GH’s Laura Wright Is On The Mend After ‘Frustrating’ Knee Injury (Exclusive)
Carly Corinthos is as active as ever on General Hospital — romancing Brennan, supporting Sonny through his cardiac surgery, colluding with Nina to get Willow to see the light about Drew, counseling Lulu about her investigation into Brook Lynn and Dante’s son and giving Danny a dose of tough love after the close call with Rocco at the bonfire. But off camera, Carly’s portrayer, Laura Wright, was recently forced to slow down after injuring her knee.
On The Sidelines
The actress tells Soap Opera Digest that the injury took place while she was indulging in one of her favorite pastimes. “I was playing pickleball — well, singles, and not with Wes [Ramsey, ex-Peter, her real-life partner], and I went to run up and I did some weird movement with a backhand. But I crossed my leg over, and my knee popped out of joint, and back in — it didn’t stay out, it just popped out and back in real quick. Nothing was swollen; it was kind of fine. I mean, not fine — it was sore.”
The injury was enough to keep her off of the pickleball courts “because of the side-to-side movement with pickleball,” she explains. “I can walk forward, up and down steps all around and I’m fine. It’s side-to-side motion [where the issue lingered]. So, I’ve just been wearing a brace and staying off of it, icing it. But it doesn’t hurt at all. I even went to the big tennis tournament, the Indian Wells tennis tournament, and I was up and down stairs at the stadium, walking all over the grounds for four days.”
But when she returned to work following that excursion, “I had all these scenes in Carly’s kitchen with Maurice [Benard, Sonny],” she recalls. “I went to get up and move, just stand up and walk, and my knee popped out again! Literally, it was some side motion with how I turned my foot and went to step up. I went down and I was like, ‘Oh my God!’ It hurt so bad.” As a result, Wright remained seated on the kitchen stool for the duration of her scenes in that episode.
Continues Wright, “The next day, I even had a brace on in the scenes and I did it again, the exact same motion — and that was a day I had three episodes to shoot. They just had to change all my blocking [for the cameras] because I was so rattled. I didn’t feel secure in my body. They were like, ‘Just park it on the stool [laughs]! So, if you wanted to know why for a few episodes, I was sitting on a stool talking to everybody in Carly’s kitchen, that’s why!”
Sitting Pretty: Due to Wright’s knee injury, Carly was confined to her kitchen stool while trying to convince Sonny to let her join him in L.A. for his cardiac surgery.
Fortunately, given the setting, “It made sense — Carly’s in her kitchen, sitting at the counter,” Wright notes. “But it was so frustrating [not to be able to move around the set]. But it’s been fine ever since. It’s just that thing where if your arm pops out of joint, until everything tightens back up, it’s so easy to pop right back out again. So, I’ve been wearing a brace if I’m doing anything [requiring significant movement] and I’m just being super-mindful. But I have to be careful, because right when it’s starting to feel better is when I may be not paying attention and doing that [side-to-side motion]. I mean, I can literally climb up and down stadium stairs at a tennis event, but I could pop [my knee] out getting in and out of a car! It’s that weird side movement of trying to get in and out of a car or do something [I need to be careful about]. It’s kind of ridiculous.”
Wright isn’t giving up pickleball, but she is going to make some adjustments to her game play to make sure she doesn’t reinjure herself. “I will be wearing a brace and playing doubles only!” she declares. “I will not be playing singles anymore!”
Spectator Sport: Despite being hurt, Wright was able to enjoy the Indian Wells Open with her real-life partner, Wes Ramsey (ex-Peter, GH).
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