ABC
Last week on General Hospital, a surprise visit from ex-lover Scotty Baldwin gave Heather some serious food for thought about whether to try to get her conviction overturned. Her portrayer, Alley Mills, spoke to Soap Opera Digest about Heather’s next moves and the joy of working with Port Charles legends like Genie Francis (Laura), Kin Shriner (Scotty) and Rebecca Herbst (Elizabeth).
Soap Opera Digest: Heather had taken the position that regardless of whether she could use her cobalt poisoning to try to get out of prison, she wasn’t going to fight her conviction. But now, Scotty has chirped in her ear about how strong her chances of going free — and getting rich — might be. In your estimation, how is she sitting with that?
Alley Mills: Basically, he’s like, “You could win a ton of money from this case. This cobalt poisoning thing is real, I’ve been investigating it.” Heather is like, “Well, I don’t really want money, because what good is money gonna do me in prison?” But he goes, “Honey, this could get you out of prison.” So, suddenly he is filling her head with all of these thoughts of, “This is a really big deal and could bring a really big settlement.” And in that conversation, it’s suddenly becoming something very different for Heather because up until then, I don’t think Heather has ever thought she could get out of maximum security prison. I think she had kind of given up on that when she said to Laura, “You know what, please just take care of Ace and do your best and bring me pictures [of our grandson].” She had made peace with it, but suddenly Scott comes and stirs the pot and her head is spinning! He really hammers home that, “There’s validity to this chemical thing, and I know we can win this.”
Digest: And it seems like she comes around to his way of thinking pretty quickly.
Mills: Yeah, it’s all a weird roller coaster for Heather because she has that conversation with Scotty, and she has that conversation with Trina, which is so devastating — Trina hits her with, “I will never forgive your daughter and I will never forgive you,” and she’s feeling horrible, and I think it gives Heather a sense of what a trial could be like, going up against the people that she’s hurt. And then Laura comes in and says, “I’m going to honor what you said, I’m not going to pursue getting you a retrial.” She closes that door. But now, Heather’s wheels are spinning with, “Maybe I could have a life.” I mean, she’s been in prison for years. Not just [since I’ve been playing her], but when Robin Mattson was playing her. It’s a devastating life and I think she decides, “If there’s any possibility that I can get out, I want to get out. I’ve got to give it everything I’ve got.” That’s when she tells Elizabeth to find Scotty, and [says], “I want to see him again.” Elizabeth doesn’t know what she means by that, but the audience knows what she means. She goes from the mindset of, “I’m okay living out the rest of my days being sorry for what I did, and I’ll try to make the best out of prison” to, “I should try to do something [to regain my freedom].” But the scenes with Laura feel like she’s saying good-bye. There’s a finality to them. Laura is giving up the thought of Heather ever getting out of prison. So Heather realizes that she’s on her own.
Digest: Tell me about the experience of acting opposite Genie Francis (Laura).
Alley Mills: Well, I totally, totally love working with her. Even though I’m older than her, I feel this kind of um girlfriend chemistry from her, even though [Heather and Laura] weren’t really teenage friends in the story. She told me — because she remembers, of course, because she was actually there — that Heather and Laura were never really friends like that, but they do go way back. But you know, you just have certain chemistry with actors, and others you don’t have chemistry with, and there’s kind of nothing you can do about it. I think we do have it. She’s incredibly generous. She’s very present and she also is old-school [in her approach to the work] — she studies, she knows her lines and she thinks about them. I like that a lot and it’s fun to work with her. One day, one of our directors, Gary Tomlin, who has been in the business a really long time, came up to us and said, “You have no idea what a pleasure it is for someone like me to see two old pros like you.” There’s something about actors [who] have been around for a long time. You just work in a different way. I don’t know how to explain it, really. Susan Flannery [who played Stephanie on Bold and Beautiful, where Mills recurs as Pam] was like that. She really ran that set, and she used to say that we had to rehearse the scene three times. Way before we got to set, each actor would rehearse with the person they were doing the scene with three times. She was just absolutely adamant about it. She goes, “None of this stuff where you come and you don’t really know what you’re doing and you improvise! We won’t have it!”
Digest: And then on the opposite side of the spectrum, you’ve got the wild man of daytime, Kin Shriner (Scotty), who is all about improvisation!
Mills: He’s such a riot! I had scenes with him early on, when Heather was painting in minimum security, that was just so much fun. I never knew what was gonna happen in any of those scenes! It was like a free-for-all [laughs]! I love that kind of work, too, where it’s like, “Action!” and you just go with whatever happens. It’s very different than working with Genie, but I thought we had really hilarious chemistry.
Digest: Rebecca Herbst (Elizabeth) is another huge fan fave. What do you enjoy about working with her?
Mills: Rebecca is such a sweet human being. I adore the girl! She’s an amazing person, a caregiver. She’s one of those people that really does things for other people, amazing things, and doesn’t talk about it. She is that person. She really is like [her character] in that way. Heather loves Elizabeth; Elizabeth was married to her son [Franco] and so Heather believes that she’s family. I don’t know that Elizabeth really thinks that [laughs]! Heather perceives a lot of things that aren’t necessarily true, but that she wants to be true. But Heather loves Elizabeth and because I genuinely love Rebecca as a person, it’s fun to play that with her. And sometimes [in our scenes], I make her laugh, too. I have to tell you the truth — she sometimes has to turn to the side and burst out laughing. It’s hard for her to keep a straight face because Heather just assumes all this stuff about [Elizabeth] — that she loves me, that she’s got my back, and that I can confide in her…. I just pretend I don’t see what’s on her face [when Elizabeth looks at Heather]!
