Kimberly McCullough Speaks on General Hospital: Night Shift

Last week, General Hospital: Night Shift began its summer run. Among those pulling double duty on this show and the daytime classic, General Hospital, is Kimberly McCullough.

TV Guide recently talked with the actress about it:

TVGuide.com: How do you like starring in a primetime series?
Kimberly McCullough: I'm having a lot of fun. It's always great to do something different.

TVGuide.com: What's the basic premise of Night Shift?
McCullough: Robin Scorpio and Patrick Drake (Jason Thompson) operate on a guy who doesn't have insurance. So Dr. Ford gets really angry and decides to punish them by making them work on the night shift. Most of the characters are people the General Hospital fans will already know. Some of the newer characters, like the nurses and doctors, were recently introduced on GH. A couple of them will be totally new, like Billy Dee Williams, who plays the janitor. But you don't need to watch GH to follow this show.

TVGuide.com: Robin doesn't usually get to be so sex kittenish. Was that a kick for you?
McCullough: Yeah, except on the show I'm mostly wearing scrubs. People might watch the show and go, "Wait, where's the hot girl who's on those billboards?" In the very first episode, you do see me and Jason Thompson making out in the locker-room shower. The whole idea of Night Shift is that everything happens on the night shift in the hospital. On the other GH, some of the action takes place in the hospital, but most of it is outside.

TVGuide.com: Give us a preview of what you do on Night Shift that's different from the daytime GH.
McCullough: I feel like we do a lot more medical stuff! I get to interact with patients who aren't necessarily General Hospital vets. I like that because I get to connect with different actors on a weekly basis.

TVGuide.com: I hear Robin's thinking of having a baby, which is complicated by her HIV-positive status?
McCullough: Honestly, it's not complicated by her HIV status at all. That's more of a societal judgment that's put on people with HIV. Robin's stance is that it shouldn't keep anyone from having a baby; the chances are very minimal that the child would [be born with] HIV. I don't know if a lot of people know that, but part of the story is getting that message out there.

TVGuide.com: Good to know. That's very interesting.
McCullough: Robin's desire to have a baby is really more complicated by her relationship status than her HIV status. Robin is always concerned that Patrick isn't even ready for a relationship, since he's always flirting with other women!

If he's not ready to be a one-woman man, how can he be a father? At one point, Patrick actually says — on General Hospital, not on Night Shift — that he never wants to have kids. So that could complicate things for them. [Laughs]

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.