Soap Opera Digest: Eden was 12 years old when she arrived on GH back in 2015. Do you remember meeting her for the first time, Laura?
Laura Wright: I do! She was, like, the fourth Josslyn, so I was like, “Oh, I wonder if she’s gonna stick,” you know? Because all of our Josslyns booked [other] jobs. They would just be here for a minute and gone. I remember the first photo we took.
Eden McCoy: Which we still have.
Digest: Eden, you told me you were nervous to ask her to take that picture.
McCoy: Oh, yeah. I almost died. My mom had hyped Laura up so much — “Oh, my God, that’s Laura! Be super-nice!” As if I was gonna go over and be mean!
Wright: But your mom was a [GH] fan, right?
McCoy: Yeah, she wasn’t a die-hard fan but she knew who people were, so she was probably more scared than I was that day! But I was very nervous all day because I had no experience on that set, obviously, and here I am, like [adopts trembling voice], “I don’t know how this works, but can I take a picture with you?”
Wright: So funny. So, I do remember her on that first day, but it wasn’t until the storyline where Josslyn had friends to the house and was drinking and got caught with a beer bottle in the couch or something where I was like, “Okay! Now we have an actor!” Not that the others weren’t, but they were younger, and you don’t really know what to expect. So I was like, “Okay, now we have a storyline and an actress who can do it and is willing to jump right in.” That’s the storyline that changed it for me.
Digest: Joss landed herself in trouble with underage drinking a few times, as I recall.
Wright: Yeah, and a lot of times it would be written where Carly is like, “Oh, honey, it’s okay.” And I’m like, “I’m not saying it’s okay, I’m gonna kick her ass!” And Eden is always laughing, like, “Exactly!” We make it more like there’s an expectation that Josslyn knows she lives in a different world and there’s always danger underneath: “If you’re out drinking and you find yourself in a bad situation, there are people out there that will want to hurt you or take advantage of you or kidnap you.” We’ve always played that, Eden, wouldn’t you agree?
McCoy: Totally. Carly knows how one wrong turn can end up and knows the decisions that she made when she was Josslyn’s age and she wants it to be different for her. Laura always plays that protective intensity that Carly feels toward her daughter, and I think that gives us a more dynamic and specific relationship as characters.
Wright: And then, on the other side of it, you have something like the sex tape. When that came out, and they were sitting together on the kitchen floor, no one has her daughter’s back like Carly. She’s the first to call Josslyn out but also the first to protect her.
Digest: How would you describe how your off-camera bond has evolved over the years?
McCoy: I was a child and now I’m an adult?
Wright: Well, I also think that we hang out together all the time, we talk about things, we talk about our scenes, we laugh. There’s an honesty and a respect.
McCoy: Definitely. She tells me like it is, on screen and off. There have been times in my life where she has known more than my own mother about what’s going on in situations. It’s a judgment-free zone. Laura’s past, if I may, resonates with me because you’ve been in my position.
Wright: One hundred percent. Anything she’s going through, I’m like, “Oh, is this happening?” She’s like, “How do you know?” And I’m like, “Because I’ve been there!”
McCoy: She can read me so well, and I’m willing and ready to be so open with her. I think we’re each other’s safe space and there is a huge amount of trust there. Another thing with Laura, something that we talk about all the time, is bringing things back to gratitude. She is constantly trying to be better, trying to improve, and when you’re around someone like that, someone who has that attitude, it just automatically raises your own vibration. I think we are able to really feed off of each other’s energy. If one of us is in a goofy mood, the other one of us is in a goofy mood immediately.
Digest: What do you each most respect about the other?
Wright: As an actor, I respect Eden’s constant quest to learn and study and to work hard at her craft. I feel like Eden, more and more every day, is seeing what she wants and is doing the work to have the life and the career she wants. And at her age, I think it’s incredible. This isn’t an easy business, and Eden clearly sees what she has to do to have the career that she wants. And she does the work. And on a personal note, I just love watching how much fun she has! I get to be like, “Oh, I remember those days,” as I’m in bed by 9 p.m. with a cup of tea! [They both crack up.]
McCoy: I get to set and she’s always so bummed, like, “So, I saw you were out last night.”
Wright: I’m like, “What time did you get home?!”
McCoy: It makes me laugh because I know that she was a party girl, like me right now!
