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Carlo Rota is enjoying his time on General Hospital as he approaches his first anniversary on the show.
The British-born Canadian actor debuted on General Hospital as Jenz Sidwell nearly a year ago, in September 2024. His character has gone from running a mining complex in Somalia, holding Lucky Spencer (Jonathan Jackson) and Isaiah Gannon (Sawandi Wilson) hostage there, to Port Charles, where he is scheming and trying to take over the city.
Rota, whose credits span from shows like 24 to Jane the Virgin to Scandal, is appreciative of his long stay on the long-running soap opera, as he shared in an interview this week with Entertainment Now.
Carlo Rota has been playing Sidwell on General Hospital for nearly a year
Speaking with Cate Meighan, Rota shared a lot of insights about working on General Hospital, which is his first foray into daytime drama.
“You are watching something that has a pedigree that spans, oh, it’s now 63 years, and that’s incredible,” Rota said in the interview. “It’s also incredible as a new actor on the show to be with people who have been doing it for decades. Decades. I mean, it’s a whole new thing for me. I’ve been a series regular before…But I’ve never been involved in a show that’s been on for this long.”
Rota said he was called back to play Sidwell a year after initially auditioning for a different role on General Hospital.
Rota was excited to find out that his character would be sticking around, moving to Port Charles, and buying Wyndemere. Sidwell is trying to take down Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) and is involved with Henry Dalton (Daniel Goddard) and his mysterious research that Dr. Britt Westbourne (Kelly Thiebaud) is working on in Croatia. He is also negotiating his relationship with his son, Marco (Adrian Anchondo), and helping him handle the death of his mother, Natalia (Eva LaRue).
Rota said it took him a while to get used to the fast pace of shooting General Hospital, which tapes dozens of pages every day. He said that Jonathan Jackson (Lucky Spencer) helped him adjust in the early days.
“It’s very much like theater,” he said. “It’s the most theatrical thing I’ve ever done on television. Also, if you treat it like theater, there’s another element of excitement to it. I’ve learned so much over the last year. I really have and hope to learn a lot more.”
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Rota talked a lot about Sidwell’s motivations. He sees his character as more of a grey character who empathizes with the people in his life, even when he’s doing things like threatening people or torching buildings.
Catch all-new episodes of General Hospital weekdays on ABC and Hulu.
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