“General Hospital” actress Eva LaRue (Natalia Ramirez) is exiting the daytime drama series later this week when her character’s ultimate fate is determined after she ingested a cocktail of pills and alcohol on the Monday, June 30 episode.
In an interview with Soap Opera Digest, LaRue says she got an inkling that things were shifting toward an exit in January after the show’s writers tried to rehabilitate her character, who arrived in Port Charles last year fully against her daughter, Blaze (Jacqueline Grace Lopez), having a same-sex relationship with Kristina Corinthos-Davis (Kate Mansi). Natalia’s homophobia was called out a few times by several residents and numerous fans alike. Incidentally, the writers decided to introduce another of Natalia’s children, a son named Marco (Adrian Anchondo), who is also gay.
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“They tried to rehabilitate my character and then all of a sudden, I have these scenes in January where, because Natalia had lied about her ex-husband [Sidwell, played by Carlo Rota] and broken his trust, Sonny [Maurice Benard] was like, ‘We can’t be friends anymore.’ And I thought, ‘Uh-oh, there we go,’ because that [relationship with Sonny] was kind of my character’s only lifeline.”
The romance between Natalia and Sonny was virtually dead on arrival, LaRue admits, noting, “People just weren’t buying it, because they just hated my character so much.” She added, “I was so vilified that no matter what [the writers] did, it just wasn’t a solid enough rehabilitation that they were gonna buy me with Sonny. And so when they finally let that idea go, I realized, ‘Okay, I’m probably not much longer for this world.’”
Comparing her experience as Natalia on “General Hospital” to that of her former daytime role as Dr. Maria Santos Grey on “All My Children,” LaRue says, “When you play a character like Maria Santos, love her or hate her, she was not ever meant to be a vilified character. And so it was hard from being that character, being a fan favorite, to being, like, literally hated. The ‘GH’ fans couldn’t stand [Natalia]! So that was tough, because especially if you are accustomed to being rooted for, to be rooted against is not as comfortable.”
Though she knows her character was not well received by the fans of the show, she does appreciate the loyalty they have at the same time.
“They love, love, love their show and they may not like what your character’s doing, but the majority of the fans that would come on my page were really kind and they would just say, ‘We don’t like your character, we don’t like that she’s this horrible mom, but we like the story and we like the turmoil and the chaos and we like watching it all go down.’ So, they see it for what it is, which is this whole, big-picture storyline. I do think the majority of the General Hospital fans are really good fans because they see the whole picture, and they don’t have to love you to love what’s going on, because they know it all serves the story.”
A long-time friend of several of the show’s cast, and even executive producer Frank Valentini, LaRue will never forget her experience with the show, saying, “I had a blast at ‘General Hospital.’ I loved being there and I had a lot of really great scenes and I loved everybody that I got to work with. It was just an awesome experience, and I was really glad that I got to stay longer than I was supposed to.”
In a statement released to Digest, Valentini said, “Eva’s been a dear friend for years and I am so pleased we found an opportunity to work together!” He added, “What originally was meant as a guest star arc turned into a longer and more satisfying arc, in thanks to Eva’s terrific work and chemistry with our cast. I was thrilled Eva was available to us in this extended role. I wish her all the best in her upcoming projects.”
