James Patrick Stuart Raves About ‘General Hospital’ On-Screen Daughter Scarlett Fernandez
Young actress Scarlett Fernandez has been playing Charlotte Cassadine on General Hospital for several years now, and her on-screen father apparently adores her. James Patrick Stuart shared the behind-the-scenes scoop with Soap Opera Digest and had nothing but wonderful things to say about her.
James has worked with Scarlett since she joined the show in 2016, and the pair have had some very intense, tough scenes to work through. According to James, Scarlett has a knack for this work that really helps her stand out from other child actors. He noted that the recent scenes involving Valentin giving up on his custody battle for Charlotte’s sake really stood out to him.
“Scarlett was so good in those scenes. She loves acting and she makes choices quickly, but she’s also flexible, she listens — I mean, that moment where she put her hand on my cheek when Valentin was being arrested, that was her choice, and it just wrecked me,” James explained.
The General Hospital star raved about how Scarlett’s work and performances have been maturing.
“It was just such a cool, grown-up choice that she made. She’s becoming a little lady, with more mature choices, not just the obvious, ‘I’m a cute kid’ choice,” the actor praised.
Charlotte sees and hears more than either of her parents realize. How will she react to Valentin's change of heart?
An emotional, new #GH starts RIGHT NOW on ABC! @iamscarley pic.twitter.com/brVIwVeRtk— General Hospital (@GeneralHospital) April 28, 2020
James also joked about how oftentimes a young character will be sent off to get ice cream when they need to exit a scene. When it comes to Scarlett and her character of Charlotte, however, James envisions that tactic going a different way.
“I’m waiting for the day when she says, ‘I don’t want an ice cream!’ and decides to stay in the scene!” the actor joked.
Where will this father-and-daughter storyline head when General Hospital returns with new episodes? As SheKnows Soaps recapped a while back, Valentin stopped fighting with Lulu over their daughter when he realized what a toll it was starting to take on Charlotte. They vowed to work on co-parenting peacefully, but Charlotte may need more than that to change.
In Charlotte’s early days in Port Charles, she often bullied Aiden. That problem eventually faded, for the most part, but that doesn’t mean she stopped causing trouble. She recently snuck a snake into Violet’s birthday party and caused Jax to fall at Kelly’s. A while back, she also cut up a photo of Sasha.
When Charlotte told Valentin she wanted to be like him, he was rattled. Even if he is on his best behavior around his daughter going forward, General Hospital fans suspect that there may still be some drama instigated by Charlotte in the months ahead. From the sounds of things, James will relish the opportunity to have additional dramatic scenes with Scarlett as this all plays out.
