Soap hopper Eva LaRue came in with guns blazing earlier this year when she joined the cast of General Hospital as Blaze’s mother, Natalia. Ahead of her debut, LaRue noted that her storyline would be very “topical” — and over the past few months, viewers have learned that Natalia is actually quite a bit of a homophobe who is not supportive that her daughter, Alison, is gay and in a relationship with Kristina. During a sit-down with Maurice Benard (Sonny) on his State of Mind series, LaRue opened up about the challenges she’s faced playing her latest daytime character.
“She couldn’t be more different than me, that’s for sure,” admitted LaRue, whom daytime fans also remember from her roles as All My Children’s Maria Santos and The Young and The Restless’ Celeste Rosales. “So far, the character’s been so defensive. That’s the hard thing for me as the actress. She’s so defensive of her bigotry, which is really just tough.”
LaRue went on to explain that she grew up “the exact opposite” of her GH alter ego and views members of the LGBTQ+ community as “beautiful individuals and souls. I’ve always thought that.”
One day, she continued, the opportunity presented itself to read between the lines she was given to say and LaRue made an acting choice that she hopes may one day pay off in redeeming Natalia as Alison’s mother. “It wasn’t even on the page. There was the tiniest opening and I thought, ‘I’ve got to take it,’” the GH star recalled. “My character was talking about how this is the way she grew up, and the way she had been indoctrinated was that religiously, there was something wrong with you. I thought, in this moment before I snap back into being defensive, I’m going to be wounded by it. Like a shaking little child, like somebody’s telling me, ‘It’s wrong and you can’t think this!’ I thought, I’m going to let her be as vulnerable as she can while thinking about her daughter. Like, she is really trying to justify this perfect little baby and that she was taught to think that there is something wrong with her. And she hates herself for it.”
The emotion LaRue displayed as Natalia in that scene was not scripted, but the Daytime Emmy winner is optimistic that she may get more moments like that in the future. “I hope they play that a little bit, give me more opportunity,” she confessed, adding with a laugh, “God I hope I’m redeemed. There’s got to be some redeemable quality [about Natalia].”
Stay tuned to see if Natalia might be influenced by her friendship with Sonny to be more accepting of Alison and Kristina as a couple!
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