Brothers on screen - and cousins by marriage off screen - GH stars Steve Burton and Sean Kanan have created a most believable sibling relationship while portraying their complex, fascinating characters. For their outstanding performances as the brain-damaged Jason Quartermaine and the guilt-ridden A.J. Quartermaine, who is responsible for his brother's injuries, SOAP OPERA MAGAZINE names Steve and Sean its Stars of the Week.

"It's so great working together because I knew Steve before either of us was on General Hospital," says Sean (A.J.)

"I love the kid like a little brother," says the 29-year-old actor, who is four years older than his co-star, "so the recent events have been very hard to play".

Sean admits the toughest scenes are the deepest ones. "The technical part of drunk is easy," he explains. "You localize it to certain parts of your body so that it may be difficult to focus your eyes or your tongue is thick. The hard part is bringing the emotional reality to it, the pain and suffering," he adds. "And the emotional scenes where I have to play A.J. the loser are the hardest, but also the most rewarding. I leave at the end of the day feeling as though I earned my paycheck."

Steve Burton certainly earned his pay the day he went berserk in the Quartermaine mansion. "I had about 15 scenes," he says. "A.J. and Jason had that fight, then I had to yell at Monica and trash my room. I was so emotionally and physically exhausted from the last few months that I wondered how I'd ever do it," he recalls. "But in a situation like that, you just keep going.

"Once I got started, it was fun," he adds. "Where else can you trash a room, then walk away and have someone else clean it up?"

After playing goody-two-shoes Jason for four years, Steve is thrilled to be building a whole new character, and he's thankful to the GH research team for their help - and to his own father.

"My dad had brain surgery 11 years ago, so I asked him how he felt when he woke up after the operation, what he did first," Steve reveals. "He said, 'I moved my right hand,' so that's what I did on TV. Then he moved his legs to see if he could move. I got a lot of insight from him."

Steve says the changes in Jason's character since the accident have GH fans worried. "At public appearances, people always ask me why he's so mean and angry," the actor admits. "I try to explain that this guy's brother caused him to become brain damaged in a drunk-driving accident and now he has no idea who anyone is.

"Sonny, Luke, Robin, Mike and Ned let him do his thing - they say nothing about the old Jason," Steve points out. "So he doesn't get angry at them. It's just the people who say 'Come back to us.' He can't, so he just wants them to leave him alone to figure out who he is.

"This is not amnesia, it's brain damage," Steve adds. "So I don't know what they have in store down the road, but I'm really enjoying it. I couldn't have asked for a better storyline."

Sean also enjoys going to work these days. "Soap operas are intrinsically hard," he contends. "You have to do one show a day and you're not always dealing with the greatest material because you have to forward the plot.

"But (Executive Producer) Wendy Riche manages to bring really pertinent social issues to the foreground - Stone's AIDS, Monica's breast cancer, A.J.'s alcoholism," Sean adds. "To many people, soaps are their mirror, so we may reach someone who might not normally think about these subjects. It's good to be part of that."