General Hospital Exclusive: Kirsten Storms Helped Alexa Havins Accept Lulu & Nathan Romance

On General Hospital, Alexa Havins‘s Lulu Spencer is wracked with guilt over accidentally falling for her best friend Maxie Jones’s (Kirsten Storms) back-from-the-dead husband, Nathan West (Ryan Paevey), while Maxie lingered in a coma — and the actress admits to Soap Opera Digest that when Nathan and Lulu’s relationship began taking shape, she was worried about the forbidden romance doing damage to her character.

Reservations Only

Havins’s concern about Lulu’s reputation stemmed in part from how much the audience held Lulu responsible for the pain characters like Gio (Giovanni Mazza), Brook Lynn (Amanda Setton) and Dante (Dominic Zamprogna) felt when the truth about Gio’s parentage was revealed at last year’s Nurses’ Ball — pain they possibly could have been spared had Lulu handled things differently and not allowed Gio find out by eavesdropping on her confrontation with Lois (Rena Sofer). “I know I had a lot of Lulu hate,” she acknowledges. “Lulu was a bit like a wrecking ball, and she could have been a lot gentler.”

Lulu’s “dog with a bone” behavior to get to the truth about Gio was something Havins took in stride. “For me as an actor, I didn’t mind bringing it and coming off harsh or whatever, because it makes great story, and it gave people like Amanda [Setton] phenomenal stuff to play,” she reasons. “It just caused so much drama across the canvas and I was happy to step in and do the hard job going, ‘Well, I know the audience isn’t going to like me, but I’m gonna go and do the best job I can as an actor to make really good scenes!'”

Still, fans were quite upset with Lulu — and as Lulu and Nathan’s connection deepened, Havins feared that GH viewers would turn on Lulu for entertaining the possibility of a romance with the man Maxie had been deeply in love with when he “died” back in 2018. She sighs, “The more scripts that came through, I was like, ‘Oh no, what are we doing? I just dug myself out of the redemption hole from Gio!'”

Of course, Havins notes, “I have to make sure [in my performance] that I’m not worried about, ‘Do the fans like me?’ As an actor, that’s a disservice — and besides, some of the best characters on television are the ones that do atrocious things.”

The Great Divide

When Kirsten Storms resumed taping as Maxie following her six-month hiatus from the show, Havins expressed her reservations about the Lulu/Nathan pairing to her — and Storms helped set her mind at ease. “A lot of the conflict between Lulu and Maxie was before I was playing Lulu,” reminds Havins. “And Kirsten was telling me, ‘No, no, this makes so much sense for Maxie and Lulu!’ She was telling me how historically, Maxie’s maybe even been the one who’s done some not-so-great things to Lulu, like offering to be a surrogate for Lulu and Dante, then carrying her own baby [Georgie, played by Lily Fisher] to term and letting Lulu think it was hers. She was telling me a story about a scene where they put tape down the middle of the room and didn’t talk to each other. She was like, ‘Their relationship, as loving and as close as it is, is contentious in a way.’ What I took away from that conversation is that Maxie and Lulu fight almost as sisters would. It can get a little heated, it can get a little harsh, but no matter what is said or done, they love each other like sisters.”

That insight gave Havins permission to lean fully into the story and its potential to create a messy dynamic between Lulu and Maxie, which is exactly what happened when Lulu came clean with her BFF about her budding relationship with Nathan. “It really is great drama,” says Havins. “And it’s fun to play because when I came on as Lulu, I didn’t get much material with Kirsten, and then she took her break — which I’m so happy that she did, because everyone needs that and she loves her beautiful daughter [Harper Rose Barash, 11, with whom she relocated to Nashville, TN]. But we didn’t really get to do what I’ve heard that’s so wonderful between the two characters. It’s pretty brutal, emotionally, to play something like this from Lulu’s perspective because she’s so conflicted and there are so many emotions.”

That being said, Havins’s money is on the friends working their way through their current divide. “I would think that nothing could rock this friendship, from what I’ve heard about their history,” she says. “No matter what, they will always be there for each other. Even if it takes time, even if there’s some hurt along the way, I don’t think Lulu would ever walk away from Maxie without a fight.”

Havins is not expecting the fans to be on Lulu’s side in this particular conflict, but she’s okay with that. “My mom sent me something she saw online that was like, ‘Are you Team Lulu or Team Maxie?’ I was like, ‘Mom, everyone is gonna be Team Maxie! I’m a recast, part three, and Kirsten is so loved and adored. My best bet is to just keep doing what I’m doing. Frank [Valentini, executive producer] trusted me to bring myself to this part, so I’m just going to show up every day, act the best I can and trust the writers for a good story!”