Daytime Emmy Winner–and 2017 Lead Actress nominee–Nancy Lee Grahn gives the lowdown on Alexis’ trials, tribulations, and more on General Hospital.
A Long, Winding, and Unfortunately Alcohol-Splattered Road
Grahn spoke to Michael Fairman about a host of topics, most notably her normally straight and narrow character Alexis’s many troubles of late that have forced her to veer off course. It’s no secret that Alexis has been through the ringer lately, to put it mildly! This includes losing her law license, having her once beloved husband Julian try to kill her (ostensibly to try to protect her!), developing a debilitating addiction to alcohol, to presuming Julian was killed at the hands of his dastardly sister, Olivia Jerome–Alexis’s former faux AA sponsor. Well, it can’t get any more dizzying than that! That said, the talented Grahn is more than up to the challenges of playing Alexis!
Scheming Sis-in-Law
Grahn enjoyed the interplay with Olivia (Tonja Walker) masquerading as Alexis’s “sponsor,” Liv. Unbeknownst to Alexis, extra vulnerable at the time, having just started at AA, Liv was really the scheming Olivia Jerome. Grahn weighed in on the plot surprise.
“I thought it was very clever, and I thought it was a good twist.” However, the actress said if it were not for time constraints on the story, she would have liked for the plot to have gone on a bit longer. “It would have been really great to see those two women establish a relationship. So that when you find that she, Olivia Jerome, is ‘cuckoo lady,’ there’s more of an impact, but I think it was about timing.”
A Downward Spiral
Fairman also addressed the topic of Alexis’s alcohol addiction and how she slipped up and got drunk last week after attending meetings and staying sober. Grahn was candid in her response.
“I think it would be very unrealistic of her not to slip up,” she said. ‘There is nothing easy. It should be very messy and very challenging, in my opinion. If Alexis went into a meeting and all of a sudden she’s sober, that’s not the way it is in real life.” Grahn also said that she has much respect for people struggling with addiction and wanted the storyline to treat them with dignity.
Julian, Julian…Wherefore Art Thou, Julian?
As for Alexis’s feelings for supposedly-deceased Julian, she had this to say.
“I think she’s in a conundrum [referring to all the pain he’s brought her]. There’s that letter he left her, and it explains stuff, but it doesn’t explain enough. There is no pat way to bring this together.”
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