General Hospital’s Ric Hostage Twist: ‘It’s A Reverse Panic Room,’ Says Rick Hearst (Exclusive)

Ever since Ric Lansing held a pregnant Carly Corinthos hostage in a panic room on General Hospital back in 2003, the actor who plays Ric, Rick Hearst, hasn’t heard the end of it. “Fans bring it up to me constantly,” he tells Soap Opera Digest. “For so long, it has been such a benchmark for the character, and a black stain on the character.” Fast forward to 2025, and Ric finds himself getting a big taste of his own medicine when he is held captive by Alexis (Nancy Lee Grahn), Ava (Maura West) and Kristina (Kate Mansi). Hearst gave Digest the inside scoop on his juicy new storyline and what he hopes the future holds for Ric.

Soap Opera Digest: I have to assume that the parallels were not lost on you when you first found out that Ric was going to get chained to a cot and locked up in Alexis’s basement.

Rick Hearst: No, and I loved it! It’s so interesting because Ric is seemingly not that guy anymore — the nefariousness of blackmail seems like nothing in comparison to what he used to be! But it’s like they say, the evil that men do lives after them. And here it is — it’s a reverse panic room, right in his face! When [Executive Producer] Frank [Valentini] told me about it, he goes, “Oh yeah, you get bumped in the head, and you’re gonna be held in Alexis’s basement.” And I was like, “Oh, so I’m in the panic room now!” It’s not lost on me — I don’t think it’s been lost on anybody that not only am I held captive, but I’m strapped to a bed, much like Carly. I do think there are some elements of comedy in the story, a dark comedy aspect to it because the irony is so thick, and because it’s three different women in his life who are literally holding him captive for different reasons. I think people are going to enjoy it and that it’s going to be very gratifying for many fans to see Ric get it this way. And then there will be other people that are going to look at this and go, “Well, wait a minute, here! You’re physically holding him captive because you want to get the money back?!” And it was really not all about the money for Ric — it was really about the revenge and the payback on Kristina. But Ava doesn’t care about that. It was really all about the money for her from the get-go. For Alexis, it was about protecting her daughter.

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GH's Panic Room Tale: When Ric Was The Captor, Not The Captive

They say turnabout is fair play, and on the August 26 episode of General Hospital, Ric Lansing awoke to find himself chained to a cot, held captive —  certainly a fitting punishment given that he was previously responsible for the same fate befalling a pregnant Carly back in 2003, when the role was played by Tamara […]

Digest: On the show, this all kicked off when Ava was so infuriated by Ric siphoning off their blackmail funds that she struck him with a paperweight. What was that like to shoot?

Hearst: Well, when you’re doing a stunt fall, you’re hoping that you fall into a fairly comfortable position, because I had to lie there looking like a crash test dummy when I hit the ground. Each time, it was like, “Rick, you good there? “Yeah, I’m fine, no problem, I’m all right.” But I’m like, “Damn, they’ve gotta get the 60-year-old and put him on the ground?” Like, “This is very uncomfortable! Can I get a little pillow or something for underneath my hips [laughs]?” Thankfully, it wasn’t an intense stunt, but I still had to do the fall, I still had to take the fall. It was just good to know that I was still capable of doing that!

Digest: I loved the scenes you had with Nancy Lee Grahn when Ric woke up to the sight of Alexis in the basement and came to realize that she was not there to rescue him.

Hearst: Ah, those were a lot of fun. At first, it was the anticipation of, “She found me! Please get me out of here!” I was so heightened, right? And meanwhile, Nancy is completely calm. Ric is like, “Why are you so chill about this? You’ve got to get me out of here, Ava could come back and kill me! Who knows what’s gonna happen?” So, even though it was heightened, we played it with a slightly comedic edge to the whole thing. Like, I found my voice cracking when Ric comes to find out that she’s not there to rescue me and I say, “Are you gonna kill me?” They kept it, and I went, “Oh, that’s gonna be funny, that’s gonna be hysterical!” It really does go from this terrifying moment where the camera comes up on Ric and he’s tied up — or, excuse me, duct-taped — to this cot, and he’s got a ball gag in his mouth and he realizes where he is — I wanted that to be terrifying. And then Nancy comes in and that’s when you see Ric really become resigned to the fact that, “This is where I am, and I’m gonna have to deal with it.” Nancy and I actually were hoping that there would be future scenes with me playing blackjack with her. Like, she’s dealing all the cards, but I’d have the ball gag in my mouth and she’d be like, “Do you want another card?” and I’d only be able to shake my head! I think that would have been hysterical, but I think they didn’t want to [take away from] the severity of the situation.

Digest: It really is quite the pickle that all the characters in the story have found themselves in — they all have dirt on each other!

Hearst: Yeah, and when Kristina comes down there, she’s just relishing the fact that I’m tied up, and Ric wants to get out of those bonds because he wants to come at her because she’s so cavalier about the whole incident! Ric is like, “I want it to come out that you tried to kill me and you need to pay for that, but I can’t do that!” So, that part puts Ric in a place of feeling powerless, but full of rage. But what’s the saying — “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” And in this case, they all have to work together to get what they all want and if there was a common denominator that they need removed from the situation, it would be me!

I think that’s brilliant from a character standpoint, but I do hope that this continues to live, if and when I get released — that every time we run into each other, each one of us, this is the secret that we all hold. I had an acting teacher say to me years ago, “You should always carry a secret in your pocket, no matter what it is, and don’t tell the other person what it is.” But in this case, we would all know what that secret is, which gives such amazing tension to the room even if we’re all just at a barbecue together! It really is so rich. And how would Ric be able to get back at each one of them and protect himself at the same time? Everybody being able to get those little digs at one another is just beautiful. It’s just rife with the possibilities of a revenge tour, of revenge against each other. I hope I get that opportunity!