General Hospital Exclusive: Eden McCoy on Josslyn’s Fight to Survive Cassius
This hasn’t been Josslyn Jacks’s finest week as a WSB agent on General Hospital as she finds herself held hostage by the man she thought was Nathan West but has just learned is actually his evil twin, Cassius Faison (Ryan Paevey). Josslyn’s Daytime Emmy-winning portrayer, Eden McCoy, spoke with Soap Opera Digest to break down the drama — and how Joss will try to regain her freedom.
If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em
When Josslyn got too close to the truth about Nathan not being Nathan, Britt (Kelly Thiebaud) gave her brother a heads-up about Joss’s secret spy status — and now Josslyn is fearing for her life, trapped in the same cell beneath Wyndemere where Anna (Finola Hughes) was held captive.
McCoy says she’s excited to have her first real brush with an evil twin on the show. “Evil twins are such a soap trope, such an iconic subject matter, so it was cool to have that moment,” she says of Cassius dropping the big bombshell about his identity on Josslyn in the May 7 episode. “To be the recipient of that reveal was really fun, kind of like a bucket list item for me personally. But as soapy as it is, I didn’t want it to feel soapy or ridiculous, so I really tried to stay in the mindset of, ‘Okay, if this is my life and I’ve been kidnapped by a real human being that I think I have a history with and it’s not him, that’s terrifying!'”
Now that she’s his hostage, Josslyn has to manage things with Cassius quite carefully. Muses McCoy, “I think Josslyn’s whole journey here is walking the line between being really vulnerable and really, really scared in this situation, but not being able to show that because it’s her job not to react that way. She’s trapped, she’s been kidnapped by a stranger and now she has to work overtime not to give in to her instinct to be scared. Instead, she’s got to incorporate her new training [as an agent].”
Change of Plans
Josslyn’s first strategy — appealing to the good man she believed was trapped inside Nathan — went out the window the moment she found out that’s not who she was dealing with. Will she be able to find some vulnerability in Cassius to exploit? “I think that’s all she is thinking about,” offers the GH star. “I think she’s in for a constant battle of, ‘How do I keep myself safe, but also push the needle with Cassius?'”
That’s where Josslyn’s WSB skills will come in clutch — she hopes. “She needs to get information out of him, right?” says the actress. “And she’s trained to pick up on people’s weaknesses and figure out where the opportunities are. Can she get him to confide in her? I think she’s in an interesting moment of, ‘Okay, let’s go down the checklist. What strategy am I going to use first? How am I going to get to know this person as quickly as possible before somebody else comes in here and kills me?'”
In the meantime, Josslyn is at least benefiting from a very cushy kidnapping setup, replete with changes of clothes and a well-stocked snack station. “The first time I saw the whole kidnapping situation, I was like, ‘This is nice!'” McCoy chuckles. “It looks like an upscale gym in there! The set decorators did such an amazing job with it. I mean, there’s a whole kitchen, there’s a clothing rack with new outfits all laid out for her. I made the joke, ‘Why would I ever want to leave?'”
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