General Hospital alum Jeffrey Vincent Parise talks philosophy and his career with Maurice Benard

General Hospital star Maurice Benard often gets his guests on his State of Mind interview series to say insightful and personal things.

Benard’s most recent guest, Jeffrey Vincent Parise, not only revealed some personal battles, but gave a lot of advice to fans who watched the interview.

Parise was memorable as Carlos Rivera on General Hospital

Parise, who played Puerto Rican mobster and charmer Carlos Rivera from 2013 to 2016 on General Hospital, told Benard on the October 5th episode of State of Mind that he has used yoga, meditation and painting to get through personal challenges in his life.

Benard talked about the episode on his Instagram page, “I have had over 500 guests and I don’t think I’ve ever laughed more than with (Jeffrey Vincent Parise). Believe it or not, we not only laughed. We talked a lot of mental health. Jeff is an actor, painter, musician, he’s a real true artist I really truly enjoy this (State of Mind) it is insightful and fun.”

The General Hospital alum said he hit a low point a couple of years ago, when he was dealing with a breakup of a relationship that lasted more than five years, and a show he was working in was canceled. Parise turned to yoga, which he said he has been doing for 28 years, and then he went on a meditation retreat where he was in silent meditation for 10 straight days, with only sleep and meal breaks.

“The show I had been on was canceled,” he said. “Incredible people and I loved the character. My friends were all on tour. Everything that was making me happy was suddenly gone. It felt like there was no hope. For me, it’s so uncomfortable that I do everything in my power to get out of it. This one took a little longer for some reason.”

The yoga and meditation was the medicine.

“If you want peace within, get through that,” Parise said. “Your mind completely resets.”

Parise has been painting for decades. His current art project is covering up some of his old paintings with black paint that simulates shadows. Benard showed some of that work on the interview.

“Exploring shadow work, heading headfirst into dark corners of the soul,” Parise said. “Once you survive that, there’s this lightness afterwards. It’s childlike. You’re free because it didn’t kill you.”

The former General Hospital star described the philosophy of tweaking old paintings. “Much like life, art is never complete until we’re out of here. As long as I’m here, there’s still a chance to build on top of what is there, make it better and more beautiful. It’s not easy to deep self-reflection work. I’ve made tons of mistakes and I need to face those mistakes and see what I could have done better. I want to get it right by the time I leave here.”

He also has a five-track album out on vinyl, called “An Ode to a Roach.” The EP was inspired by a pet roach he used to have. Two tracks are available on streaming, and the vinyl is available on his web site.

Parise started on General Hospital as the former lover of Sabrina Santiago (Teresa Castillo) and eventually Carlos became the father of Teddy Rivera, Sabrina’s son who was born shortly before her death in 2016. In his three years in Port Charles, Carlos was embroiled in mob drama and had conflict with Sonny as well. During the State of Mind talk, Parise and Benard reminisced about a showdown their characters had in a church.

Carlos and Sabrina grew up in Puerto Rico, and Parise said early in his time on General Hospital. he went to the country to learn the culture and accent. Parise said he brought a script and showed it to locals, but ultimately only brought out the accent when Carlos got angry.

“I don’t think I was supposed to have an accent, but it didn’t make sense because I had come from Puerto Rico,” he said. “I had never even been to Puerto Rico, so after my first two episodes I shot, I took that money and went to Puerto Rico. I wanted to taste the food and hear the accents.”

Parise grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana and moved to Los Angeles when he was 21 to pursue an acting career. He said he was hyperactive as a kid and one year was placed in a special-education class because of that, which shaped who he became as an adult.

“It was a free-form classroom setting with bean bags and art supplies,” he said. “You did math when you felt like it. Free for all, physical activities. My energy was expressed. I was walking in the halls and seeing everybody in their desks, and they didn’t look free. I thought ‘I don’t want to live like that.’”

Parise was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor for playing Carlos in 2017. In 2019, he appeared on The Young and the Restless as Simon Black, and was nominated for Outstanding Guest Performer for that role.

While he was on General Hospital, Parise earned acclaim by appearing on Mad Men as a spiritual leader, and he was spotlighted in the final scene of the series with Jon Hamm’s Don Draper.

Since leaving General Hospital, Parise most recently appeared in the film Mob Cops, which is streaming on Amazon Prime and stars David Arquette. He was also in the TV miniseries Griselda with Sofia Vergara, and starred in six episodes of the Apple TV series High Desert with Patricia Arquette, Bernadette Peters and Brad Garrett. He also guest-starred on an episode of Leverage: Redemption.

Shortly after his time on General Hospital ended, Parise was a recurring player on the long-running iconic primetime series Supernatural as the demon Asmodeus. He told Benard that opened a lot of doors for him, as he was invited to come to conventions for the show and hang out with its rabid fan base.

Parise said an impromptu musical performance he had in Rome during one of those conventions led to him getting a record deal for his new album.

Parise told Benard that he loved his time on General Hospital and although he was resistant at first to be on a soap opera, it made him become a better actor.

“I don’t know what the stigma is,” he said. “I saw some tof the best acting I’ve ever seen on a soap, and doing it every single day. Thank God I ignored that and went into it because what happened was the best thing that could have ever happened to me as an actor. It is what you make it. For me, every single time I got a script, I treated it like it was a feature film.”