How would you say Drew taking the rap for the insider trading charge and going to Pentonville is sitting with Carly? “Well, of course, it doesn’t sit well with her. There’s a lot of guilt there and she feels terrible, but that’s why she’s like, ‘I’m not going to sit by and make his sacrifice worth nothing. I’m going to turn my life around and have something really amazing [in Kelly’s] so when he gets out, we have a great life.’ ”
Nina and Willow are taking steps toward mending their relationship. Would you say that for Carly, the needle has moved where Nina is concerned at all? “No, her needle hasn’t moved at all. Carly’s like, ‘I didn’t make that promise to Willow.’ Carly’s not actively doing anything to Nina; she’s like, ‘Just stay away from me. It’s fine, I’m not actively coming after you or trying to be mean to you, just leave me alone. You and I are never going to be friends. Nor should we! So, you know, stay on your side of the street and I’ll stay on mine.’ ”
Well, now they each have restaurants that they can drop in on and roll their eyes at each other from across the room! “Totally [laughs]. But Carly is trying to figure out her situation and not have to lose her house and deal with the fact that the man she loves sacrificed his freedom for her and get this whole situation with Kelly’s off the ground. Nina is not at all who she’s thinking about.”
Does she have an opinion about Willow trying to turn over this new leaf with Nina? “She’s like, ‘Well, if that’s what Willow wants.’ She was surprised, but she’s like, ‘Okay, look, Willow might have the softest heart on the planet, but me and my family, we’re not so forgiving.’ ”
It seems like Carly and Sonny’s dynamic has become friendlier in recent months. “Well, he’s happy for her that she’s got this new place [to run] and she wants him to know that she’s good. There’s some stuff coming up where you see some nice moments, some real Carly/Sonny moments of how they feel about each other when they’re not fighting or yelling at each other.”
What is your take on how they’re able to get along now? Is it just the passing of time, that the wounds of their divorce aren’t as fresh? “I think Carly saw how close Sonny got to almost being put in prison by her kids, and she was like, ‘Guys, I get being upset, no one is more of a scorned woman than me, but we can’t have him arrested!’ But it’s a fine line for Carly to want to take, to want him protected and to make sure he’s okay, and also, for it not to hurt. He’s the first person she’d scream at, but the first person she’d take a bullet for. I have scenes coming up with Eden [McCoy, Josslyn] where Carly is like, ‘We have to look after Sonny and protect him,’ and she, of course, hates it, because he didn’t look out for us and protect us. He left us! But her stuff isn’t just, ‘I hate Sonny.’ This is a young woman who is like, ‘He broke up our family.’ He broke her heart. I think it’s good soap. It’s all complicated and full of hypocrisy and conflict and contradiction — and that’s human beings in a nutshell!”
