GH's Rick Hearst On Ric Blackmailing Alexis: 'It's Payback' (Exclusive)

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ABC(2)

Gotcha! Nancy Lee Grahn’s Alexis is in the crosshairs of Rick Hearst’s Ric.

On the April 27th episode of General Hospital, Alexis learned that her ex-husband and co-parent, Ric, is part of Ava’s scheme to blackmail her for a cut of the Cassadine fortune. And according to Ric’s portrayer, Rick Hearst, “Ric was chomping at the bit” for Alexis to discover this particular bit of info. “Ric is like, ‘Who cares? So what?’ He definitely wants her to know.”

Payback Time

In the actor’s view, Ric being so unafraid of any Alexis-related consequences is proof that any remorse or nagging doubts he had about signing on to Ava’s ploy have disappeared. “In the beginning, he was very much going back and forth about it,” Hearst says. “He’s in, but then, he’s also questioning it. Ava’s part in this is about getting what she’s owed in terms of money and her divorce settlement. It is so much more colored for Ric. It’s so much better for him to know that the money is causing Alexis to do something she doesn’t want to do,” by submitting to Ava’s blackmail. “It’s doubly a gut punch to her from him and he just savors that! It’s a lot more to Ric than just dollars. I mean, come on — this guy’s not poor! We’re telling a story, I get it, but I’m like, ‘Excuse me, I thought I rolled back into town with money to burn!’ That’s where I go: I think it’s not about the money, it’s about what the money represents to him.”

When it comes to Alexis, Hearst believes that Ric is very much enjoying that his former wife has lost the moral high ground via her decision to pay Ava off rather than see Kristina — or, as he not-so-gently called his near-killer to Alexis, her “lunatic daughter” — face the legal consequences of her botched attempt to rub out Ava. “She’s caught,” Hearst points out. “She can’t get rid of the truth, because she knows it, and she knows that other people know it. For Ric, I think if [the blackmail scheme] were to come out and whatnot, he wouldn’t care. Because what happens then? It’s like, ‘Dare me. Yeah, you could [expose me], Alexis, but then what happens? What happens at that point? Now your daughter is exposed! You bring me and Ava down, you bring [Kristina] down as a result of it.’ Ric knows she won’t do that, so that’s where the control comes in.”

And Ric being Ric, how could he not be delighted to have leverage over Alexis? “I think that’s the part that he savors and finds delicious,” Hearst asserts. “It’s a payback, you know? ‘I was blamed for going after Kristina on the stand, for defending a truth! An uncomfortable truth, but a truth all the same — she fell! She came into Ava’s room. She went to Ava’s, Ava didn’t come to her! It’s really about, whose truth is more justified?’ [Alexis may feel], ‘You’re forcing me to do this.’ But am I? [Ric’s feeling is], ‘Stand up for what you believe in. You’re always waving the flag of, “I’m the most virtuous and principled human being on the planet” — until it’s your daughter! Until it has to do with you.’ It’s a great conundrum for a character like Alexis to be in.”