General Hospital’s Katelyn MacMullen ‘Completely Understands’ Fan Frustration With Willow (EXCL)

Willow has had a run of bad luck on General Hospital, to put it mildly. Within the past few weeks, she’s lost custody of her young children, Wiley and Amelia, finalized her divorce from Michael and gotten engaged to arguably the least liked bachelor in Port Charles, Drew Cain (or Drew Quartermaine, depending on who you ask). Soap Opera Digest checked in with Willow’s portrayer, Katelyn MacMullen, for her take on GH fans’ frustration with her character, Willow’s controversial relationship with Drew, working with “incredible” new co-star Rory Gibson (Michael) and more!

Digest: I feel like this whole story has been crafted to make the audience want to shake some serious sense into Willow, because she has obviously been a bit of an easy target for good ol’ Drew. Do you understand the audience’s frustration with Willow’s inability to see Drew for who he is?

MacMullen: Of course! I mean, it’s funny, because sometimes I only see my [scenes in the] scripts and I don’t know what else is happening on the show outside of my stuff. I don’t know some of the other happenings in Port Charles, especially where it pertains to Drew, and then when I hear about it, I’m like, “Oh, my gosh…” Because when you’re seeing the full picture, it’s like, “Of course the audience is feeling like, “Willow, wake up! He’s doing all this stuff! How are you not picking up on this? How are you not becoming suspicious?!” So I completely understand the audience’s reaction, for sure.

Digest: Willow is still in the dark about this, among other things, but how did you find out what Drew said to Ric within earshot of Wiley in an effort to make the poor kid think that his dad didn’t want him anymore now that baby Daisy was in the picture?

MacMullen: I found out about that when I turned on my TV in my dressing room and saw the scene! I was like, “Oh noooo.” And my heart just broke for little Viron [Weaver, Wiley], because he did an amazing job at looking so mortified. I was like, “This is insane!”

Digest: It certainly seems like Willow is headed for a big, soapy fall when she finds out all the things Drew has been doing outside of her view. Have you talked about that with Cameron Mathison (Drew), like, “Oh, man, it’s only a matter of time…?”

MacMullen: Oh, definitely! We are always like, “Do you know where it’s going? Have you heard anything?” And we’re both like, “No [laughs].” We’re invested, too! Cameron is just such an incredible guy. He’s so fun to work with. I love the way that he’s just poured himself into portraying Drew. He’s been so great, and it’s funny because since as Willow, I never see Drew doing the bad things, when we work together, we’re just so happy. But obviously, once Willow finds out all the tea, it’s not going to be the same.

Digest: Willow has now agreed to marry Drew, but when he first pitched the idea, Willow didn’t exactly jump up and down with glee. What do you think made her hesitate?

MacMullen: In my view, I think she hadn’t even fully processed losing custody yet. She was in a bit of a fog and was maybe not in the best place to be making such big decisions! But I think she’s in a very vulnerable place and is clinging to any shred of hope. At this point, given that she’s lost everything, there are only one or two people she can cling to and look to for help. I think that kind of desperation, and being so emotionally vulnerable, is what prompts her to agree to [get married] to begin with, but then as time goes on, she’s hearing from lawyers and whatnot and she genuinely starts to believe that this might be the only way for her to get her kids back: get married and show a different picture to the judge of what life could be like for the kids.

Digest: To the surprise of no one, Nina was far from thrilled when she found out that Willow plans to get married to Drew. She voiced her reservations, but do you feel like Willow can listen to reason at this point?

MacMullen: I think when she has the conversation with Nina, she’s still not quite fully in her right, sound, stable mind. I think she probably is leaning more heavily into her hope, desperately clinging to her hope.

Digest: Then she told Michael about the engagement. Is she surprised by how poorly that conversation went?

MacMullen: When it comes to Michael, I think Willow has sort of convinced herself, “Okay, moving forward, the right way is to be honest with him and try to make something work with him.” Of course, that doesn’t quite pan out the way she’s expecting. From her perspective — because again, she doesn’t know all the stuff about Drew; she’s missing information. She feels that Drew is a Quartermaine, and of course, a certain side can come out when he wants to get what he wants, but because she doesn’t know about a lot of the stuff that’s happening outside of her view, when Michael fights back so heavily on the idea of her getting married, I think Willow interprets it as, “Oh, you don’t want me to have a leg up in court. Got it.” Because now that she’s spoken to a lawyer and they’ve said that’s what a judge would like to see.” So, if anything, his reaction makes her double down on her decision. She doesn’t know that Michael is kind of protecting her, in a sense, or protecting the kids from all this stuff [going on with Drew]. She’s like, “You just want to make sure that you maintain full custody, so I’m gonna double down and fight even harder and I’m gonna get married!”

Digest: Have you been enjoying working opposite the new Michael, Rory Gibson?

MacMullen: Yeah! I mean, he’s incredible. He’s so kind and lovely and obviously so talented, it’s crazy. We always joke that we’ve just been screaming at each other since day one. We have this really funny rapport and it’s so much fun working with him. It’s crazy how he kind of just stepped right in and was so in it, as if he knew every character already. He’s just really shown up and done the work and he’s been truly incredible and so much fun to work with.