Exclusive: GH’s Amanda Setton On The Brook Lynn Baby Bombshell

On the Thursday, February 6 episode of General Hospital, Lois confirmed what the show has been strongly hinting at for months: Gio is the now-grown-up baby that Brook Lynn gave up for adoption after secretly getting pregnant by Dante, adding him to the long list of surprise Quartermaines the show has introduced over the years. While Brook Lynn is still in the dark about the fact that she and her biological son are living under the same roof, she is aware — make that painfully aware — that the shocking truth that she gave birth to Dante’s baby has the potential to upend just about every aspect of her life. Soap Opera Digest checked in with Brook Lynn’s portrayer, Amanda Setton, for her take on the unfolding drama.

 

Soap Opera Digest: What was your reaction when you first learned about this huge secret Brook Lynn was keeping, that your character secretly gave birth to Dante’s baby?

Amanda Setton: Well, I have to say, I’m really into this storyline. I think it has the makings of an incredible web. It touches so many people, so many characters on the canvas. It’s Brook Lynn and Chase; it’s Brook Lynn’s mom [Lois]. It’s Ned, Tracy, Olivia, Sonny, obviously Dante, Lulu, Dante and Lulu’s kid [Rocco] — it just has such a far reach. I just think it’s a brilliant story point to bring out, and makes for a lot of drama.

Digest: It is a classic soap story for those very reasons, but some fans are having trouble getting on board with it because the notion of Brook Lynn and Dante having slept together all those years ago contradicts some of what’s been established on screen in the past.

Setton: I think in Port Charles, there’s always a tad of a suspension of disbelief. There has to be just a tad. And I think when it comes to the camp stuff [where Brook Lynn and Dante’s sexual encounter took place], I think the way Dom [Zamprogna, Dante] and I have reconciled it in our minds is that [our characters are] not exactly the same age; we may be two years apart or three years apart, or, you know, I was a freshman, he was a junior. I mean, there’s definitely some difference in age. I do think there is a tad of a suspension of disbelief [required], but then I also feel like, I don’t know — is it that big of an age difference [than what was previously established]?

Digest: Well, it depends on just how technical you want to get about it, Amanda! Brook Lynn was established to have been born in 1996, which is three years after Sonny came to town as a young mobster who had impregnated Olivia with Dante some years prior, when he was a teenager. But as a soap fan, if you want to get that technical about characters’ ages, you’ll wind up tearing your hair out! [Setton laughs.] I’m curious to know if finding out this information about Brook Lynn that you previously did not know, did it change your understanding of your character at all? For example, did it give you a different perspective on how attached she got to Bailey when she was pretending that Maxie’s daughter was her own?

Setton: Definitely. I do think that we now have a bit more color as to why she has such a strong connection to children. I think that has been a beautiful note of Brook Lynn’s character to play over the last few years. She came on the scene as a sassy, self-involved brat who got arrested and did what she wanted to do with social media — there are just so many ways that she acted on that part of herself. And then, with her falling in love with Chase and becoming best friends with Maxie, and the whole Bailey storyline, we really got to see this whole different side of her that even surprised herself. And I think what’s evident in the coming months of this Brook Lynn baby storyline is that she really had to lock this information away inside of her and compartmentalize in order to survive emotionally. I’ve enjoyed playing this duality of, like, almost a realization that her deep yearning to be a mother that has sort of played inside of her throughout the story these last few years was actually her exercising a part of herself that was already tapped into in some small way, but that she wasn’t even conscious of.

Digest: We’re seeing her struggling more and more to keep all of this compartmentalized. Just today, you had scenes where Brook Lynn is in the same room with Chase and Dante and it seems like it’s becoming increasingly difficult for her to keep a lid on the guilt and anxiety she feels over keeping such a big secret from both of these men.

Setton: Oh, yeah. It’s eating her up alive. I think that now that the box has sort of been broken open for her, she can’t put it away. She doesn’t know how to tell Chase. She doesn’t want to tell Dante. She believes that all of this is so far in the past and really has no hand in her current life, but as the pieces sort of unfold for herself, logistically, with trying to have a baby and then emotionally with Chase’s difficulty processing his inability to have a baby with her, or with anyone, for that matter…. It’s just hammering away at her and it’s eating her alive and you guys will see that unfold.

Digest: This storyline obviously positions Brook Lynn and Dante’s relationship in a different light and sets the stage for you and Dominic to have a lot of juicy material to play together. Are you looking forward to that?

Setton: I adore Dom, and I deeply respect him as an actor. I just find that he’s always so grounded and so rooted and so subtle, which is also really fun to play against. We’re definitely enjoying our scenes and seeing how, as I mentioned earlier, this storyline touches so many aspects of the canvas and so many characters. I know that the Dante and Brook Lynn stuff is just beginning. I can feel it, you know? We’ll see what happens in terms of story, but the fact that he doesn’t know yet, and she hasn’t told him yet, and, “How is he going to find out?” Will she be the one to tell him? Will Chase be the one to tell him? I mean, there are so many characters, integral characters, who are in this web, and it will be really interesting to see how they choose to play this out.

I Know Something You Don’t Know: Brook Lynn has no plans to let Dante (Dominic Zamprogna) in on her big secret — they share a child!