Actor Van Hansis, who came out as gay in THE FIGHT in May 2014, lands role on iconic soap opera
Actor Van Hansis has landed a new role on the long-running soap opera General Hospital. Hansis, 43, will play the character Lucas Jones, reports queerty.com.
Jones first appeared as a child character back in the late 1990s. He’s been played by a handful of actors over the last 25 years, most notably Ryan Carnes between 2004-2005, 2014-2020, and briefly earlier this year.
Hansis is best known for playing Luke Snyder on As the World Turns from 2005-2010. He also starred in the fabulous, queer web series, Eastsiders, for which he won a Queerties award.
He came out as gay in THE FIGHT Magazine in May 2014, in an interview with his EastSiders costar and creator, Kit Williamson.
“There are gay people in life so there should be gay people on soaps and queer people and trans people and all of that. So, the fact that it’s so ingrained and it’s not like ‘the gay character’ or ‘the gay storyline’ feels really nice.”
“Being on General Hospital, I guess, is literally a dream come true,” Hansis told TV Insider. “But there was so much I got out of being on World Turns. It was my first job. There was so much, especially with the character, and I think I was just so young, I didn’t understand and I didn’t really appreciate that.”
“Luke was one of the first gay male lead characters. With some time and some distance, I’m like, ‘Wow, that was a really cool experience,’ but I was in the moment and it didn’t feel like how it feels now.”
Regarding his character Lucas Jones on General Hospital, Hansis told TV Insider: “There are gay people in life so there should be gay people on soaps and queer people and trans people and all of that. So, the fact that it’s so ingrained and it’s not like ‘the gay character’ or ‘the gay storyline’ feels really nice.”
