In a surprise move, Chris McKenna has taken over the role of General Hospital’s Jack Brennan from Charles Mesure, who chose to leave the soap.
In a statement to Soap Opera Digest, a representative for GH stated, “Charles Mesure opted to exit the role of Brennan. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors. General Hospital looks forward to continuing Brennan’s exciting storyline with Chris McKenna in the role. “
For McKenna, who got his daytime start as One Life to Live’s Joey Buchanan from 1990-93 then popped up again on The Young and the Restless as Mark Harding from 2014-15, it was a quick hiring process. “I got word late on a Sunday night that Frank Valentini [executive producer, who was also the EP at OLTL] wanted me to chemistry read with Laura Wright [Carly Spencer],” he begins. “I know Laura, but I hadn’t seen her in 30 years, so I said, ‘Well, of course, I’ll be there.’ On Tuesday, I went in, and Laura saw me in the hallway and ran over. We hugged and said hello and we caught up really quick and she wished me luck. The last time I saw her, I think she was the pitcher and I was the catcher at a Make-A-Wish softball game in 1994. So, it was trippy.”
Disney/Bahareh Ritter
McKenna was a teenager the last time he worked for Valentini, who had to adjust to the fact that he’s now a man. “I’ve run into Frank over the years a couple of times, but he still thinks of me as 14 years old,” notes McKenna. “So, I thought I was finally going to get in front of him and remind him that I’m an adult now [Laughs]. As soon as I finished the read with Laura, which seemed to go pretty darn well, Frank said, ‘You were not this good when you were 12.’ And I said, ‘No s**t!’ ”
McKenna reveals that he had no idea who he had been called in to play when he first arrived at the studio. “They wrote a scene for the audition that was in the spirit of Brennan, but they didn’t use the name,” he explains. “So, it was a unique scene just to get the feel of the character and to see how the chemistry was between Laura and me, and it was great. It was a lot of fun reading with her for the first time in forever.”
McKenna found some other familiar faces on the set as well. “It was crazy,” he marvels. “Some of the writers knew me from One Life to Live when I was a kid and said so. And I said, ‘Well, don’t think of me that way now. I was going through puberty on TV. It’s a whole other thing. I’m a cool spy now.’ Having Frank on set again is great, and one of the cameramen, Bruce, was one of the cameramen on One Life to Live and my favorite guy. I had no idea he was going to be there, and it was so great to see him. One of the directors, Gary Tomlin, was there, so I really felt comfortable right off the bat, and it felt a lot like coming home.”
The last time McKenna was on a soap was in 2016 when he did a brief run as Dr. Hayden on The Bold and the Beautiful. Nevertheless, he wasn’t intimidated by the challenge of stepping into a front-burner tale. “I was excited about it,” he shares. “That’s how I grew up; it’s the first thing I did. The lines and the speed were always easy for me because that’s how I learned. My first day, I had 40 pages to do, and Laura very sweetly wrote me a message and said, ‘Listen, don’t be daunted by the amount of pages. I’ll work with you and Eden [McCoy, Josslyn Jacks] will work with you and we’ll read together and it’ll be great.’ And I wrote her back and said, ‘Not daunted. Looking forward to it. Bring it on.’ And it was great. Y&R moved faster than One Life and GH moves faster than Y&R, but I love it. I’m really comfortable there.”
He’s also enjoying getting to know the ins and outs of his new alter ego. “I’m still learning who the guy is and figuring it out, but it is a lot of fun to get a chance to have a meaty character like this,” McKenna notes. “This is the type of character that I’ve been playing a lot the past decade, but a new version. I don’t usually play the guy in the suit; I’m in a tank top in the jungle, that kind of a CIA agent. So, this is a fun little twist on it, the more Bond-ian guy, if you will. It’s a lot of fun to be able to establish a new version of a character and have a new relationship with Laura and learn what’s in store. Every script is really exciting, so it’s fun.”
Charles Mesure as Jack Brennan (Disney/Bahareh Ritter)
In between his soap gigs, McKenna worked steadily on a slew of primetime shows. He credits his daytime experience with helping him succeed in other mediums. “It’s hard to overstate the amount of training that you get doing 100 pages a day, getting new scripts, having a consistent job for years, and learning and getting better,” he declares. “I teach acting classes now, and I tell them how much they can learn on soaps and what a valuable training ground it is and how the actors on soaps are the hardest working actors in this industry and don’t get nearly enough credit.”
His most memorable nighttime gig was the 2014-15 series State of Affairs. “State of Affairs was great,” he recalls. “It had an amazing cast — Katherine Heigl, Alfre Woodard, David Harbour, just to name a few, and I had such a great character. Katherine Heigl had to go to bat for me and we had so much fun. It ended up being only a one-season deal, but that really changed everything for me and my career and the way I was perceived and really ushered in the next chapter where I got to play really cool guys like CIA agents and FBI agents. So, I’ll never forget that.”
Disney/Bahareh Ritter
He will also never forget the importance that One Life to Live played early in his career. “Growing up on TV was a crazy experience,” he reflects. “And now because I’m having all these memories unlocked going back, I hear Bruce’s voice, I hear Frank’s voice, and I feel like I’m right back there again. I didn’t realize how much I’d remember Laura’s laugh, but when heard it, it was I immediately like, ‘Oh, my God, it’s 1991.’ So I feel like there’s been a time jump, but It was really an amazing time back then and it was so important to my career and my life.”
He even heard from his soap mom when he booked his new role. “Erika Slezak [Viki Buchanan] apparently had just talked to Frank, and he told her that I was on the show, and she squealed and was so excited and she wrote me immediately to congratulate me, which is really great,” McKenna says. “She sends me Christmas cards and we exchange little messages, but that was the longest thing she’s written me, and I feel like we reconnected again because of that, so that was really cool. She’s my second mom. So, it’s really fun being back on daytime again with people who knew me back then and having another run at it.”
