‘The Young And The Restless’ Interview: Steve Burton Reveals ‘GH’ Co-Star Maurice Benard Was His Mentor, Discusses Off-Screen Relationship

Anyone who watched Steve Burton as Jason Morgan on ‘General Hospital’ knows how close his onscreen relationship was with de-facto brother in arms Maurice Benard as Sonny Corinthos. But now ‘The Young and The Restless’ star Burton reveals Benard was a mentor to him behind the scenes as well.

Burton revealed in a recent interview with ABC Soaps in Depth that, “My very good friend Maurice Benard made me want to learn how to act when I was already 10 years into my career.” Seems a little deep into an acting career to decide to learn the craft, but it’s inspirational nonetheless.

Burton went on to add that Benard sat him down to watch scenes of Al Pacino from classic movies. The key, according to Pacino – and Benard – is to really get to know your costars. Burton has certainly excelled at that.

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Even though he exited Port Charles and headed to Genoa City, Burton remains tight with both sets of actors from ‘General Hospital’ and ‘The Young and The Restless.’ Burton just opened a new restaurant, Jack & Jameson, with former GH costar Jonathan Jackson.

And if you watch Burton’s social media stream, you’ll see that he seems to hang non-stop with current and former costars. There are photos of him with Brandon Barash, Chad Duell, Maurice Benard –  plus tons with the current crew over at Y&R.

Burton also gives regular props and shout outs to his former and current costars on both shows about jobs well done, when they hang out, and just general life encouragement. Burton also told SID that he’s now very close to Y&R dad Doug Davidson (Paul Williams) much like he was with Benard.

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And Burton has stayed exceptionally close with a handful of his GH pals thanks to his touring with Port Chuck, his band with Brandon Barash (GH Johnny Zacchara), Bradford Anderson (GH Damien Spinelli) and Scott Reeves (ex-GH Steven Webber).

If developing close relationships with your costars is the key to acting success, it’s no surprise that Burton has done so well. In fact, he just landed an Outstanding Supporting Actor nomination for the Daytime Emmy Awards.

Burton still maintains a closer relationship with Maurice Benard, even now, and counts him as a mentor that has helped him along the long road of his soap career. What do you think GH and Y&R fans? Does hearing how close Burton and Benard are make you want to go “aww”?

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