Josh Swickard Talks ‘General Hospital’ and Farm Life: ‘It’s Bedtime Stories and Port Charles!’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Soap opera star dishes Chase, Brook Lynn and the Dante baby drama. Plus, a peek at his happy family
As General Hospital’s Detective Harrison Chase tries to digest the fact that his wife Brook Lynn secretly had Dante’s baby when they were teenagers, portrayer Josh Swickard sits down with Woman’s World to reflect on his life in and out of Port Charles. Here, Swickard opens up about Chase’s deepening baby drama, mourning the exits of Michael Easton and Gregory Harrison and embracing the madness of the Quartermaine manse.
The soap opera hunk also takes us behind the scenes of creating Chase and Brook Lynn’s romance with Amanda Setton and shooting those steamy sauna scenes with Dominic Zamprogna, who plays Dante.
Plus, having starred in the Netflix hits A California Christmas and A California Christmas: City Lights alongside his writer wife Lauren Swickard, the rom-com vet gets candid about farm life, playing Mr. Mom to his kids, and whether there’s a role for him his wife’s GAC series, County Rescue.
‘GH’ star Josh Swickard reflects on Chase’s infertility and Brook Lynn’s latest ‘curveball’
General Hospital’s Chase and Brook Lynn fell in love while playing faux parents to Maxie’s little one, Bailey, and stepped up to care for Violet while Finn was in rehab. When the newlyweds were finally ready to become parents themselves, however, Chase learned he was infertile.
“It’s such big news,” Josh Swickard says. “I don’t think Chase fully knows how to process it yet or what it means for their future and what options they have—and now, he’s getting another massive curveball from Brook Lynn.”
On the heels of his wife’s revelation that she secretly gave up a baby for adoption when she was a teen, Chase got the full download today—including the fact that his PCPD partner, Dante, has no idea Brook Lynn had his baby.
“Chase is dealing with a lot, frankly, and just trying to keep his head above water,” Swickard says with a sigh.
‘GH’ star Josh Swickard gladly sacrifices going dark to play an aspirational guy like Chase
While Swickard would welcome the opportunity for Chase to handle this all wrong, that’s probably not in the cards.
“Chase is just wildly understanding, and I love that,” he raves. “He’s stoic, steady Eddie. It doesn’t matter what life throws at him, he can take a deep breath, talk it out, and get to the other side of it in a very calm and hopefully mature way.
“There’s something really admirable about that,” he continues. “He’s just got this way about being a husband that I aspire to be as Josh, and it’s great to see that in a soap character we’re all watching.”
‘GH’ Josh Swickard says Chase is ‘mesmerized by’ Amanda Setton’s Brook Lynn
Swickard believes Chase’s even keel nature is also central to what makes his romance with Brook Lynn magical.
“They kind of butted heads at first, but Chase is mesmerized by her,” he contends. “She’s so strong and strong-willed. She’s everything that he’s not, and vice versa, so they’ve got a neat relationship. There’s something so fun in that dichotomy.”
And when it comes to his leading lady, the actor insists he could gush over Amanda Setton for hours.
“It’s been so sweet to build this relationship with her and I’m so grateful to her, because she pushes me,” he says. “She’s just a phenomenal actress. She’s had a very full career, and now we’re in similar stages with family and young kids, so we get along really well.”
‘GH’ star Josh Swickard talks losing Finn and Gregory and joining the Quartermaines
While these two may be end game, they haven’t quite gotten to his happily ever. After Chase’s father passed away on their wedding night, his brother went to rehab and ultimately, moved away with his niece, Violet.
“It was really hard for me, personally, and for Chase,” Swickard admits of the exits. “I’d been with Gregory Harrison and Michael Easton (who played Gregory and Finn), for years. Michael, I met my very first day on set. We went to breakfast together and he took me under his wing. There were two months where I was really broken up about it, because this show really is family—off camera and on.”
On the upside, Finn’s exit pushed Chase further into Brook Lynn’s big, fancy, crazy, family.
