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INTERVIEW

Quick Take With Laura Wright (Carly, GH)

Carly and Mike developed a special relationship before his death. What was your experience working with Max Gail? “Oh, I love Max. Max was a teacher for me on many levels. He was so open and vulnerable. There are times, especially when you play a character for a long time — and this is something I’m working on now as an actor — where, you know, you have your walls up. You’re still aware of yourself, as good as you are or as good as you can be. And watching Max work, watching the vulnerability and openness in him, his fearlessness…. I would watch him and go, ‘He is so open. And he’s not acting, he’s just being.’ I found him to be such a teacher for me in watching him play a scene and just going with it. If it wasn’t perfect, he wanted to go with it, he wanted to see what would happen. ‘If we don’t get it right, let’s not cut it. Let’s go with it and see.’ And he was generous; his generosity is just incredible as an actor. He loves actors and he loves being an actor and he loves the whole process of making a television show and so he was always happy and excited every day to be there. And that is an incredible energy to be around.”

What stands out to you about filming Mike’s death? “It was very similar to watching my dad pass away, I have to say. It didn’t take me to a dark place, I was just aware of, like, ‘Wow, they did a really great job of making this really realistic.’ ”

Have you watched those shows yet? “No, I haven’t. Wes [Ramsey, Peter, her boyfriend] told me he cried when he watched my dream scenes with Mike, but no, I haven’t watched it yet. I have it all recorded, though. It’s because I’ve been working so much, actually! And at night I come home and watch DOWNTON ABBEY because it makes me happy [laughs].”

Carly is also still reeling from her cliff showdown with Nelle. What was that like to shoot? “Oh, it was great. It was a great ending to Nelle/Carly, quite frankly. It had to be something big and fantastic like that, great argument scenes, and then, when she runs off, great fight scenes where we had two great stunt doubles. Chloe [Lanier, ex-Nelle] and I watched them — we watched ‘Carly’ knock her down and ‘Nelle’ kick ‘Carly’ in the face and we were like, ‘Ooh, that looked great!’ I just remember my days of being super-excited to do stunts and I watched that and I went, ‘Uh, no. I am so glad I’m not doing that anymore!’ I mean, tackling to the ground? That would have hurt so bad! And I would have done that! That was something I did, for sure, on GUIDING LIGHT [as Cassie] and [earlier] on GENERAL HOSPITAL. And Chloe’s smart! She’s like, ‘No, I’m good [not doing the stunt].’ I was like, ‘You are so smart!’ Why didn’t I do that at her age? I was doing it all, and we’re not trained for that!”

The aftermath also has Jax right back in the Carly/Sonny mix again. “Yes! And Nina being annoyed because Carly’s always around, which is so funny. We laugh about it all the time [on set]. That scene when I was toasting to being happy and raising a glass and touching Jax’s arm in the Metro Court and Nina’s looking at it, we added that. I was supposed to do something that made her look, but I said, ‘What if I laugh and I just put my hand on his arm and I’m like, “Oh, my God, Jax!” and just make it more personal?’ And Cynthia [Watros, Nina] was laughing and was like, ‘Yes, yes, do that!’ It just gives us more funny, big moments to play that cause Nina to go, ‘Ugh, here’s Carly again!’ ”

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