General Hospital Shocker: Adrienne Barbeau is Mrs. Balkan!

What a jaw-dropper! We all know that General Hospital's Theo Hoffman (Daniel Benzali) — aka The Balkan — is a bald-acious badass intent on ruining the upcoming Sonny-Brenda nuptials. What we didn't know, until Tuesday's cliffhanger, is that the creep also has a secret wife — it's Brenda's good pal Suzanne, played by Adrienne Barbeau! TV Guide Magazine grilled the former Maude star about this stunning revelation and how it'll affect her future in Port Charles.

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TV Guide Magazine: Suzanne is Mrs. Balkan? She's the one who shred Brenda's wedding dress and set off the sprinklers at the wedding hall? Are you freakin' kidding me?
Barbeau: You didn't see that coming? [Laughs]

TV Guide Magazine: Oh, hell no! Did you?
Barbeau: It was a shock to me, too! I've known for a while. I knew about this back when Daniel Benzali's first scenes were airing because I remember sitting there watching the show and thinking, "Oh, this is going to be fun!" But nobody else in the cast knew about it, not even Daniel. Since word got out on the set last week, the other actors have been coming up going, "Is it really true? You're married to the Balkan? Really?"

TV Guide Magazine: Suzanne has spent months wringing her hands over Brenda's well-being. So it was all an elaborate fraud? Brenda's gonna freak when she finds out!
Barbeau: When [head writer] Bob Guza told me about Suzanne's true identity I was, like, wait a minute, how can this be? How do I justify all of Suzanne's behavior up until now? How do you explain her friendship with Brenda? I also wondered if I'd have played any of this differently if I'd known all the facts when they hired me.

TV Guide Magazine: Would you have?
Barbeau: Maybe, yeah, but then it would have caused me so much stress trying to figure out how to play all those levels!

TV Guide Magazine: Levels indeed. This means Brenda killed Suzanne's son, Alexander, yet she has pretended to be Brenda's protector and confidante all this time? Are you sure this will make sense once all is revealed?
Barbeau: Bob and I went back and examined everything Suzanne had done on the show to find a way to make sure this [revelation] would be believable and explainable and I think we succeeded at that. But it will take a while for all of the information to come out. I think you'll come to find that maybe Suzanne's motivations have changed as time went on. Maybe her initial motivation in aligning herself with Brenda was to find out what happened to her son...and then things got more, uh, complicated.

TV Guide Magazine: What about Suzanne's past as a war zone journalist? What about her devotion to international child abuse causes? Is all that stuff a ruse?
Barbeau: No, not at all!Child advocacy is truly an important and enormous part of her life. You really didn't see this coming?

TV Guide Magazine: No, but I did think Suzanne's intense obsession with all things Brenda was pretty damn suspicious. In fact, I had a whole scenario going on in my mind. I was hoping that Suzanne would turn out to be a psychotic lesbian and pull a Single White Female thing on our Miss Barrett.
Barbeau: [Laughs] Ooh, I like that! That would have been fun! You should call Bob and pitch that.

TV Guide Magazine: Hey, there's no reason it can't still work. Being Mrs. Balkan could turn anyone into a psychotic lesbian! But let's get back to reality here. What does this mean for Suzanne's status in Port Charles? Are we in danger of losing you from the show?
Barbeau: Well, I don't want to give too much away but I will say this: Just because Suzanne is married to The Balkan doesn't necessarily mean they have the same agenda. There's other stuff going on.

TV Guide Magazine: So we might cut her some slack? Maybe even forgive her?
Barbeau: Who knows? I haven't seen those scripts yet.

TV Guide Magazine: What are we to make of those scenes months ago where Suzanne was flirting up a storm with stone cold hit man Jason Morgan [Steve Burton]?
Barbeau: You'll just have to wait and see.

TV Guide Magazine: Meaning what?
Barbeau: [Laughs]I think Suzanne's reaction to Jason six months ago in Rome was very genuine.

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