Wright: For sure.
McCoy: It’s just the mutual, like, nod — a mutual, “Ah, I remember,” and, “I know you remember.”
Wright: One hundred percent! No judgment. “So, nap at lunchtime?” “Yep.” I’m like, “Okay!”
McCoy: I respect Laura’s work ethic and how committed she is to elevating anything on the page. Every scene matters. I have never once seen her be lazy with anything. It can be a five-second phone call and she brings the same dedication and energy to it. I’m so lucky to be paired up with someone who sets that example. You kind of are who you surround yourself with and you pick up their habits and luckily, all of her habits have been awesome! I’m just a product of her!
Digest: What is your favorite thing about each other’s personalities?
Wright: I love how easygoing Eden is. She doesn’t take anything personally. She is easy to joke with, which I totally love. But I also love that she’s a cuddler. I’m not a big cuddler or a hugger.
McCoy: And I’m touchy.
Wright: Which really helps with our mother/daughter energy, too. She comes on set in her fuzzy slippers and her big sweatpants that she’s crawled out of bed and into and wants to just come lay on people. At some point, everybody becomes a human pillow for Eden, which is so funny! I love that. And I love joking with her. The other day she left this ring light in my room and I said something like, “Oh, I’ve gotta go downstairs and clean my room, and someone left her ring light,” and she goes, “Oh, yeah, because that’s what makes your room so dirty.” I thought that was so funny! She’s just got this super-laid-back, funny humor. Nothing really affects Eden!
McCoy: I think for me, it’s her generosity and her listening abilities. She is such an active listener, whatever conversation she’s in — because I watch her in conversations and eavesdrop half the time [laughs]. She’s so invested in whatever moment she’s in; whoever she’s in a conversation with, she is with. She really likes to sit in the moment with people and really see them and I think that’s a rare quality.
Wright: Well, thank you, Miss Eden! We spend so much time together on set, more so now than we ever have, and if I walked into my room and she was laying on my couch because she was bored and just wanted to hang out there, I wouldn’t even care! It’s just like, “Whatever, it’s Eden!”
Digest: What are your favorite Carly/Joss scenes to date?
Wright: I loved the ones in the dorm [when Joss opened up to Carly about Dex]. Those were special because it was kind of like Carly comparing when she fell in love with Jason to what Joss was going through with Dex. Also, there were scenes on the patio outside of Sonny’s living room set that I liked, when Josslyn didn’t text or get back to Carly or something like that. I remember they took a turn I wasn’t expecting them to take, driven by Carly’s fear that, “When I don’t hear from you, you could be dead.” That’s when Carly explains to Josslyn, “You’re not like other kids.” They took a different turn for me, so they took a different turn for Eden, and all of a sudden, they got really serious and very emotional.
McCoy: Those moments are so great, when those unexpected feelings arise, because that’s what happens to people in real life. In real life, you don’t know how long a conversation is going to last or what the other person is going to say or how you’re going to react to it. Letting go of expectations about how a scene is going to play out is very hard to do — I love to be prepared and to know what’s going to happen. But the irony is, my favorite stuff always happens when I don’t know what’s going to happen!
Wright: That was my life with Steve Burton [ex-Jason; Harris, DAYS] — every time I walked off set, I was like, “Who knew that was going to happen?” And Eden, I think you’d say you had those with Steve, as well.
McCoy: Oh, yeah. He got emotion out of me just with his presence. But I totally agree with Laura about the dorm scenes. They were just so touching because Jason meant so much to Josslyn, too, and to see how much Carly still cares, deeply, for somebody who’s gone, was so beautiful to watch.
Digest: How do each of you think Josslyn and Carly would spend their dream Mother’s Day together?
McCoy: I feel like episodes we’ve had, like Christmas or birthdays maybe, we’re always on the couch! With popcorn!
Wright: I agree. Movie time!
McCoy: Yep, it’s literally just “movie and couch”.
Wright: But I also think Josslyn and Carly, just like Laura and Eden, would love to take New York City by storm! I think that would be something fun for them to do besides the couch, but I think with everything going on in their lives, to have some downtime, some cuddle time, some couch time, would be fun, because Josslyn and Carly’s lives are so stressful. Having some downtime sounds lovely!
McCoy: Totally.
