General Hospital’s Nazneen Contractor on why Justine Turner is more than meets the eye

On General Hospital, Nazneen Contractor has quickly made her mark as ADA Justine Turner, a sharp and determined district attorney who has gone from an ancillary character to a central force in Port Charles. Whether she’s juxtaposing between squaring off or flirting with heavyweights like Sonny (Maurice Benard) or digging into the city’s messiest cases, Justine’s proven she’s more than just another prosecutor passing through. For Contractor, the role has been both a thrill and a challenge, and as she reflected on her unexpected soap journey, she admitted that her character, much like herself, can be more than meets the eye.

Her biggest acting challenge yet

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General Hospital’s newest star, Nanzeen Contractor, spoke with TV Insider about landing a sweet role on the show. She explained that she and her mother accompanied her real-life husband, Carlo Rota, who plays the villainous Sidwell, to a taping of the show where they would watch him do his magic. She had a conversation with executive producer, Frank Valentini, and recollected, “He said, ‘Do you want to come be on the show?’ I was just thinking that he’s being polite. As an actor, you hear that, and rarely anything comes of it.” Fortunately, Rota came home later and told her that Valentini was considering her for the role of ADA Turner.

A veteran of primetime shows, Contractor was in for a culture shock when she joined the cast, admitting, “Little did I know that it was going to be such a huge challenge.” She stated that on the first day, she was tasked with doing 71 pages of script. Rota had prepped her on what to expect, but even with two decades of acting under her belt, she had to confess, “I have never been more nervous than when I stepped onto that sound stage.”

More than a hard-nosed prosecutor

While General Hospital fans were ready to vilify Turner because she’s prosecuting everyone in town and has been gunning for Sonny, she wants them to keep an open mind. “There’s a lot more to Turner than meets the eye. Give her a chance. She’s a lot softer than we think,” she remarked. She loves working with Benard, and while Turner claims to want to send Sonny up the river, “she’s seeing a different side of him.”

She enjoys exploring how her character has been thrown by Sonny’s softer side, and the two often quarrel playfully. “I like the sort of cat-and-mouse aspect of it,” she stated. The General Hospital newcomer is determined to give the challenging role her all. She stated that she wants to do justice to what the writers have handed her, and is working to “try and make [Turner] as interesting and as compelling as possible, because it’s a real gift.”

General Hospital can be seen weekdays on ABC and Hulu.

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