GENERALHOSPITAL/X (formerly Twitter)
A Stable Friendship: Josh Kelly (Cody) is wild about co-star Jane Elliot (Tracy).
Josh Kelly is tickled pink over the budding friendship between his character, Cody Bell, and Tracy Quartermaine on General Hospital — all thanks to Tracy’s inimitable portrayer, Jane Elliot.
“You want to get my energy up? Have me talk about Jane Elliot!” declares the actor. “I absolutely love working with Jane. Jane loves to rehearse and she’s very particular in the work she does, and making it very true. Because I’m newer to the show, I try to stick to being as word-perfect [and faithful to the script as it is written] as I can. John York [Mac] does that, too; that’s one of the reasons we get along so well. We kind of bonded over that, how we both treat the script like it’s Shakespeare. Some people really like to change the words, and I’ve noticed — not on General Hospital, but on other productions — that sometimes that is just them trying to cover up laziness, because they don’t want to take the time to really memorize the words. and figure out the character. Jane is not lazy. She is the opposite — she really, really cares.”
The actor admits that “I was so afraid to work with her the first time we had scenes that I over-memorized everything. I was scared because she plays such a tough character, and she’s no slouch in real life, either! She says what she means. But we got along great and I really look forward to working with her every time I am lucky enough to do it. We’ve worked together a couple of times now, and it’s been so nice. It kind of felt like a rite of passage to have scenes with her, and I’m pretty confident in saying that I think she likes working with me, too. It’s an honor.”
Kelly says he feels a spark working opposite Elliot. “There is chemistry between Tracy and Cody!” he declares. “I don’t know if it’s supposed to be there, we haven’t figured it out yet and I don’t know what direction it’s going in, but it’s fascinating!”
As for what he imagines Cody makes of Tracy, Kelly grins, “I think Cody thinks she’s hot! She’s a powerful woman who tells it like it is. She’s cool. She pulls no punches. She’s also out there riding horses and living life. Cody respects her. She’s pretty sexy, I think! And I think that’s what Cody thinks.”
As guarded as Tracy can be, she sure seems to find herself charmed by the far less polished Cody. Kelly posits that both characters are aware of the mutual admiration developing between them. “I think they both know it and they both like it,” he says. “I don’t think Cody is manipulating it; I think it seems like a pretty safe friendship, so neither of them need to worry too much about it. But I would love to see it continue to evolve. I think it could be very interesting.”
