General Hospital Flashback Friday: Maura West Recalls Ava On Fire

It’s hard to believe how far Ava Jerome has come in the last five or so years on General Hospital. Back in May of 2017, she was backed into a corner — literally and figuratively — desperate and angry, trying to torch her enemies, Carly and Sonny, but did the most damage to herself. Recently, her portrayer, Maura West, looked back and shared how she felt about shooting those amazing scenes.

Maura West: General Hospital Flashback Friday

The actress was asked during a Coastal Entertainment Zoom event with co-star Avery Kristen Pohl (Esme Prince) this past weekend to recall a compelling scene from her past in which something happened during the shooting of it that perhaps the fans weren’t aware of at the time. West gave it some thought and came up with a doozy from her character’s violent past.

“Well, there was an interesting scene a few years ago where Ava threw this lantern down…and Sonny [Maurice Benard] and Carly [Laura Wright] were there.” Most fans there recalled when Ava was confronted by her nemeses about tampering with their son Morgan’s pills. It happened in the storage area of her own gallery, and with the confrontation getting so intense, Ava was ready to kill.

“When they have you working with fire, they always have the fire department there, and special effects people are there. And remember Ava before she got all burned? She said, ‘No more!’ and threw this lantern down and everything went up in flames.

“Ava had to be unconscious on the floor,” she continued, laying out the scene for everyone. “I was so nervous because I could smell it, the fire was so close to me, and then someone rushed in with the fire extinguisher and put it out, and I thought, ‘how close was that…how close was that fire to me?’ And that’s the only thing I can think of that’s sort of like…the audience doesn’t know what the actor was going through. Just laying there, knowing that this fire is getting closer and closer and I can’t move, I’m supposed to be unconscious was…scary,” she laughed.

You certainly never would have known, as the scenes came off flawlessly. But oh, how things have changed since then — heck, Ava has become almost respectable and enjoys civil conversations with both Carly and Sonny these days. A lot can certainly change in five years, but one thing that never changes on General Hospital is how incredible Maura West continues to be as Ava Jerome.