Soap Interview: Matt Cohen Thankful for ‘General Hospital’ Soap Opera Bootcamp

Interview by Gwen Reyes. Originally published in TV Week by FYI Television

Matt Cohen’s Dr. Griffin Munro has been one of the most underused and misunderstood characters on GENERAL HOSPITAL in quite some time. The sometimes priest all the time neurosurgeon kept his nose pretty clean until his affair with Claudette Beaulieu (Bree Williamson), but now that Williamson announced her intentions to leave “GH” once her contract expires, the question begs to be asked: will Griffin find a new partner in crime and in the bedroom?

“I’m definitely not saying there is no illicit love affair on the horizon or in his past,” says Cohen. “This is daytime we’re talking about. The grim reaper has shown up and Griffin is still in love with this woman and she showed up in the place where she shouldn’t be. I think his whole life is about to be turned upside down.”

Cohen plays coy when discussing details about Griffin’s love life, but he is not shy when it comes to praising his time in daytime.

“Why not, is the question,” mentions Cohen about why he left primetime to join “GH.” “It’s a job and I get to do what I love, so I don’t see the real difference. Daytime actors work about one hundred times harder than primetime actors. We do seven to ten pages a day in primetime, but 70 to 100 pages in daytime. I’m not taking anything away from primetime, but primetime better not dare to take anything away from daytime actors. Not in front of me.”

Despite his robust acting credits, Cohen had no idea what he was walking into when he screen tested for “GH.” He is a consummate professional, but even he was not prepared for the intense drive daytime requires, that many co-workers have deemed “the perfect acting training ground.”

“I was literally shocked,” adds Cohen. “I’ve done dramas, sitcoms, you name it on the nighttime spectrum, but walking into daytime [was different]. The screen test process was chaotic and then [I figured out] that every day on set is just like the screen test. I need to come to work more prepared now and that’s just how it is. One rehearsal, one take. The pace is [the biggest challenge]. You can’t second-guess you decisions or your character, you just have to do it. Come prepared and be a professional. In primetime you’re doing numerous takes and numerous sizes, but it’s one time on a soap opera.”