Duell Identity

Chad Duell Credits GH With Making Him A Better Man

- Mara Levinsky

In just a few weeks, Chad Duell will mark his seventh anniversary in the role of Michael Corinthos, a particularly impressive achievement given that the actor spent the early part of his GH career convinced that he was going to be fired.

“I remember those days very, very strongly,” grimaces Duell, who was 22 and relatively new to the biz when he was tapped to replace Drew Garrett in the key role of Carly and Sonny’s golden boy. Prior to being cast, “I wasn’t going through a crazy, trying time or anything, although I did have a point where I had seven bucks in my account and I had to borrow money and all that kind of stuff.” While he waited for his big break, he paid his bills (or tried to) as a delivery driver (“I’m horrible at directions, so I had to use my GPS everywhere I went”).

The actor had faith that he’d soon be able to quit his day job. “I had a feeling that something was going to happen because I was getting close early on [to booking jobs] and I had gotten a couple of Disney Channel shows,” he explains. “But I did not expect this! The last thing I was expecting was to be on a soap opera. GENERAL HOSPITAL just kind of came out of nowhere and turned into this huge, huge blessing.”

But “blessing in disguise” may be a more apt description of his period of adjustment to Port Charles. “I was really excited,” he says of booking the role, “but it was such a hard time for me, as well as being exciting. I was really freaking out when I started. I was doing really badly because I was so nervous; I sweated through my shirts and didn’t know what I was saying. I really felt like I was going to get fired. It was one of the most troubling times of my life, really, because I was so overwhelmed.”