GH Exclusive: Katelyn MacMullen Says Willow ‘Doesn’t Want To Want Drew’

Let’s Go To The Videotape: Proof of Willow (Katelyn MacMullen) and Drew’s (Cameron Mathison) affair threw the Quartermaine Christmas party into chaos.

Willow’s secret is out on GH: She slept with Drew, the uncle of her husband, Michael. Her portrayer, Katelyn MacMullen, chatted with Digest about the dramatic exposure of the tryst, whether there’s hope for Michael and Willow, how Willow really feels about Drew and more.

 

Soap Opera Digest: Well, Katelyn, in our last conversation, I congratulated you for Willow being in such a classically messy soap story. But at that point, Drew and Willow had only kissed! So now I have to congratulate you on joining the ranks of soap characters whose illicit activities were caught on tape! What was your reaction when you found out that Drew and Willow were going to have sex in the playroom?

Katelyn MacMullen: I was like, “Oh, my gosh, this is so scandalous, I love it!” And I’m pretty sure Michael and Willow did that at one point [had sex in the playroom] so I was like, “What is this thing with nurseries? I don’t know, maybe that’s just the room they frequent the most?” I’m still trying to figure that one out [laughs]!

Digest: Did your soap actress Spidey senses start tingling when you realized there was a nanny cam involved?

MacMullen: Certainly! I was like, “Uh-oh, that can’t be good!” I think at the bottom of the script it said something like, “Unbeknownst to them, everything is caught on the nanny cam,” and I was like, “Okay! We’re going there! This will see the light of day!”

Digest: The truth is out about one of the scandalous affairs in this mix — Willow’s with Drew — but she still doesn’t know that Michael cheated as well, with Sasha.

MacMullen: No, she doesn’t. We’re all sort of operating behind each other’s backs. I’m like, “Okay, I guess Willow kicked off the event by kissing Drew,” but then I’m also like, “This is so crazy, we’re all kind of doing this to each other!” Which I think makes it more fun because we’re all sort of doing things that will have big repercussions.

Digest: There’s obviously a lot of history and water under the bridge with Willow, Michael and Sasha, but in the past, it has also involved Chase. Do you think Josh Swickard (Chase) feel left out?

MacMullen (laughs): That’s a good question! I wouldn’t be surprised if somehow he does get involved because you’re right, it has always involved the four of us; that’s the quad that has been in dramatic situations before. So I wouldn’t be shocked if it went there again, but he also might be like, “You know what? I’m away from that drama right now and I’ll take the reprieve over here with Brook Lynn, with the amazing Amanda Sutton!” I do wonder how he feels, though, and if he’d like [Chase’s] hands to get dirty a little bit.

Digest: Obviously, the last thing Willow was expecting at the Quartermaine Christmas party was for the not-suitable-for-work footage of her and Drew to end up on the TV screen. How would you describe what Willow’s state of mind was before Tracy hit play on the remote and she found out that Michael knew that she’d slept with Drew?

MacMullen: Well, leading up to it, Willow had a conversation with Drew where she said, “I’m going to tell Michael, I’m just waiting until after the holidays so that the kids have like a happy Christmas and everything.” I think she was kind of dreading the party, because it’s really hard to walk around and put on an act, in a sense. She’s still feeling drawn to Drew on the one hand, and on the other, she has to pretend, she has to maintain this lie that nothing has happened between them, which is stressful and obviously leads to her feeling guilty and ashamed and probably dreading the conversation she knows she is about to have. She knows, “This could well be my last happy Christmas with the family,” which makes her quite sad, as well.

Digest: How did you react when you found out that the video was going to be exposed at the Christmas party?

MacMullen: I was like, “Oh, this is epic!” You know how something always happens at family gatherings on the holidays? I was like, “This one is something the family will never forget!” [The setting] just makes it all that much more dramatic and that much crazier. I also just feel like that’s literally nightmarish, for that to happen in front of your significant other’s family. Even if it had just been seen by her partner, she would have had to answer for what she’d done, but for it to air in front of their whole family? That’s just the worst-case scenario. When I first read the script, I felt almost sick to my stomach for, like, two days, because I was like, “Oh, this is how it’s probably going to feel on the day [we tape it].” Like, they’re not only seeing her betray their loved one, they’re literally seeing her naked! It’s like the worst thing that could happen. I will say, though, that that’s what made it so fun to shoot. It’s fun to be in situations where everybody’s jaw is on the floor!

Digest: Jane Elliot [Tracy] killed me in those scenes, I have to say.

MacMullen: She was fantastic. I actually remember reading the script and laughing out loud at her lines because they were so well-written, and of course, just beautifully delivered by her.

Digest: Willow had a big reaction to the realization that Michael already knew that she’d slept with Drew.

MacMullen: Yeah, I think it kind of hurt even more. She hurts for him because now he’s been carrying around this secret because of her, and the fact that he’s seen [the video] and it’s been sitting on his phone, that’s just torturous! But on the other hand, she’s like, “If you’ve had it for this long, why wouldn’t you tell me? Because for it to come out this way was just the worst way possible. You let this play at a family gathering!” She’s wondering, “Why couldn’t we have just had this conversation in private?”

Digest: In the aftermath of the reveal, there was a shift in her dynamic not only with Michael, but with Carly. It’s not common for Carly and Willow to be at odds. Are you having fun playing that tension with Laura Wright (Carly)?

MacMullen: I am. Obviously, personally, I just love Laura Wright. I admire her so much and I always go to her for advice about stuff and I think because she’s such a powerhouse, I wanted to act opposite her in this way. We really get to hash it out and fight it out, and I remember leaving set on the days where we’ve had blow-out fights going, “That was freaking awesome!” Acting opposite her in any capacity is, to me, the most fun because she is so passionate about what she has to say, she’s passionate about her job, she’s passionate about life. On the one hand, it’s hard [to play animosity between Carly and Willow] because I’m like, “I love this person!” But on the other hand, when you trust someone, it just becomes fun; you can go anywhere with them.

Digest: Does Willow feel like all hope is lost between her and Michael, or does she think is there a chance they could bounce back from this?

MacMullen: I think there is hope for that. They haven’t gotten a genuine one-on-one chance to process this at all. I think there are hints throughout the story that they do still love each other and even though all this stuff has gone down, there is a part of them that is like, “Maybe we can work this out.” Anything is possible.

Digest: What about the Drew factor and how their tryst being exposed affects how she is viewing his role in her life moving forward? Already, she’s invited him to spend Christmas Eve with her.

MacMullen: I think inviting him to Christmas is more about him not being alone on Christmas. It’s also about his daughter [Scout] and everything she’s been through and needing to be with her dad on Christmas, and needing to be around people and hopefully in a situation that makes her feel loved and happy on Christmas, as happy as she can be [having recently lost her mother, Sam]. But with the truth coming out, I think that Willow and Drew are still drawn to each other and they feel bad. They feel bad that this is the way all of this went down. It wasn’t meant to go down like this! It was meant to be messy and complicated, but not like this.

Digest: Willow is very muddled emotionally right now, but how do you think she would answer the question, “What do you want?”

MacMullen: I think that right now, she would literally say, “I don’t know what I want, and that’s what’s driving me crazy.” I know that she doesn’t want her family to get hurt or caught in the crossfire of her decision-making. She doesn’t want to hurt Michael. She doesn’t want to ruin her family, essentially. She doesn’t want to want Drew the way she does. I think Willow is so unclear about what she wants; it’s all about knowing what she doesn’t want and then sort of acting against her better instincts about it. I think it’s all very confusing to her.