On Friday, March 7, General Hospital introduces a new recurring character, Vaughn, who is Josslyn’s handler at the WSB. The role will be played by Bryce Durfee, who has appeared on such prime-time series as Yellowstone, Hacks and Last Man Standing. Durfee chatted with Soap Opera Digest about his unorthodox career journey and the previous GH role that got away.
Model Citizen
Born in Nebraska, Durfee was raised “mostly in upstate Wisconsin, and then I finished high school in North Carolina.” The family’s moves were inspired by his father’s work. Explains Durfee, “My father was an engineer. He designed drill bits for a living, and every time the company would get bought out, he was tied to the patents and all the stuff. And so we’d ship it up and bring it to whatever new town and start all over.”
Durfee did not grow up aspiring to be in show business. “Initially, I had no thoughts of being an actor,” he says. “I had done plays as a kid, but it wasn’t even a career option. I was trying to go to college.” A strategic move by his sister changed all that. Shares the actor, “My sister tricked me into going to dinner in Charlotte, North Carolina — well, I thought I was going to dinner, and I walked into a model expo! I ended up getting 15 [modeling] contracts handed to me. My father and I flew to New York City, met with a bunch of [modeling agencies], I chose one and that was it. At 18, I moved to New York and started modeling there. That got me in the door. My family was stoked!”
A few weeks after completing a modeling job for Abercrombie & Fitch, Durfee recalls, “I get a phone call and it’s [film director] Joel Schumacher,” who had been referred to him by fashion photographer Bruce Weber, who shot the Abercrombie & Fitch gig. Schumacher invited him to audition for Twelve, the 2010 drama starring 50 Cent, Emma Roberts and Kiefer Sutherland. “I had no clue who he was,” Durfee admits. “I didn’t know what was going on! I went in and auditioned like an idiot, you know? I was sitting there with real actors. And [Schumacher] goes, ‘Look, you’re a little too green for this, but you do have good instincts. I don’t know if this is something you want to pursue, but maybe you should think about getting in a class and kind of going in this direction.’ So, that’s how [acting] started for me.”
A year later, he moved to California, and he has continued to model while pursuing acting work. “It’s been an interesting journey,” Durfee muses. “I’ll book a great recurring [role] on a big show, and then [things] will cool off, and I’ll pick up modeling for my 9-to-5 style job and then go back to acting. I’m very grateful. For like a decade, it has been paying my bills when acting’s not.” Along the way, he’s modeled for “almost every major retailer you could think of — Forever 21, Target, Walmart, Apple….”
He’s auditioned for multiple roles on GH over the years, starting with trying out for Harrison Chase in 2018. That job went to Josh Swickard, a buddy of Durfee’s from Swickard’s modeling days. “It was down to me, Josh and I think a third guy,” Durfee notes. “And the best man got it! Josh is absolutely fantastic, and I was really excited to run into him on set [at GH] recently.”
Of his first day playing Vaughn, Durfee shares, “I was anxious in the sense that I didn’t know what to expect because I knew the soap world moves fast. But as far as the performance, I had just finished another project and was feeling loose and ready to go, so I was really excited for that.” He sums up, “That first day was just a whirlwind! I kind of felt like I got thrown into a washing machine and I got spit out an hour later [laughs]. That’s kind of how I remember that first day. I can’t wait to see how it turned out!”
