Now that Brook Lynn (Amanda Setton) has told her husband, Chase (Josh Swickard), about the baby she gave up in her teens for adoption, the focus is shifting to Brook Lynn’s mother, Lois, who secretly handled her daughter’s private adoption after Brook Lynn gave birth to Dante’s (Dominic Zamprogna) son. Viewers know Brook Lynn’s baby grew up to be Gio (Giovanni Mazza) — and he’s living right there in the Quartermaine house. Soap Opera Digest checked in with Rena Sofer, who plays Lois, about what’s coming next for the mom who kept mum.
Soap Opera Digest: What was your reaction to this story when you first learned about it?
Rena Sofer: What’s interesting to me is that Lois left Port Charles because she did not want to raise her daughter with the lies and deception of the Quartermaines. She’s been living on that high horse for quite a long time, and now she’s going to have to deal with the fact that she isn’t on that horse anymore. You can go back in time and have the understanding that we make choices as parents that we think are really good, but once everything plays out it’s like, “Oh s—, that probably wasn’t the smartest move.” That what’s going to happen with Lois. She only meant to care for her child, and the child her child had. It was not malicious.
Digest: Do you have an opinion about the ages of Brook Lynn and Dante not really matching up when they conceived this child while at summer camp?
Sofer: No. I can make the leap — it’s not my business if other people can’t make the leap. I don’t care about the math, because how many times have we seen someone have a baby on a soap and three years later they come back and they’re a teenager? When you’re a recurring character who comes back to a show, it’s so fortunate to not be in the “serving coffee” part of the action. I’m part of a really great, interesting story that I can believe. I get to have a real say in this story, and that’s exciting.
Digest: How do you feel about Lois’s decision to keep the baby in the Cerullo family and not tell anyone?
Sofer: Lois didn’t tell anyone? We don’t know that….
Digest: Oooh, good one. Where’s Brook Lynn’s father, Ned, in all this?
Sofer: Ned’s place is coming. It’s going to be Ned and Olivia and Sonny and Dante and Tracy that are all going to have a say in the story. It plays out very slowly. Here’s Lois, the perfect “I never do anything wrong and I don’t want to be part of a family that’s so malicious and horrible!” And yet there’s no doubting that her decisions in this — while not meant with any evil intent — did not turn out like that.
Digest: How do you explain why Lois isn’t coming clean now?
Sofer: If I were a betting person, I would say it’s because she knows once she comes clean it could be the last her daughter will have anything to do with her.
Digest: How is working with Amanda Setton as Brook Lynn?
Sofer: Beyond! I love working with her. I tap into her emotional character so distinctly, like a mother would to a child. Sometimes she will say or do something that just makes me cry.
Digest: How about working with Giovanni Mazza, who plays your secret grandson Gio?
Sofer: I love him! That reveal is going to be the worst. Lying to Ned and Olivia and Brook Lynn and Dante is one thing, but lying to this boy that Lois helped grow up? That’s a completely different thing.
Digest: What do you think about how this story is playing out?
Sofer: I give such applause to Frank [Valentini, executive producer] and his writers, because so often in soap operas everyone is so segregated. We’re all separate. Yet, this story brings so many different people into the story. It unifies a number of actors in a really interesting way and I love that.
Digest: Speaking of that, Lois hiring Martin Grey and telling him the whole story was totally out of left field. How was working with Michael E. Knight (Martin)?
Sofer: That was fun. What a sleazy lawyer his character is!
Digest: How about working with Jane Elliot (Tracy)?
Sofer: Amazing! She’s lovely. She insists on running lines, so we go to her dressing room or the green room. We have too much to say to not run lines. I don’t understand actors who don’t want to do that.
Digest: What can you tease about what’s coming up?
Sofer: Someone comes to Port Charles and the story around that causes Brook Lynn to become really angry at Lois, [but] it turns out that what Brook Lynn is mad about isn’t even the main thing. So I’m like… Get ready!
ABC
The Son Also Rises: Lois is in quite the pickle now that she’s living under the same roof as her secret grandson, Gio (Giovanni Mazza), and Gio’s unwitting birth mom, Brook Lynn (Amanda Setton).
