Eva LaRue: General Hospital's Eva LaRue gets candid about why Natalia failed with fans

General Hospital alum Eva LaRue has been everywhere lately — promoting her bruising Paramount+ documentary, juggling Q&As, and stepping into this unexpected second life as both subject and storyteller. It’s a strange sort of renaissance that arrived right as she was closing the book on one of the most controversial characters she’s ever played. And when she finally sat down and opened up about Natalia’s implosion, she didn’t dodge a thing — she went straight for the part fans have argued about for a year.

How General Hospital's Natalia was built — and broken

LaRue spoke with the Michael Fairman Channel about how quickly she realized the role she’d signed onto, Natalia Ramirez on GH, wasn’t the one she thought she’d be playing. “I had no idea when I took the role, to be honest,” she said, remembering the moment she opened her first script and froze. “Please don’t make me say it as written. I cannot even say these words.” Every part of her recoiled — the slurs, the rigidness, the snap judgments — and the show only “doubled and tripled down on it.”

She understood immediately what viewers felt. “Everybody hated my character,” she said. Coming off beloved turns on All My Children and Y&R, she felt the whiplash — going from warm familiarity to portraying someone “morally and ethically bankrupt.” And the writers didn’t hand her a rope; they kept tightening the corner.

A redemption arc that never came

General Hospital's Natalia and Sonny. | Image Source: ABC

LaRue explained that Natalia was originally a short-term role, a three-month burst that might’ve landed differently if it had stayed contained. But a writer changeover stretched things out. “I think they thought, ‘Since we have her, maybe we can redeem her.’ ” There were flickers — hints of chemistry with Maurice Benard (Sonny), ideas about complicating the judgmental exterior — but nothing ever stuck. “They never saved the character,” she said. Even she didn’t trust what Natalia would say next.

And when the audience rejected the Sonny pairing, the exit arrived fast. Still, she appreciated the chance to go out swinging: “They wrote some really great, juicy, tender, delicious final scenes for me.”

What stings LaRue most isn’t the backlash — she’s been in daytime long enough to know characters come with weather systems — but the missed opportunity. What still nags at her isn’t the noise online — she expected that — but the sense that Natalia never got a fair shake on the page. LaRue could see glimpses of a more complicated woman beneath all the chaos, someone who might have landed differently if the writers had taken the time to reveal what made her tick, instead of pushing her from one blowup to the next.

But daytime doesn’t always give you that luxury. The story turns, the tone shifts, and sometimes you’re left playing a version of a character the audience never had a real chance to connect with.

Looking back now, she doesn’t sugarcoat it. Natalia failed because she was written into a hole no actor could escape — and LaRue was brave enough to say that part out loud. (Take a look at Natalia's best GH moments.)

General Hospital can be seen weekdays on ABC and Hulu.