“Now I get to work with Jane frickin’ Elliot (who plays Tracy) and the Quartermaine crew,” Swickard cheers. “For years, every time I saw them blocking in our living room or kitchen or for Thanksgiving episodes, I was like, ‘That looks fun!’ Now, I see myself standing in the room with all of them, and I’m like, ‘Hey, this is good.’
“I’m so blessed,” continues the actor, who joined General Hospital back in 2018. “I love the job today more than the day I booked it. My appreciation for it only grows as I’m on it. I pinch myself every day.”
‘GH’ star Josh Swickard talks taking it off with Dominic Zamprogna’s Dante
Swickard won’t even complain about wearing nothing but a towel in his recent steamy scenes with Dominic Zamprogna, who plays Dante.
“The sauna scene is weird,” he confides with a laugh. “You’re trying so hard to suck it in and so hard to memorize your lines… and I don’t think I can do both! When I talk, my stomach comes out and the second my line ends, it comes right back in.
“Luckily, Dom and I have a good rapport and get along really well,” he adds. “It turns into a college dorm room when we’re hanging out. We just give each other crap, and it’s a really good time. And by the way, Dom doesn’t turn it off. He’ll put it into the scene and they’ll keep rolling—and I’m like, ‘This is outrageous!’”
Some might counter that Swickard’s physique is outrageous, and it’s even more impressive considering he claims to be recovering from a bit of a dad bod.
“After we had my son, I think I went about eight months without working out,” he explains. “So the past three months, I’ve been trying to get my rear in shape, because it’s important for this genre.”
Netflix and Hallmark hunk Josh Swickard on farm life and playing Mr. Mom
When not onset showing off his abs or supporting Brook Lynn, Swickard leaves the big cities of Port Charles and Hollywood behind for life on the farm with his real wife and kids.
“It’s a beautiful mess, and Lauren and I are just overflowing with gratitude,” he shares. “We have a two and a three-year-old (Arthur and Savanna), 400 Hass avocado trees, 13 chickens, three dogs and careers we’re trying to juggle. It’s a challenge, but when life gets hard, we look at each other like, ‘These are the good old days. Don’t forget it.’”
With his wife the showrunner of GAC’s County Rescue and currently shooting a movie, Swickard has no issue with being left on the farm with the kids.
“I had a strong mom, three sisters and no brothers, so I grew up braiding hair and going to ballet,” he shares. “I had a lot of girl power going on in my house, so when I put on the Mom hat for a few weeks, it probably comes a little more natural than it should. And I love every second of it.
“Sometimes, it’s hard, but usually, the worst thing that happens is I build really bad habits that my wife then has to break,” he adds with a laugh. “She’ll get home and all of us are in my king size bed, and I’m like, ‘Hello, they love sleeping here, now. I’m so sorry. Figure it out.’”
Netflix and Hallmark hunk Josh Swickard on farm life, rom coms, and family
Even as Josh Swickard is making a name for himself, he’s all about supporting his wife, Lauren—who he fell for on their movie Roped and then worked with again in the hit Netflix holiday rom-coms she wrote, A California Christmas and A California Christmas: City Lights.
Having also appeared in Max’s Holiday in the Vineyards, the soap opera and rom-com star is not opposed to sharing the screen with Lauren again, let alone working on the show she’s now running, County Rescue—but only when and if the timing is right.
“I would love to join the County Rescue crew and she’s writing a movie right now, so potentially I could do that…” Swickard tells Woman’s World. “But right now, I’m really happy being on General Hospital and trying to raise humans. It’s all about bedtime stories and Port Charles!”
In Chase’s perfect world, it would be bedtime stories IN Port Charles, but he’ll have to wait for that!
Instead, he has to decide how far he’ll go to help Brook Lynn protect her secret that her teen baby daddy is his partner, Dante. And there’s still one more General Hospital bombshell yet to drop on them—namely, that that son is Gio!
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