Joining the cast of GENERAL HOSPITAL as Cody Bell brought Josh Kelly back to the genre he never saw himself working in. After starting his acting career with some episodes of primetime series, the actor was working on the feature film Transformers: Dark of the Moon when he was offered the role of Cutter Wentworth on ONE LIFE TO LIVE.
However, Kelly wasn’t sure whether or not to take the gig. “I didn’t really see myself doing a soap opera,” he confided to Soap Opera Digest. “I’d watched GH when I was in high school because my sister watched it, but it never seemed like the genre that I would be fit for.”
But Transformers star Josh Duhamel, who found fame playing Leo on ALL MY CHILDREN, urged his castmate to take the plunge. “He was like, ‘You’re gonna learn a whole lot and you’ll be able to save up a little bit of money and you’ll be acting for a living!’” Kelly recalled. “He was like, ‘You should definitely do this’ And I’m so glad I did.”
After joining the cast of OLTL in 2010, Kelly remained with the soap until its final ABC episode in 2011 and even returned for the short-lived online reboot in 2013. He then found further success in primetime, starring as Jeremy on the Lifetime series UnREAL. However, after three seasons, he opted out. “I asked to leave because I felt like my character had done his tour and didn’t need to be on the show anymore,” Kelly admitted. Also, his contract prohibited him from appearing in other projects, which he found limiting.
“I wanted a challenge,” he explained. “I missed having storylines with interesting characters and working more regularly.” So Kelly reached out to GH executive producer Frank Valentini, who had been his boss back at OLTL, and that led to him returning to daytime in an exciting new role. “On UnREAL, I did 30 episodes total in five years,” he declared. “I did 30 episodes last month on GH! But I wanted that challenge.”
And he’s certainly risen to it!
