Nathan Dean Teases Ethan’s Return and Why He’s Back (Exclusive)

Nathan Dean will make his General Hospital return as Ethan Lovett on April 17, six years after he final appeared in Port Charles.

The alternative to revisit the position started to take form late final yr, after the passing of Anthony Gearywho performed his on-screen father, Luke Spencer. “I wanted to come back for a little bit after everything with Tony, just to sort of pay my respects for everything he did for me over the course of the many years that we worked together,” Dean explains. “And I guess they had the same thought because Frank [Valentini, executive producer] and mark [Teschner, casting director] “They reached out right before Christmas break and were like, ‘Hey, would you come back?’”

Dean says Geary had a profound impression on him, each personally and professionally. “Tony was really one of my best friends,” he relays. “He was my mentor on the show. He was like a brother to me. We were very similar people, off set as well, and I kind of always joked that it was like looking in a mirror sometimes.”

Another loss since Dean’s exit is Tristan Rogerswho performed Robert Scorpio, a key determine in Ethan’s previous. “I didn’t get to work with Tristan until more recently, but he was awesome as well, and I wish I’d had more chance to work with him,” Dean notes. “But those are two legends, and we’re still talking about them today, and I imagine we’ll talk about them for many, many years to come.”

Although he has labored in prime-time on Roswell, New Mexico and The Originals Since leaving the cleaning soap, Dean admits to some first-day jitters upon returning. “It’s been a long time since I’ve worked in that environment, and it’s a very, very different environment than other shows that I’ve been doing,” he factors out. “I was sort of like, ‘Oh, I hope I still got it.’ My first week, I definitely had some growing pains. I was very nervous. I was just tearing a hole in the floor, pacing around, but it’s been great. I’ve gotten to work with Maurice [Benard, Sonny Corinthos] and Jane [Elliot, Tracy Quartermaine]and clearly, Frank and Mark are superb. “I got to see some familiar faces and meet some of the new faces, and everyone’s been very nice.”

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Working with new scene companions — together with Alexa Havins as his on-screen sister Lulu Spencer — helped reestablish the rhythm of working in daytime. “My very first scenes are with Lulu, and there’s a new actress playing her,” Dean says. “And she’s superior. We hadn’t ever had communication, so she was type of inquisitive about what Ethan and Lulu’s dynamic was, so it was very enjoyable to rekindle that. And it was good for me to rehash it a bit bit, as a result of it is like, ‘Oh yeah, I keep in mind this occurred.’ It was a great way to ease again into it.”

Despite the time away, Dean says stepping again into Ethan’s footwear went easily. “He was still there, and I credit Tony with the fact that we were able to create our family dynamic and really establish who Luke and Ethan were, and how these characters are kind of gray area characters,” he explains. “They’re not good guys, they’re not bad guys, they’re kind of a little bit of both. And so, it is really fun to jump back into that. I’ve noticed in the writing, it’s definitely giving Ethan a little bit more of an edge now, which I like. It’s been really fun to work with that.”

As for whether or not Ethan’s mom, Holly Sutton, performed by Emma Sammswill resurface, Dean is hopeful. “We’ll see,” he affords. “That’s definitely been brought up as a possibility. I don’t think they’ve written that far ahead yet, but it would be amazing to reconnect with her. She was a delight.”

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Story-wise, search for a barely totally different model of Ethan, one thing Dean is raring to discover. “He’s definitely changed a little bit,” Dean teases. “We know that another mysterious individuals have been popping up on the town. As we begin to study a bit bit extra about them, perhaps we’ll reveal the actual motive why he’s again, versus simply, ‘Oh, I miss my buddies and household.’ “I’m very excited to dive into all of it.”

Another change? His final title, from Parsons to Dean. “That was something I had wanted to do when I was 15 years old, actually,” he reveals. “I got my first [Screen Actors Guild] film in high school, and you have to pick your SAG name. I said, ‘I’m gonna be Nathan Dean.’ My birth name is Nathan Dean Parsons, and I just like the name Nathan Dean. It rolls off the tongue better, and it’s a little shout-out to James Deanwho’s one of my favorites. And then they came back, and they said, ‘Oh, there’s already a Nathan Dean in SAG. You have to pick another name.’ So I said, ‘Fine, I’ll be Nathan Parsons.’ And then flash forward years later, a lot of things happened in my life, and I found out around that time that just because your name on your SAG card is one thing, you can go by whatever name you want. So, starting with RoswellEditthat’s when I started making the changeover. It was a big role, it was a new opportunity, and sort of a way to reinvent myself. And now, we’re in the process of legally doing it, and it’s going to be super official at some point, and we’ll go from there. But it’s cool that I get to come back and do General Hospital with my new name.”

And together with his first episode about to air, Dean is raring to see what’s subsequent for his character. “I’m very excited to be back and see where they want to take Ethan and bring all the fans along with us,” he concludes. “This is such a wonderful place to have as a world to dive back into when you can, and I’m just very grateful that I was able to do this.”

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