Daniel Goddard Opens Up About His Return to Soaps and the Fear That Came With It (EXCLUSIVE)

With the Metro Court Pool open for summer and Emma, the WSB, and Anna eying Professor Henry Dalton with suspicion, General Hospital newcomer Daniel Goddard considers just how villainous his character might be. The soap vet who played Cane Ashby on The Young and the Restless for over a decade also gets candid about why he was nervous about returning to daytime TV and how his new gig at General Hospital compares.

Plus, as Goddard prepares to turn 54 in August, the soap opera hunk who was also the star of the TV series BeastMaster reflects on how his perspectives on gratitude, life and body image have shifted with age.

Why Daniel Goddard feared returning to soaps

During his run as The Young and the Restless’ Cane Ashby and evil twin Caleb Atkinson, Daniel Goddard was a fan favorite. In fact, when the show killed off his character in 2011, viewers got so riled up that they paid an airplane to circle the studio flying a banner calling for his return—and it worked, keeping him on the soap until 2019!

When the Aussie-American actor was invited to read for the role of Jack Brennan on General Hospital earlier this year, however, he was focused on business ventures like Under the In, his branding and digital marketing company, and Dysko, the networking app he’s currently rebuilding with his best pal and former The Young and the Restless costar Bryton James.

Having stepped away from acting, it took a beat for Goddard to get on board with the idea of auditioning.

“I had a lot of hesitation because I had a lot of fear,” he admits. “Fear of not being good, of failing, of letting down a fanbase. And in a bizarre way, it felt like those 12 years or so on Y&R amounted to nothing, because I was back to auditioning.

“But the goal is to let that kind of fear empower you to be the best version of yourself you can be—and then once you’ve gotten to a place where you don’t have that fear of failure, you can go have fun,” adds Goddard, who did indeed have a blast auditioning. “When I left, I thought, ‘Geez, I missed that!’ Because I hadn’t auditioned in four years. I had no intention of going back to acting, but it was a moment of awakening for me.”

Daniel Goddard reveals how he got the ‘GH’ role of Dalton

As viewers know, that role ultimately went to daytime vet Chris McKenna; however, a few weeks later, Goddard received another call. General Hospital executive producer Frank Valentini wanted him to play the mysterious and seemingly nefarious Professor Dalton.

“I said, ‘Wait, wait, you mean I’ve got another audition for it?’” he recalls. “But no, it was an offer. I couldn’t believe it. I’ve never got an offer for anything! I’ve had to fight an uphill battle for every acting role I’ve ever gotten.”

Goddard, who broke into acting via the Australian soap Home and Away and is a firm believer in predestination, traces his success back to one crushing personal blow.

“I was 19 and I had multiple groups of friends, but my core group of friends from high school had a falling out, which meant that I ended up not going out with them on Friday and Saturday nights,” he recounts. “Instead, I got a job working in a club on weekends and that led me to the next fork in the road, which led me to the next…

“If I hadn’t had that fallout, I wouldn’t be where I am now. I wouldn’t have met my wife, Rachael. I wouldn’t have my boys (Ford, 19, and Sebastian, 16). Everything happens for a reason.”

Daniel Goddard on how his perspectives have changed in his 50s

Having now been in the business for over three decades and spent more than one of those on The Young and the Restless, the 53-year-old reveals he’s returned to daytime with a new mindset.

“If you’re not grateful for something, you’ll lose it,” he maintains. “But when you’re younger, you always feel like there needs to be more. ‘I got this job, but I want more.’ It’s like sitting down at a nice restaurant and the appetizer comes out, but you think, ‘Well, dessert is going to be tasty. I can’t wait to have dessert.’

“Now, I am more in the mindset of staying in the moment—of enjoying that beautiful appetizer and looking at what’s around me,” he says. “I’ve reached a place in my life where I have gratitude, and I feel blessed. I’ve also allowed myself now to realize that change, flux, and uncertainty are a great thing, because with that discomfort comes new beginnings.”

With General Hospital, his latest “new beginning,” he says it also feels a bit like a do-over.

“It’s like one of those time travel movies where you get to go back and do it again,” he explains. “I clearly remember driving to Y&R on my very first day, almost running out of gas, and shooting my first scene with Adrienne Franz (who played Amber). Going to GH on my very first day was cosmic in the sense that I felt like I was doing it all over again, but now I get to do it differently—because I was a different person back then.”

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