Celebrity chef Jamika Pessoa had a blast playing herself in scenes opposite Cynthia Watros (Nina) on GH. “Cynthia was amazing and so gracious to me,” beams Pessoa. “When I was in my dressing room, I heard over the loudspeaker, ‘Jamika, this is Cynthia, if you’re available, I’d love to run lines,’ and I was like, ‘Wait a minute. My name just came over the loudspeaker at GENERAL HOSPITAL!’ I took that in for a minute and then I met up with Cynthia and she said, ‘I hope you don’t mind, don’t think I’m crazy, but I like to run my lines three times. That’s my ritual, that’s just my thing.’ I was like, ‘I don’t want to be the one to break your ritual! Let’s run these lines!’ But the crazy thing was, she didn’t realize that I wasn’t an actress a chef. She was like, ‘Wait. You’re really a chef?! She’s really a chef, guys!’ She thought my chef’s coat was just a costume! So, we started talking about cooking for a kids and recipes. It was so fun. And when we got to set, what really gave me freedom and put me at ease is that a couple of producers came and introduced themselves and they were like, ‘We’re seen you on your social media, we’ve seen you on TV, and we love your personality. We want you to bring your personality to this.’ Once I got that green light, it just took the pressure off.” The script also called for Pessoa to interact with Kathleen Gati (Obrecht), “who was also so nice. Before our scenes, I’d seen her rehearsing, and then she was like, over at the pool set, doing a scene, then in the restaurant, doing a scene. I was like, ‘You are just everywhere, aren’t you?’ She was like, ‘I know, I’m in everyone’s business!’ ” Pessoa also got a kick out of chatting with Stephen A. Smith, who was on set that day as Brick. “I said, ‘This is quite refreshing, seeing you not yelling about basketball, you just talking and laughing like a normal person!’ He said, ‘Yeah, I don’t have to yell here.’ ”
Photo credit: ABC
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