Daytime Soap Opera
Actor Of The Week

Van Hansis (Lucas, General Hospital)

I don’t know if it’s cowardice or prejudice or a terrible combination of both, but it’s shameful that we’ve hit 2026 and the soaps still haven’t had an enduring LGBTQ couple, a pairing that goes through year upon year of ups and downs just like the hetero couples do (even Days’ Sonny and Will don’t quite count since they’ve been off-screen more than on), and with Marco’s murder on GH there goes yet another possibility down the drain. But on the upside, at least this time, unlike the bust up of his family with Brad & Wiley, Lucas actually gets to play out his grief on air. This week Lucas headed back to the hospital soon after losing Marco, Van Hansis did well in showing a subdued Lucas attempting to burying his feelings in work and the actor did even better when that emotional dam Lucas had built up broke under the weight of his grief and guilt. Lucas had already been living with the anguish that he’d pressured Marco to go against Cullum, suddenly it became so much worse when he realized he could have been by Marco’s side while he was dying if he hadn’t been busy saving the life of Marco’s killer, suddenly there was no more compartmentalizing his feelings, Lucas became distraught to the point of hyperventilating, an escalation in emotions that could have come off as too much or too actorly, but with a grounded touch from Van Hansis it rang very true.