ABC
Mourning Stars: Danny (Asher Antonyzyn, l.) and Dante (Dominic Zamprogna) at Sam’s GH funeral.
There likely won’t be a dry eye in the General Hospital viewing audience when Sam’s funeral gets underway on General Hospital on Tuesday, November 19. Sam’s family, friends and loved ones are all on hand for the heartbreaking good-bye.
An Emotional Good-bye
Dominic Zamprogna, whose character, Dante, was newly engaged to Sam at the time of her tragic passing, says, “Leading up to the day [of filming the funeral], it was one of those things where you want to show up and hope things are clicking. And it was a beautiful send-off. It was a beautiful day of monologues and stories. And let me tell you, standing in front of, you know, 30 of your peers [and delivering a scripted eulogy] is not easy! It’s really kind of crazy saying good-bye to a fictional character. There was a lot of real emotion on that day, and when you see your fellow actors bringing it, you just hope you can bring it, too.”
To hear Zamprogna tell it, he wasn’t the only cast member who was emotional that day. “I was really impressed by what a room of love it felt like that day,” he marvels. “It felt like there was such support and love for Kelly [Monaco, ex-Sam], even though she wasn’t there, and for each other, too. A lot of people who were there had been on the show for a long time and when you’re up there, in front of your peers acting and you look out and look into their eyes and they’re crying because of what you’re saying, it means a lot. It was a sad day, but a day filled with a lot of support for everyone and from everyone.”
The actor notes that Dante is still only beginning to process the sudden loss of the woman he was going to marry. Dante’s relationship with Sam “was a huge change for him,” Zamprogna points out. “I feel like he became more of a man with Sam, you know? And I think that happened partly because that’s life — when you’re getting older, and your kids are getting older, you’re thinking about things a little differently. So there was a whole element of the Sam/Dante relationship that was very mature. They were different people together than they’d been with other people on the show. It’s like that arrested development thing, where if you’re with someone for a really long time, you can fall into the trap of not growing. Dante’s journey with her was him getting to coexist with someone who wasn’t Lulu, and it was life-altering for that character. It didn’t feel conscious, but it felt like this unspoken kind of maturity came out of [Sam and Dante being together].”
Zamprogna is committed to playing the long-lasting effects of this enormous loss on Dante’s psyche. “There’s so much that I put into Dante’s life with and love for Sam, and it can’t just go away and it can’t just disappear and it can’t be lessened,” he declares. “It’s something I’m going to try to inject into the character and hold on to, because it’s important. When a person in real life falls in love with somebody, and if they lose that person, they don’t just move on. [That loss] is devastating and real and I want to try my best to bring that to every scene that I’m in. You can’t gloss over a broken heart; you can’t just patch it up. So that is something I am going to have to remember going forward and incorporate it into everything Dante does at this point.”
ABC
Mourning Stars: Danny (Asher Antonyzyn, l.) and Dante (Dominic Zamprogna) at Sam’s GH funeral.
There likely won’t be a dry eye in the General Hospital viewing audience when Sam’s funeral gets underway on General Hospital on Tuesday, November 19. Sam’s family, friends and loved ones are all on hand for the heartbreaking good-bye.
An Emotional Good-bye
Dominic Zamprogna, whose character, Dante, was newly engaged to Sam at the time of her tragic passing, says, “Leading up to the day [of filming the funeral], it was one of those things where you want to show up and hope things are clicking. And it was a beautiful send-off. It was a beautiful day of monologues and stories. And let me tell you, standing in front of, you know, 30 of your peers [and delivering a scripted eulogy] is not easy! It’s really kind of crazy saying good-bye to a fictional character. There was a lot of real emotion on that day, and when you see your fellow actors bringing it, you just hope you can bring it, too.”
To hear Zamprogna tell it, he wasn’t the only cast member who was emotional that day. “I was really impressed by what a room of love it felt like that day,” he marvels. “It felt like there was such support and love for Kelly [Monaco, ex-Sam], even though she wasn’t there, and for each other, too. A lot of people who were there had been on the show for a long time and when you’re up there, in front of your peers acting and you look out and look into their eyes and they’re crying because of what you’re saying, it means a lot. It was a sad day, but a day filled with a lot of support for everyone and from everyone.”
The actor notes that Dante is still only beginning to process the sudden loss of the woman he was going to marry. Dante’s relationship with Sam “was a huge change for him,” Zamprogna points out. “I feel like he became more of a man with Sam, you know? And I think that happened partly because that’s life — when you’re getting older, and your kids are getting older, you’re thinking about things a little differently. So there was a whole element of the Sam/Dante relationship that was very mature. They were different people together than they’d been with other people on the show. It’s like that arrested development thing, where if you’re with someone for a really long time, you can fall into the trap of not growing. Dante’s journey with her was him getting to coexist with someone who wasn’t Lulu, and it was life-altering for that character. It didn’t feel conscious, but it felt like this unspoken kind of maturity came out of [Sam and Dante being together].”
Zamprogna is committed to playing the long-lasting effects of this enormous loss on Dante’s psyche. “There’s so much that I put into Dante’s life with and love for Sam, and it can’t just go away and it can’t just disappear and it can’t be lessened,” he declares. “It’s something I’m going to try to inject into the character and hold on to, because it’s important. When a person in real life falls in love with somebody, and if they lose that person, they don’t just move on. [That loss] is devastating and real and I want to try my best to bring that to every scene that I’m in. You can’t gloss over a broken heart; you can’t just patch it up. So that is something I am going to have to remember going forward and incorporate it into everything Dante does at this point.”