‘General Hospital’ Star Cameron Mathison Breaks Down That Epic Drew/Jason Showdown
When Cameron Mathison (Drew) appeared on The Jennifer Hudson Show with other General Hospital cast members earlier this month, they were asked if they’d ever had an evil twin. We expected at least one cast member to respond as Finola Hughes, beloved as Anna, has also played Anna’s evil twin, Alex. But hers wasn’t the only hand that shot up as the question wasn’t restricted to one actor playing two roles.
Mathison raised his arm and suggested that Jason (Steve Burton), Drew’s separated at birth brother, was the bad sibling.
TV Insider chatted with Mathison about the Drew/Jason dynamic, which played out in a big way on last Friday’s episode, and got his thoughts on Drew’s position within the Quartermaine clan and more.
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“I regretted it,” Mathison shared with us about calling Jason the “evil twin” when we chatted with him on the red carpet for the 32nd Annual Movieguide Awards that are set to air next month. “I should have said, ‘I’m the evil twin. Drew thinks Jason’s the evil twin, but he’s not.”
It’s easy to understand why Drew might feel that way. After all, a twist of fate led to Jason being brought up within the bosom of the (granted, dysfunctional) Quartermaine family while Drew was raised by Betsy Frank (Deborah Strang). That all set the stage for their dynamic today.
“Jason and Drew got into it,” Mathison says of Drew blasting Jason for his hypocrisy in Friday’s show. “He lays into him [telling him], ‘You’ve had everything. You had the cushy life. You had opportunities.’ Drew went on to note that despite the fact that Jason, a mob enforcer, is out there “killing people…they still love you.”
And what was Drew’s biggest crime? “I did everything right,” Mathison continues in character as to what he told Jason before telling him to leave his house. “Everyone kicked me out. Carly [Laura Wright] kicked me out for you. And what did I do? I fell in love with somebody [Willow, Katelyn MacMullen].”
Mathison makes an excellent point. If everyone who fell in love with someone that others didn’t approve of …. well, pretty much everyone in Port Charles would be the pariah that Drew has become. “He’s had it,” Mathison says of his character. “He doesn’t care. He doesn’t trust anybody. He’s wrapped up in his own pain.”
Watch for Drew’s angst to possibly continue later this week when Tracy (Jane Elliot) makes a move against her nephew!
The role of Drew Quartermaine can’t be any different from Mathison’s All My Children role as Ryan Lavery, which he played from 1998 to the show’s end in 2011. While Ryan was a hero, Drew isn’t perceived as such.
“I have had trouble,” Mathison says of getting inside Drew’s head. “I’ve needed help. I’ve needed help from the writers… I’ve needed help from the executive producer, Frank [Valentini]… I’ve gone in many times… but, now, I’m all in. It’s hard. [Recently,] I had to say things that were so hard for me to say. I’ve been given a little bit of an arc [of what’s coming up], which helps me.”
The most negative fan response Mathison said he ever received as Ryan was when the show’s writers paired him briefly with Kelly Ripa‘s Hayley, whose one true love on (and off) screen is Mateo Santos, played by Ripa’s real-life husband, Mark Consuelos. “People were mad [over Ryan/Hayley], but I wasn’t evil,” Mathison recalls.
Does Mathison miss playing Ryan? “I do,” he says. “He’s in everything I do and in every single role I do in all my Great America Family and other Christmas movies. Ryan’s in there. I miss him a lot. I miss him all the time.”
General Hospital, Weekdays, ABC, Hulu
The 32nd Annual Movieguide Awards, Thursday, March 6, 8/7c, GAC
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