Genie Francis is no longer defending her General Hospital character’s controversial date rape scene. The actress, who has played Laura Spencer on the long-running soap opera since 1977, told reporters at Wednesday’s Television Critics Association presentation that she still questioned the choice to include the controversial 1979 scene in her character’s story.
In the scene, Laura is raped by Luke (Anthony Geary), but the two characters would go on to fall in love and get married. Francis, now 60, told reporters of the scene, “I don’t defend it anymore,” explaining that she was “told to play rape” as an actress when she was just 17 years old and followed that direction.
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“I didn’t even know what it was. But, at 17, you follow the rules and you do as you are told, and you aim to please. At 60, I don’t feel the need to defend that anymore,” she continued. “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 added, “I think, when a woman says ‘No,’ that she should be listened to, and if you replay that scene, you don’t have Laura just saying ‘No.’ You have her screaming ‘No.’”
Francis has spoken out against her character’s sexual assault before, recalling in the 2020 ABC special The Story of Soaps how much of an impact that storyline had on the world of soap operas. “It was such a big deal in the media and it took the country by storm,” Francis said at the time. “I’ve had to justify it for so many years and I have to say, it feels good to sit here and say I won’t justify it. It’s awful. They shouldn’t have done it.”
Francis also shared in the special that the writers had referred to the scene as a “rape seduction” at the time. “[Executive producer] Gloria Monte tried to deal with it by calling it rape seduction,” Francis explained at the time. “The term now would be date rape. The night of the rape, Luke’s last request was to dance with him, and the dance became very seductive. He took her down to the floor and that is the rape.”
