Scott Porter addressed if fans should be worried about his future on Ginny & Georgia after Paul’s fall from grace.
“I can’t promise anything. I can’t promise [Paul and Georgia are] not getting back together. I can’t promise they will,” Porter, 46, exclusively told Us Weekly at the MPTF NextGen Summer Party, which was presented by Delta Air Lines and Waymo, on Sunday, May 31. “I can’t promise it’s Joe’s baby and I can’t promise it’s Paul’s. Y’all are just going to have to tune in and see.”
Porter did tease the role his character plays on the show, adding, “Paul is a foundational element of Wellsbury, which is a town that is a character in its own right on our show. So I’m not so sure that Paul isn’t important enough to Wellsbury to at least be around.”
Ginny & Georgia originally introduced Paul as the mayor of the town — and Georgia’s (Brianne Howey) love interest. They got married before Georgia got arrested for murder and Paul’s world got turned upside down. In season 3, which premiered last summer, Georgia used daughter Ginny’s (Antonia Gentry) positive pregnancy test to trick Paul into staying with her.
Paul found out and the fictional couple got into a fight, which ended with him hitting a wall. The physical contact triggered Georgia’s PTSD from past abuse and ultimately caused some online backlash against Paul.
“Season 3 was all about Paul actually hitting rock bottom and finding out, ‘Is there anywhere else I can go?’ Then season 4 is about figuring that out and I’m not going to say that it gets better or worse for him but he has to look in the mirror and he has a reckoning,” Porter teased to Us. “That is the one word I would use for this season — for a lot of our characters — is there is a reckoning for everyone. Paul is not immune to that.”
Porter broke down Paul’s state of mind in season 3, adding, “He really felt like maybe he was bulletproof in that regard and you see him place blame at the end of season 3 but you can’t place blame for the rest of your life. Eventually you’ve got to take ownership and responsibility for the things that you do.”
The actor continued: “I’m not going to say he had the wrong reaction but I do think Paul understands he had wrong actions and he really is going to have to deal with that. He’s going to have to process that and he’s going to overcome it if he wants to continue doing what he’s done his entire life.”
Despite the strong reactions to Paul’s actions, Porter isn’t sweating it too much.
“When you’re an actor on a TV show, all you can hope for your character is that you’re challenged in new ways that you continue to keep the plates spinning. It’s up to us to keep this character alive and keep people invested,” he continued. “Of course, the writers are going to give you excellent stuff to work with but it’s really up to us to care about our characters in a way that makes the audience also connect with them. So, for me, for Paul on this show, I really just want this journey for him.”
Porter appreciated the chance to switch things up.
“If you play the same note every single day, every single week, every single episode, every single month, as a character, people are going to stop connecting with it,” he noted. “But as you change, stretch, break, mold, rebuild, more and more people are going to understand you as an actual human being. That’s all I want. That’s all I want for Paul. So the journey is where it’s at and he’s definitely on one.”
Looking ahead, Porter is excited to see what comes next, adding, “We have incredibly talented writers and we have a creator who has had a vision for our show since the very beginning. We’re seeing it come to fruition and every time we see a story line come to the front, it blossoms into 10 more story lines. The show is still going to be great and I can’t wait to be a part of it.”
Ginny & Georgia is currently streaming on Netflix.
