Performer Of The Week
Laura Wright (Carly, GENERAL HOSPITAL)
ABC
On New Year’s Eve, the high of Drew’s early return from a business trip was quickly overshadowed by a phone call from the American embassy in Amsterdam, informing Carly that her mother had passed away. In the scenes that followed, Laura Wright delivered a stellar performance as her character went through phases of denial, guilt and grief, showcasing the diverse range of the Emmy winner’s talent.
Shell-shocked and numb, her voice came out in a tremulous whisper as she told Drew, “I can’t believe I’m never going to see my mom again.” Drew offered to use his contacts to bring Bobbie home with as little holdup as possible from customs, and a choked-up Carly frantically pointed out that her mom hated to fly and there wouldn’t be anyone sitting alongside her to hold her hand. Perceiving the look of concern and confusion on Drew’s face, Carly caught herself and broke down, hiding her face behind her hands as she dissolved into fresh tears, hit anew by the realization that it wouldn’t be her vibrant mother coming home from Amsterdam, only her lifeless body.
Wright played Carly as too distraught, too raw, for her partner’s well-intended reassurances that she and her family would get through their grief together to be anything but cold comfort. “I don’t want it to sink in,” she cried of the news of Bobbie’s passing, blaming herself for perhaps not having done enough over the last few months while her mom was abroad settling Luke’s affairs. “What if I had done something different, anything different?” she sobbed. “Then my mom would still be here with us.”
Drew opined that Carly shouldn’t have any regrets. “But I do!” she shouted, her pain palpable as she recounted her rushed Christmas Eve phone call with Bobbie. “If I knew that was the last time I was going to talk to her, I would have told her how much she meant to me,” Carly exclaimed, her voice anguished, rivers of tears streaking Wright’s face. “If I would have known, I would have never gotten off the call! I would have stayed on that phone forever.”
Reflecting on where their relationship started and how far they’d come, a calmer — yet still somber — Carly recounted how much she’d learned from Bobbie about how to be a good person and how to be loved before setting into her boyfriend’s arms for some much-needed affection.
Throughout the mesmerizing scenes, Wright expertly executed the whirling dervish of her character’s emotions — all the while perfectly capturing the grief we all felt in losing our beloved Barbara Jean.
