General Hospital’s Nicholas Alexander Chavez Shares the True Story of the Leap of Faith That Resulted in a Beyond-Perfect ‘Sprina’ Moment
General Hospital fans’ hearts leapt along with Trina when she saw that Spencer had not become a casualty of their harrowing adventure in Greenland. (Rewatch their joyful reunion below.) And as our pulses returned to normal — semi-normal? — Nicholas Alexander Chavez took to Twitter, noting that “you guys have a lot of questions, ’cause it was a beautiful moment between these two characters, and the No. 1 question that I’m seeing getting asked is, ‘Was that planned? How many times did we rehearse the jump into my arms?’
“I don’t know if you saw that,” he continued — and oh yes, we saw — “but I mean, if that was a diving competition, [Tabyana Ali] would’ve gotten a 10. She leaped into my arms, which was beautiful.”
Practice Makes Perfect?
The castmates must have practiced that move a lot beforehand, right? Nobody goes to the Olympics saying, “We’ll wing it when we get there!” But in fact, “we rehearsed it once,” Chavez said, “and she came up to me, and she was just supposed to hug me. It was supposed to be a nice embrace. We were gonna turn around, we were gonna kiss… ”
Obviously, it didn’t quite go down like that in the end. “Tabyana, in the spur of the moment — and I love her, I love that she did this in the spur of the moment — when we go to the actual take,” the Emmy winner explained, “I’m like walking with a limp. I’ve come from just escaping the ship, and she jumps into my arms without warning. And it was beautiful. I loved it.
“Definitely like, threw me off for a second,” he added, “and once I recovered, I mean, it was just so sweet. But no, it was not rehearsed at all. It was completely improvised from Tabyana’s perspective. Definitely one of my favorite things I’ve ever filmed for General Hospital. So there you go — a little bit of behind-the-scenes info on that scene.”
Alright alright I’m going to get better at social media so I’m trying a new thing. Introducing…
Behind the Scenes with Nicholas – Pt. 1
“Tabyana jumping into my arms was a spur of the moment improvisation.”@iamaliford pic.twitter.com/ZsaZsFlJoq
— Nicholas Alexander Chavez (@nicholasachavez) May 9, 2023
Fandemonium Erupts
The moment has become an insta-fave among viewers. On Soaps.com’s Instagram, millsgrp75 cheered that “that jump into his arms was perfect.” Added zrettelle: “That leap was everything. She [was] jumping into this with her whole heart.” Cheered lisajanejones05: “That’s award-winning right there. Gave me goosebumps, almost like we could feel the love.”
