This is the week that Britt Westbourne will finally lay eyes on Jason Morgan on General Hospital after he travels to the Five Poppies resort in Croatia to try to figure out why his ex-lover, who he believes died several years ago, is alive — and whether she’s staying away from Port Charles by choice, or because someone is coercing her. In advance of the big reunion, Soap Opera Digest got the inside scoop from Kelly Thiebaud (Britt) about the pivotal GH scenes she shared with former and likely future love interest Steve Burton(Jason). 

The Big Buildup

“I’m so happy that they didn’t waste any time having the two characters realize that they are both alive,” grins Thiebaud, referencing her character’s presumed death at the start of 2023, which followed Jason’s own faux demise in 2021.

Britt’s reaction to Jason’s resurrection took place off camera, the actress learned prior to her official return to the GH set. “Before I started, I had Frank [Valentini], our executive producer, connect me with the writers [Head Writers Elizabeth Korte and Chris Van Etten], because I needed to know, ‘Where am I starting from here? What’s been going on?’ So we did a whole call and they gave me like an update as to where this was alll going and how Britt survived and everything. They were explaining that Jason comes to Croatia and he’s trying to find me, and I was like, ‘Wait a minute! In my mind, when I thought of these two characters coming together, I thought that she would be, like, so emotionally overwhelmed and excited that he’s alive. And Elizabeth was like, ‘No, no, she’s seen on social media that he didn’t die.’ I was like, ‘Oh, okay! Britt’s still plugged in on social media [laughs]!’ ”

In real life, Thiebaud had a warm reunion with Burton at the studio before their characters actually interacted. “We had spoken prior to me starting back on the show, and then I saw him on my first or second day back,” Thiebuad recalls. “I gave him a huge hug on set and I just said, ‘This is gonna be fun!’ And he was like, ‘Yeah it is!’ We were both really excited.”

The next chapter in Britt and Jason’s relationship kicked off when he spotted her from afar at an airport in Paris on Thiebaud’s first air show. “That was really exciting to me to get to do that very small scene with him, knowing where we were going [storyline-wise] and getting the chance to do this with him again. He’s just such a great guy, a stand-up guy, and I absolutely just feel honored to get to work with him.”

The actress has made no secret of the fact that she was, as she puts it, “really upset when our storyline got cut short” back in 2021, when not long after Jason and Britt became lovers, he broke things off to marry Carly, who at the time had assumed a power position in Sonny’s organization since her then-hubby was (what else?) presumed dead. “We were just at the peak of things taking off and it just ended too quickly,” Thiebaud asserts. “The fans, even though a lot of them hated [the pairing] at first, I think we were starting to turn people the other way and they were starting to like us. So, to have the chance to get to do it again, with someone that I love to work with, someone that I have great chemistry with, is so exciting.”

Prep Work

Thiebaud did her homework to prepare for her first big scenes with Burton, which are set at the Five Poppies. “Before shooting that stuff, I went back and kind of watched old episodes with Britt and Jason so I could kind of catch myself up,” she reports. “I knew where we left off, but I just wanted to really remember what had happened and the intense feelings that were there but were not able to be expressed.”

Now that she has those big scenes — and many others — under her belt, Thiebaud is feeling more relaxed. “I’m just really excited for the journey ahead,” she smiles. “I think it’s going to be a really incredible time on the show with Steve.”

As for how Britt will react to seeing Jason in the flesh, Thiebaud teases, “There are a lot of feelings that it brings up. There are some angry moments, some soft moments … It’s really complicated!”