Soap Hub Flashback Friday: GH’s Donnell Turner Recalls First Day On Set

Despite being Jordan Ashford’s former brother-in-law and the uncle of her son TJ when he first arrived in Port Charles in November 2015, Curtis Ashford was somewhat mysterious. He began as a private investigator retained by Hayden Barnes to discover who was attempting to kill her and exonerate Shawn Butler. Donnell Turner, an actor, remembers his first day working on the General Hospital set.

Donnell Turner: Shaping A Shady Character

At a recent Zoom event organized by Coastal Entertainment, Turner answered questions from the audience. Their first thought was whether the actor remembered his first day on the set and the other actors in the scene. Turner remembered Curtis’s debut like it was yesterday even though it had occurred eight years earlier. “I still recall my first day on set, when I was cast as a scruffy, shady character. Unpredictable and kind of dirty,” he said. With Rebecca Budig, who portrayed Hayden, I had my first scene. The actor explained how the script’s description of the character was written. “Curtis was smoking a cigar when we first saw him; he was seated at a bar. They had me puffing on a cigar,” he exclaimed in disbelief.

“They told me to keep my beard and, you know, my earrings and my swag when they hired me, is what they said. However, they also tried to make me look dirty. Not everything happens exactly how it is described on paper. “So when I showed up,” he continued, “I just groomed myself the way I normally do, and Rebecca had the funniest line. She was about to say, “You’re scruffy and disheveled, and I can’t trust you,” but she was unable to finish the sentence. “Look at this man, he looks like a model,” she exclaims.

The Revisioning Of Curtis Ashford

Daytime drama production frequently involves last-minute changes to scenes that simply don’t work as written. He went on to explain how the authors responded, saying, “So, the writers came out.” “We made last-minute word changes. It was very humorous. I believe Curtis changed at that point, and I informed them that I don’t smoke and that I don’t really want to use my character to promote tobacco use. I doubt that is Curtis’ purpose in being here. Turner wondered how his GH journey got started. We changed lines on the spot that day, and this guy was a cigarette-smoking scruffy guy, which is just something I can’t forget. What follows is history.