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General Hospital

Laura Wright Opens up About Her Big Break!

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She’s now a Daytime Emmy Award-winning actress for her work as Carly on GENERAL HOSPITAL, but back in 1991, Laura Wright was just a soap fan who auditioned for one of her favorite shows! While holding down four different jobs at the time, she also did a little modeling on the side and an agent asked her to audition on tape with some other girls for a role on LOVING. Although initially reluctant because she was so busy, Wright agreed and that’s what changed her life forever!

“A week later, they called me in for a screen test,” she recalled to Soap Opera Digest. “I had no idea what that was. So I went and I auditioned, which is a crazy story in itself. I carried around a disposable camera taking pictures with everyone. Even Susan Lucci (Erica, ALL MY CHILDREN) — I stalked her down the hallways because I was a fan! I watched LOVING every day. I think the audition itself was like, the second on my list because I was so excited to meet, like, Lisa Peluso (Ava), you know, watching her every day. Noelle Beck (Trisha), oh my God! I was going crazy!”

Following her screen test, Wright found herself confident that she was going to get the part, and just a couple of days later, she got the news! “I was working at the gas station,” she revealed. “I was like, sweeping the floor or stocking something. And when I answered the phone, they asked to speak to Ally Rescott, and that was the name of the character. And she was like, ‘Pack your bags right now! You have to be in New York by 5 o’clock tonight. You start work tomorrow morning!’”

LOVING Kate Ally Ava
Wright — then Laura Sisk — joined LOVING’s Rescott family.Getty

Having been a fan, actually getting to be on LOVING was like a dream come true for the young actress. “The first night after I worked, Rena Sofer (Rocky; now Quinn, THE BOLD & THE BEAUTIFUL) saw me wandering the hallways,” Wright confided. “She goes, ‘Do you know where you are or what’s happened to your life?’ And I”m like, ‘No!’ She said, ‘Well, is there anyone you want to meet?’ and I was like, ‘Hayley from AMC!’ So she calls Kelly [Ripa] and she’s like, ‘Hey, a fan got a job, and let’s take her out tonight.’

“So we go to some diner,” she continued, “[and] I’ll never forget, they got like, salads and water and I got a Coke and a cheeseburger and french fries and they were like, ‘She’ll learn…’ And boy, were they right! That night we just hung out and went back to Rena’s place and had a good time. That was 30 years ago.”

As her career in daytime continued, Wright was one of the few LOVING cast members to make the transition to its spinoff THE CITY, and then joined the cast of CBS sudser GUIDING LIGHT before eventually landing at GH where she continues to deliver powerhouse performances to this day. But the Emmy-winner admitted that 30 years ago she never could have predicted this would be how things would turn out.

“When I look back now, it was some rough times,” Wright confessed. “I sat alone in my apartment and was sad a lot because I left this life that I knew — even though life is amazing and it changed, I had no idea how to act! I mean, God bless Nada Rowand (Kate) and Eric Woodall (Matt), and Lisa Peluso that worked with me and taught me how to do what I do. That they kept me on the show is mind-boggling, it really is, because I had no training and no idea what I was doing!

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