Anders Hove, Mark Teschner: How General Hospital Found Its Most Unlikely Supervillain in Anders Hove

Anna Devane (Finola Hughes) recently freaked out on General Hospital when she heard Cesar Faison’s voice in a moment that hit like a cold hand on the back of your neck. The little “proof of life” details in the room, like a cigar in an ashtray, felt too specific to be a coincidence.

If Faison is returning in some form, it helps to remember how improbable he seemed on paper, and that’s where a brief but oddly revealing interview with longtime casting director Mark Teschner, recorded about 11 months ago, suddenly feels timely again because it explains how the show found its most unlikely supervillain in Anders Hove and why the choice worked so well.

The General Hospital supervillain who walked to the window

Teschner spoke to Soaps.com, and the way he told the story made it sound less like casting and more like the room recognizing a voltage change. “We were looking for a super villain, and we were wide open,” he said, stressing that they were open to Americn, European, or any nationality, and that they saw “hundreds and hundreds of guys,” yet Hove was the very first person to read.

What hooked them was that Hove didn’t play Faison like a moustache-twirler auditioning for a cartoon, because the character “talked about refracted light and the blueness of the sky,” which Teschner describes as “almost poetry rather than ‘I’m going to destroy you.’”

Then came the detail that stuck: “[Hove] walked over to the window, and he put his hand on the window and looked outside, and from the moment he did that, it was like, ‘He's literally doing the scene as if we would be shooting it.’”

Teschner called it “magic,” noted Hove still tested with “six or seven other actors,” and then dropped the line that basically became the thesis of Faison: he’s “probably the most unlikely super villain ever.” He added that Hove was “Not conventional in any way,” but praised the actor, noting, “the flip side is he's like the sweetest guy in the world. He's the most polite, gentle human being.”

Why Faison’s return messes with Anna now

General Hospital's Faison with his gun drawn | Image Source: JPI

Some fans still talk about the spell he casts, including one comment that a friend “had never watched a soap,” broke his leg, turned on the TV, saw Faison, and became obsessed, which is the clearest explanation for why this particular villain lingers.

So if Anna hears him now, the question isn’t only “is he back,” but how he’s back, because modern villains do not need bodies as often as they need access. If someone wants Anna off-balance, a voice is efficient, intimate, and hard to disprove. Gaslighting her is the psychological equivalent of moving an object on your desk and watching you doubt your own memory.

And yes, the show could go full tech-horror and make him digital, an echo living in recordings, surveillance, or a planted device. With the evidence in Dalton’s lab, and the fact that memory-mapping works well on the show, Faison could have transferred his mind to a computer, or even another person (Nathan, we’re cautiously keeping an eye on you.)

But the nastier option is simpler: use Faison as a mask, a pressure point, a way to make Anna question her instincts until she starts doing the villains’ job for them. Either way, the real victory is the same, because the moment she cowers at the mere thought of Faison being back somehow, they’ve already got what they came for.

General Hospital can be seen weekdays on ABC and Hulu.