‘General Hospital’ Star Cynthia Watros Reveals When ‘I Was Convinced I Might Lose This Job’ (Exclusive)

Cynthia Watros marked six years as General Hospital‘s Nina Reeves in June, but her daytime journey began decades before, when she was cast on Guiding Light, and discovered her passion for the genre. “I started off my career in soaps and loved it then, and I love it just as much now,” Watros reflects. “It feels so comforting and rewarding as an actor to be able to play a character for so long. And I fall in love with every character that I’ve played because there’s some sort of lovable quality in them.”

Annie Dutton, Guiding Light 

Robert Milazzo/© CBS /Courtesy Everett Collection

Before starting her Daytime Emmy-winning run as Annie Dutton in 1994, Watros had a small role on the beloved CBS soap. “I was a newbie New York, struggling with no money,” Watros says of her journey to Springfield. “I was brought in as a day player, as a Southern girl who worked in a restaurant, and then I was brought back to audition for Annie. I asked later on why I got the role rather than all the amazing actors that were in the room auditioning for Annie, and I guess there was a moment in the script where Annie gasped and says, ‘Oh, I’m late,’ and my gasp was more believable than the other women’s gasps. So, thank God I know how to gasp.” 

Annie may have started out sweet, but a spontaneous acting choice from Watros sent the character on a wildly different path. “I added in that I had a terrible headache,” she recalls. “I don’t know what what made me so brave to say, ‘I have a headache,’ and I kind of grabbed my head. The writers wrote in that Annie starts taking pain medication for her headache, and then I started getting addicted to pain medication, and then it just spiraled to where I was doing all sorts of crazy stuff, and that was a blast.” 

Working with soap legends Kim Zimmer (Reva Shayne) and Robert Newman (Josh Lewis) was a surreal, full-circle moment for the daytime newbie. “Well, when I was in high school, Josh and Reva were my favorite couple,” she confides. “I watched Guiding Light, and they were my go-to couple. If they had good day, I had a good day. So, I was in the rehearsal hall, standing in between Robert and Kim as Josh and Reva, yelling at one of them, and I was like, ‘This is so crazy. This is a couple that I love and now I’m playing the wedge between them.’”  

Watros says the veteran stars couldn’t have been more welcoming. “They were so sweet,” she relays. “Kim taught me a lot about the business. I could not slack off at all. I mean, she kept me on my A game. She’s amazing. And with Robert, he was always so kind and patient with me, because I didn’t know anything. I was a theater actor. I didn’t know anything about lights or cameras, and he was very patient and kind.” 

Watros relished every moment of playing Annie, and it earned her a Daytime Emmy Award as Lead Actress after she wrapped in 1998. “Annie was fantastic,” Watros raves. “She started off nice and sweet and ended up kidnapping people, drugging people, throwing people down stairs, and then finally, just parachuting out of a plane with a gun and a video camera and saying, ‘I’ll see you, Springfield.’” 

Vicky Hudson McKinnon, Another World 

In 1998, Watros appeared briefly on Another World, taking over for Jensen Buchanan (ex-Vicky Hudson McKinnon), who was on maternity leave. “I think maybe it was two shows,” Watros notes. “I don’t have a huge memory for everything that I’ve done, but I do remember being on that show. You’d think I’d be nervous because I didn’t know the character, and I didn’t even really know the show. I was just kind of plopped in there. I remember it being really easy to slip in this role and just have fun. We were going camping or something and I kissed a lot. I was like, ‘This is so bizarre.’ You show up on a show and you’re like, ‘We’re going to be making out now.’ And so, I made out for, like, two shows, and then I said goodbye. I remember having a blast.” 

Kelly Andrews, The Young and the Restless 

Watros’ next soap home was The Young and the Restless, where she began playing Kelly Andrews in 2013. “Jill Farren Phelps [then-executive producer] is so lovely,” Watros praises. “Always in my corner and asked me to if I wanted to do this show. And I did, and it was great. Everyone was very welcoming. I got to work with Billy Miller [Billy Abbott] on that show, and that was really a good experience for me. I loved it.” 

She admits to having some jitters before reporting to work on her first day. “I was really, really nervous, because I thought, ‘Oh, maybe I’ve forgotten how to act,’” she says. “They move so quickly, and you want to make a good impression, and you want to make sure you know your lines. I’m usually not nervous, but when I do a new thing, especially on soaps, because it does move so quickly, I have to get into it a little bit. And then the nerves go away.”  

Her 2014 departure was driven by a prior commitment. “I had to leave because I signed a contract before I got Young and the Restless and I was obligated, if this other show got picked up, to go and do this other show,” she explains. “It was a primetime show called Finding Carter, and it got picked up for three years, so I went to Georgia after that.” 

Nina Reeves, General Hospital 

“I was convinced the first six months I might lose this job,” Watros admits. “I felt nervous, I felt like I wasn’t hitting it. It wasn’t clicking. The fans didn’t seem to really like me as Nina, and I get it, Michelle [Stafford, ex-Nina Reeves; Phyllis Summers, The Young and the Restless] is amazing, and it’s hard to fill such amazing shoes. So, I was nervous a lot playing Nina at the beginning, but I came to a point where I was just like, ‘Well, if it happens, it happens.’”  

She sensed a turning point one day on set. “Valentin [Cassadine, James Patrick Stuart] and Nina had that big blowout at the wedding where she finds out that Sasha’s [Corbin, Sofia Mattsson] been lying to her and she runs out of the chapel,” Watros reminds. “When I ran out of that chapel, I said, ‘This is my part now.’ And it was a good six months [after she started]. It’s not easy being a recast. Sometimes, it’s very smooth for people, but for me, it hasn’t been smooth. Now, I’ve been doing it for six years. I feel such a connection to Nina.” 

And she wouldn’t trade her time in Port Charles for anything. “Nina is one of my favorite characters that I’ve ever played,” she enthuses. “She has so many different levels. She’s very vulnerable and strong. And I really thank Frank [Valentini, executive producer] and the writers and the cast and crew and everybody who has made this feel like a home in these six years. I’m very grateful.”