Anybody who doesn’t watch soap operas will definitely pick Luke and Laura from GENERAL HOSPITAL at the top of their list of daytime characters. When the characters got married in 1981, it was the most-watched daytime television show ever, a record-breaking 30 million viewers tuned in, making the soap opera supercouple a cultural phenomenon in the early 1980s. Even though Luke and Laura had a happy existence (for a while), their romance did not begin with chivalry courtship; rather, it started with Luke raping the much younger Laura in the Campus Disco after hours in 1979.
Genie Francis, who plays Laura, has frequently discussed the sexual assault Laura experienced and the contentious relationship over the years, most notably on January 11 during the Television Critics Association press tour, according to TV Line. She told reporters at GH’s panel at the press conference, “You know, as a young kid, at 17, I was told to play rape, and I performed it.” “I had no idea what it was. But when you’re 17, you play by the rules, do as you’re told, and try to please.
At the time, GH was on the fringe of being canceled by ABC. That controversial scene, however, catapulted Luke and Laura to immense popularity with the audience, turning around the soap’s lagging ratings as she fell in love with her attacker. In the years that followed, the soap glossed over the notorious scene, romanticizing it as a “forced seduction.” It wasn’t until Luke and Laura’s son, Lucky, found out nearly 20 years later in 1998 that his father had once raped his mother that the soap addressed the scene for what it was.
Francis said of her character’s violent past: “At 60, I don’t feel the need to defend that anymore.” “I think that the story was inappropriate, I don’t condone it, and it’s been a burden that I’ve had to carry to try to justify that story, and so I’m not doing that anymore.
Francis said, “I believe that when a woman says ‘No,’ that she should be respected. “And if you watch that sequence again, Laura didn’t just reply “No. She is shouting “No” at you.
Since that crucial evening in October 1979, the Laura that viewers know today has undergone significant change. Francis admitted, “I love who she is right now. “She was such a victim when she was a young woman, and to have it turn around and have her be… this strong woman who is the town mayor. She refuses to accept insults from anyone. She is a powerful woman. She serves as a positive example for other ladies. Today, Laura is the best. I still adored my Laura back then, but it had to come here.
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