The beloved daytime star opens up about his journey to becoming Michael Corinthos.

In May of this year, actor Rory Gibson stepped into the role of Michael Corinthos on the long-running ABC soap opera General Hospital, succeeding Daytime Emmy winner Chad Duell. Now, Gibson is opening up about the surprising path that led him to that part.

Gibson was interviewed by North Carolina’s ABC affiliate, WTVD 11, about his experience on the soap opera.

Gibson revealed that he didn’t originally audition for Michael Corinthos at all.  “It was interesting the way it came about because initially I wasn’t going out for Michael. Initially I was going out for the character of Vaughn the WSB agent,” he explained.

He recalled how he first entered the mix for the role of Vaughn. “I did a chemistry read with Eden [McCoy] who oddly enough now plays my sister on the show. It felt like it went really well. Had like a very quick chat with the producers and Frank [Valentini, executive producer] afterwards.”

A week later, Gibson learned that the role of Vaughn wasn’t moving forward as Bryce Durfee landed the part, yet his General Hospital story didn’t end there. “I can kind of see the wheels turning as we were chatting, but I didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing,” he said. “Then about a week passed, and they got back to me and they said that that role wasn’t happening, but they were interested in having me audition for a different role.”

Curious, Gibson did a little digging to figure out which character he might be auditioning for next. “They were kind of shrouding it in secrecy, which made me think that this must be kind of a big deal,” he said. “Then through some investigation through friends, who were like very big fans of the show, I was able to figure out that it was Michael.”

Once he knew the role was for Michael Corinthos, Gibson threw himself into the audition. “It got me pretty pumped, because I found out where he was in his life, at that moment and it just seemed complicated and it seemed messy and interesting and I found that really exciting,” he said. “So, I think that’s kind of what really drew me into wanting to take hold of this role.”

Fans can watch Gibson as Michael Corinthos on General Hospital, airing weekdays on ABC and streaming weeknights on Hulu.