Now that Brook Lynn (Amanda Setton) has told her husband, Chase (Josh Swickard), about the baby she gave up in her teens for adoption, the focus is shifting to Brook Lynn’s mother, Lois, who secretly handled her daughter’s private adoption after Brook Lynn gave birth to Dante’s (Dominic Zamprogna) son. Viewers know Brook Lynn’s baby grew up to be Gio (Giovanni Mazza) — and he’s living right there in the Quartermaine house. Soap Opera Digest checked in with Rena Sofer, who plays Lois, about what’s coming next for the mom who kept mum.
Soap Opera Digest: What was your reaction to this story when you first learned about it?
Rena Sofer: What’s interesting to me is that Lois left Port Charles because she did not want to raise her daughter with the lies and deception of the Quartermaines. She’s been living on that high horse for quite a long time, and now she’s going to have to deal with the fact that she isn’t on that horse anymore. You can go back in time and have the understanding that we make choices as parents that we think are really good, but once everything plays out it’s like, “Oh s—, that probably wasn’t the smartest move.” That what’s going to happen with Lois. She only meant to care for her child, and the child her child had. It was not malicious.
Digest: Do you have an opinion about the ages of Brook Lynn and Dante not really matching up when they conceived this child while at summer camp?
Sofer: No. I can make the leap — it’s not my business if other people can’t make the leap. I don’t care about the math, because how many times have we seen someone have a baby on a soap and three years later they come back and they’re a teenager? When you’re a recurring character who comes back to a show, it’s so fortunate to not be in the “serving coffee” part of the action. I’m part of a really great, interesting story that I can believe. I get to have a real say in this story, and that’s exciting.
Digest: How do you feel about Lois’s decision to keep the baby in the Cerullo family and not tell anyone?
Sofer: Lois didn’t tell anyone? We don’t know that….
Digest: Oooh, good one. Where’s Brook Lynn’s father, Ned, in all this?
Sofer: Ned’s place is coming. It’s going to be Ned and Olivia and Sonny and Dante and Tracy that are all going to have a say in the story. It plays out very slowly. Here’s Lois, the perfect “I never do anything wrong and I don’t want to be part of a family that’s so malicious and horrible!” And yet there’s no doubting that her decisions in this — while not meant with any evil intent — did not turn out like that.
Digest: How do you explain why Lois isn’t coming clean now?
Sofer: If I were a betting person, I would say it’s because she knows once she comes clean it could be the last her daughter will have anything to do with her.
Digest: How is working with Amanda Setton as Brook Lynn?
Sofer: Beyond! I love working with her. I tap into her emotional character so distinctly, like a mother would to a child. Sometimes she will say or do something that just makes me cry.
Digest: How about working with Giovanni Mazza, who plays your secret grandson Gio?
Sofer: I love him! That reveal is going to be the worst. Lying to Ned and Olivia and Brook Lynn and Dante is one thing, but lying to this boy that Lois helped grow up? That’s a completely different thing.
Digest: What do you think about how this story is playing out?
Sofer: I give such applause to Frank [Valentini, executive producer] and his writers, because so often in soap operas everyone is so segregated. We’re all separate. Yet, this story brings so many different people into the story. It unifies a number of actors in a really interesting way and I love that.
Digest: Speaking of that, Lois hiring Martin Grey and telling him the whole story was totally out of left field. How was working with Michael E. Knight (Martin)?
Sofer: That was fun. What a sleazy lawyer his character is!
Digest: How about working with Jane Elliot (Tracy)?
Sofer: Amazing! She’s lovely. She insists on running lines, so we go to her dressing room or the green room. We have too much to say to not run lines. I don’t understand actors who don’t want to do that.
Digest: What can you tease about what’s coming up?
Sofer: Someone comes to Port Charles and the story around that causes Brook Lynn to become really angry at Lois, [but] it turns out that what Brook Lynn is mad about isn’t even the main thing. So I’m like… Get ready!
ABC
The Son Also Rises: Lois is in quite the pickle now that she’s living under the same roof as her secret grandson, Gio (Giovanni Mazza), and Gio’s unwitting birth mom, Brook Lynn (Amanda Setton).