 1991 as Jason Quartermaine, the son of Alan (Stuart Damon) and Susan Moore, who was raised by Monica. Burton formed an immediate bond with Charleson.
“I never had to really prepare my scenes with her because we just had a connection as soon as I came on the show,” Burton recalls. “It was very special, and I’ll always cherish my time with her and the Quartermaines. We had so much fun together. She and Stuart always looked out for me and protected me. To have her and Stuart Damon as my parents? I hit the lottery.”
ABC/TOM QUEALLY
Burton remembers her not just as a co-star but as a true maternal figure. “I always tell a story about how she hated when I would chew gum, just in general, but on the set, she hated it with a passion,” he muses. “She was fiery, and she would say, ‘You’re chewing gum,’ and would put her hand out and say, ‘Spit it out now.’ And I was like, ‘I’m 22!’ And she would say, ‘Spit it out!’ She was so funny. I don’t know if people really knew how funny she was. She was just very special.”
It wasn’t until her celebration of life that Burton realized just how many people Charleson had touched. “I had no clue,” he shares. “The people who got up and spoke were like, ‘She changed my life.’ ‘Her house was always open for us.’ ‘She always did this for us.’ And I’m like, ‘Man, she was such a serving woman to everybody, and it was just such a beautiful thing.’ She deserves all the honor and credit. She was truly amazing.”
Filming Monica’s on-screen farewell so long after Charleson’s real-life passing came with its own emotional weight. “It’s a surreal thing, because you have a woman who I love dearly who passed, but you had her character who was still alive,” he explains. “So, it was just this weird world to be in. We had the celebration of life for Leslie, and now we’re having a funeral for Monica, so it definitely was difficult.”
Burton was especially moved that it was Jason who was scripted to discover Monica had passed. “I’m glad my character was the one who found her,’ he says. “I just think it had to be Jason or Tracy because of the connection they had to her.”
That link, he notes, was both powerful and complex. “He is obviously devastated by the loss,” Burton says of his alter ego. “Obviously, he had a great connection with Monica, but he definitely regretted not spending more time with her. Realizing that she loved him, no matter what happened or what he did, and she wasn’t even his real mother, he’s grateful for the relationship.”
Working on the Quartermaine set stirred up a lot of memories for the actor. “It just brought a lot of feelings up to the surface,” Burton relays. “You’re spending a lot of time in the Quartermaine house, and you see pictures of [the late] Lila [Quartermaine, Anna Lee] and Edward [Quartermaine, John Ingle/David Lewis] and Alan. Jane [Elliot, Tracy Quartermaine] and I are just there doing the scenes in this big, empty place, so it wasn’t easy for sure. And then you add Wally [Kurth, Ned Quartermaine] in there, and it’s just three of us left. It’s kind of crazy.”
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When it came time to film the actual funeral, Burton didn’t have to dig too deep to tap into the grief. “Honestly, there was not a lot of preparation,” he reveals. “My relationship off camera was great with Leslie, so it wasn’t difficult to get where I needed to be. What you hope for as an actor is you have to control your emotions as opposed to muster them up, so that was the most difficult part, controlling my emotions as opposed to going, ‘Oh, this is going to be a sad scene. I gotta prepare for this and hopefully the emotions come when they roll tape.’ It was actually the opposite.”
The performance struck a chord, even with the crew. “The camera guy, Dean [Cosanella], said to me, ‘Man, how long did you work on that monologue?’ And I said, ‘Actually, I didn’t look at it until this morning.’ He goes, ‘Really?’ I said, ‘I just couldn’t go there.’ I didn’t want to go there prior to that day. So, I just got up early that day and learned my monologue. There was no planning. I was there emotionally already, so I just got up and spoke, and that was it. I was able to do it in one take, which was great, and it was done.”
Disney/Christine Bartolucci
While Jason’s association with the Quartermaines has often been complicated, Burton values how it’s changed over time, particularly with Tracy. “It feels good,” he says. “The Quartermaines have such a rich history on the show. I really appreciate the relationship that Tracy and Jason have now. It’s like, ‘Hey, we’ve been through everything, and I’m still probably not going to be that nice to you,’ but you could tell that she loves Jason now. I think there’s a mutual respect. They realize, ‘We don’t have any family left. So here we are.’”
Burton is especially thankful for the scenes he’s sharing now with Jane Elliot. “I love it,” he raves. “For her to still be doing the amount of work that she does, I have such respect for her. She just kills it, and on those days where she has 40 pages, I’m like, ‘Jane, you’re a freaking rock star.’ So, it’s been a blessing to be a Quartermaine.”
And though saying farewell to both Charleson and Monica was hard, Burton feels the episodes do justice to Monica’s legacy. “It was a tough day, but she’s honored,” he concludes. “I’m glad they did it this way. She deserves it.”
General Hospital, Weekdays, ABC
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