General Hospital viewers have known that Trina Robinson and Spencer Cassadine were a special pairing since before the couple was even a couple. Now, it appears that the rest of the world is catching on.
People magazine has published an interview with Tabyana Ali (Trina Robinson) and Nicholas Chavez (Spencer Cassadine) that explores why the couple has caught that once-in-a-generation magic.
"When Spencer is with Trina, it's the closest thing to home he's ever felt. He didn't have a mom, his dad has mostly been absent. He's never felt home or family any other time in his life," Chavez told the magazine. "With Trina, it's peace and happiness. It's tough love when it needs to be, but it's also balance, safety, and freedom of expression. It's truth. It's all those things and there's no other place Spencer has that."
Soap operas have had numerous supercouples over the years, but Sprina (the smooshed couple name for Spencer + Trina) has drawn comparisons to the superset of supercouples: Luke and Laura.
"It's hard to wrap my head around that. Anywhere you go, you say 'General Hospital' and people say 'Luke and Laura.' Generations of people still think and talk about Luke and Laura," Ali says. "For it to be Nick and I, where people are telling us, 'I'm watching the show because of you.' Or that, 'I left the show but now I've come back [because of you],' I'm like, 'What ... what?' It's a lot, it's a lot. But I'm grateful. I'm very thankful."
What's perhaps even more telling is that the Sprina magic survived even after the role of Trina was recast. Emmy-nominated Sydney Mikayla played the role from 2019 to 2022. When Ali took over in 2022, fans immediately welcomed the actress to the role, and the writers wisely did not use the recast as a way to "take the character in a different direction."
Chavez said that he "didn't have the goal of recreating" what he and Mikayla shared. "Tabyana and Sydney are two completely different people," he explained. "I feel like it has to be different because it's a completely different actress playing the role."
Ali and Chavez also shared how their lives have changed since they've become front and center on General Hospital -- and it's more than just a geographic change.
Both performers expressed their gratitude for fans having taken a leap of faith and jumped blindly into the Sprina relationship -- fans were clamoring for Spencer and Trina to become a couple two years before the couple even shared their first kiss.
Speaking of leaps, Ali and Chavez talked about that huge leap that played out during the show's Greenland story. In case you were wondering, it was not scripted.
"Honestly, I had no idea I was going to do that," said Ali. "I realized I couldn't stop running. I was going so fast that if I didn't jump, I was going to create a me size hole in him."
SPENCER is ALIVE 💋 #gh #Sprina pic.twitter.com/ob8LtvxP4U
— Panagiota Petrakos (@PamPetrakos) May 8, 2023
Are you a Day One Sprina fan or did you discover them a little later? What as some of your favorite Trina and Spencer moments? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
