Finding Nina: General Hospital's Cynthia Watros on Making the Role Her Own After Six Years

General Hospital’s Cynthia Watros’ impressive daytime television career has spanned some of the genre’s most beloved and fondly remembered soap operas. She brought many layers to the characters she’s played on such shows as Guiding Light and The Young and the Restless. But in 2019, she stepped into one of her most challenging and now most rewarding characters: General Hospital’s Nina Reeves. Watros recently opened up about her time on the soap and what it was like taking over for actress Michelle Stafford, who originated the part in 2014.

The moment she finally felt at home

General Hospital’s Cynthia Watros spoke to Remind Magazine recently and explained that her passion for the medium goes back much further than fans knew. “I started off my career in soaps and loved it then, and I love it just as much now,” Watros reflected. She finds comfort in playing a character for a great length of time, adding, "And I fall in love with every character that I’ve played because there’s some sort of lovable quality in them.”

Still, taking over as Nina from Michelle Stafford was a daunting task. Watros admitted she struggled with nerves during her early days. Within the first six months of playing Nina, she worried that she would get fired. She explained why the transition was so difficult for her, noting, “The fans didn’t seem to really like me as Nina, and I get it, Michelle [Stafford] is amazing, and it’s hard to fill such amazing shoes." Ultimately, despite being initially nervous, Watros resigned herself to let the cards fall as they may, so if getting tossed because she wasn't clicking with the fans was going to happen, then so be it.

Tears, lies, and a fake daughter

Everything changed, though, when Nina learned that she was being scammed by Sasha (Sofia Mattsson), who was pretending to be her long-lost daughter. “Valentin [James Patrick Stuart] and Nina had that big blowout at the wedding where she finds out that Sasha’s been lying to her and she runs out of the chapel,” Watros recalls. “When I ran out of that chapel, I said, ‘This is my part now.’ And it was a good six months [after she started].” She admitted that it's very difficult to be a recast, but now that six years have passed, she gushed, "I feel such a connection to Nina.”

That connection has only deepened with time, and Watros now considers Nina one of her most fulfilling roles. She further remarked, “Nina is one of my favorite characters that I’ve ever played. She has so many different levels. She’s very vulnerable and strong." She praised executive producer Frank Valentini as well as everybody else working on the show for making her feel at home, and expressed her gratitude for it.

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For Watros, making Nina her own wasn’t instantaneous -- it was a process of growing into the role, earning the trust of fans, and finding her own voice in the character. Six years later, she’s firmly made her mark, and General Hospital’s Nina is a part she wouldn’t trade for anything.

General Hospital can be seen weekdays on ABC and Hulu.

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