General Hospital’s Katelyn MacMullen On That Shocking Willow Reveal: ‘All Bets Are Off!’ (EXCL)

On the July 8 episode of General Hospital, it was revealed via Willow Tait’s flashback that she is the one responsible for the unnerving things happening around Michael and Sasha’s baby girl, Daisy — most recently, Sasha finding Daisy missing from her crib! Soap Opera Digest spoke to Willow’s portrayer, Katelyn MacMullen, about the storyline twist and what it all portends for her mentally unwell GH alter ego.

Soap Opera Digest: Katelyn, your character has been very naughty! How did you find out that Willow has been slipping into the Quartermaine mansion and helping herself to sweet little Daisy?

Katelyn MacMullen: Well, it was crazy, because when we were filming the scenes where Willow wakes up in the hospital [after her breakdown upon losing custody of Amelia and Wiley to Michael], I happened to catch them filming some scenes in the same set right before where Sasha is in her room and she gets handed the wrong baby and she’s like, “What?! What, this isn’t my baby!” And I was like, “Oh my gosh!” I was sitting there going, “Who switched the baby? Someone switched the babies, this is crazy!” And then like a week or two later, I get a script where I’m going to meet Nina for a drink and then Willow has a flashback where she’s picking up Daisy, taking her out of her crib and apologizing for having to move her. So, I found out in the script. I was like, “Oh! Willow’s doing it!”

Digest: And what was your reaction?

MacMullen: I was like, “Wow. Okay. Desperate times call for desperate measures!” I don’t want to judge her, you know? So I’m like, “Okay, she’s desperate.” I don’t know; there’s one part of your brain that’s like, “Oh my gosh, this is insane. I can’t believe someone would do this.” But then the other part of your brain is like, “I mean, guess if you were desperate enough, you would! You would try to send a message [like the one Willow told Daisy she is trying to send to Michael and Sasha, for them to know what it’s like to be separated from their child the way she has been].” But of course, filming it, I was just like, “Awww, this baby is so cute!” It’s been a kind of soapy, fun moment to play, for sure.

Digest: Did finding out what Willow has been doing behind everyone’s backs — even yours! — inform the way that you started playing her from that point forward?

MacMullen: Oh, definitely. I had already had an inkling from the scripts that she kind of wasn’t in her right mind. So, once I realized that she was doing that, it kind of just helped me double down on that, that there are just going to be moments where she’s not quite there, you know? Or that she’s just so desperate, and when you are so desperate, sides of you that you didn’t know existed could come out. So I was like, “Okay, if there’s ever a scene where there’s desperation, or kind of a moment where you can show that someone’s kind of losing it, like, all bets are off now!” Because clearly, she’s doing stuff that’s a little out of character, but in the scheme of what’s happening, totally possible.

Digest: As the saying goes, grief makes people do strange things — and people who have followed Willow’s journey know that this is not the first time she’s lost a child or been separated from a child. Do you see unresolved trauma from her past surfacing here and playing a role in the behavior we’re seeing?

MacMullen: Definitely. In stuff we’ve shot more recently, that’s actually even come up. But I think everything she’s been through and everything that she experienced growing up and also when she moved to Port Charles absolutely plays a role in why she’s doing what she’s doing, and why she feels she has to do what she’s doing in order to get what she needs, essentially. I do think that her trauma is absolutely going to influence the way that she goes about doing things. It’ll be interesting to see how they may or may not even address that because I think that’s just a really interesting human thing to explore. But I definitely see her trauma coming to the surface because I think, like anybody, your trauma kind of influences the way that you handle extreme stress and stressful situations and grief and all of that.

Digest: In soaps, there’s nothing like a good break from reality to let the writers really go to extremes with a character. It kind of takes the guardrails off what becomes possible. Are you excited about what Willow going in this direction could bring for you, story-wise, in the future?

MacMullen: Definitely! For me, when I watch what characters do, the questions that pop up for me are, “Why are they doing what they do?” I think it’s so interesting to explore that and I really think the writers have done such an incredible job of honoring the character’s past and seeing how that’s kind of manifesting now and then allowing us to go on a journey with her and go, “Oh, I wonder if it’s because of that thing that happened, or this thing that happened.” And I’m excited to see what they do next. Honestly, every script I’ve been opening, I’m like, “This is so amazing!”