Maurice Benard, Genie Francis: Why General Hospital’s Laura and Sonny click so well on-screen

Some pairings on General Hospital don’t need candlelight or slow-burn tension to work — they just land, clean and steady, like two people who understand each other without having to move the furniture around. That’s where Laura Collins (Genie Francis) and Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) sit right now: shoulder-to-shoulder in a storyline soaked in secrets and moral gray, but carrying themselves with the kind of easy trust you usually only get after years on the same battlefield. And if the plot with Henry Dalton’s disappearance is tightening around them, the actors behind the characters are loosening right into the moment.

General Hospital shows how strong chemistry doesn’t always need romance

General Hospital's Laura Collins. | Image Source: ABC

The actors spoke with TV Insider, and Maurice Benard didn’t dance around how much he enjoys this dynamic. He flat-out said, “I love working with her… I love the relationship.” It’s not promotional fluff — it’s the tone you use when something just fits, when the scenes stay fun even when the story isn’t.

Genie Francis has been just as open. Earlier this year, she told TV Insider that Benard is her safest space on set, the person who makes acting feel like acting again. “He’s my favorite person to work with,” she said, and she meant it in that quiet, settled way of someone who has spent decades figuring out who she connects with and why. She compared the comfort to the rare energy she once had with Tony Geary (ex-Luke) and a handful of actors in a lifetime, if you’re lucky.

That shared confidence shows up in the work. Laura can challenge Sonny without losing her footing; Sonny can confide without slipping into sentimentality. It’s two veterans meeting in the middle and letting history do half the lifting.

Better together — just not together

General Hospital's Sonny and Laura conferring. | Image Source: ABC

For all that chemistry, Benard is adamant about the line they’re not crossing. “I don’t think it should ever be anything beyond best friends,” he said firmly. Romance would muddy the thing they’ve built — a bond that works because it isn’t angling for anything more.

And Sonny’s story is already bending in a different direction. Benard sees real potential in Sonny’s growing pull toward ADA Justine Turner (Nazneen Contractor), not because she’s his “type” but because her portrayer brings edge, spark, and pushback — the exact pressure Sonny responds to. Contractor has been clear about why Justine is drawn in: the moral lines aren’t straight, and Sonny sits right in that messy in-between that makes people reassess themselves.

Their dynamic on General Hospital is sharpening, heating, turning into the kind of match-up that pulls a character apart and puts them back together differently. Laura doesn’t get in the way of that — she’s the person Sonny turns to when the noise gets too loud, not the one he reaches for romantically.

And that might be the real trick: Sonny and Laura click because they don’t need romance to stay compelling. The connection is already built, already lived-in. Everything else can shift around them — the danger, the alliances, the temptations — and that steady, platonic heartbeat still holds.

General Hospital can be seen weekdays on ABC and Hulu.