‘General Hospital’ Star Rory Gibson’s Thoughts on Michael’s Custody Win

Rory Gibson stepped into the role of Michael Corinthos just a few short weeks ago, and he is already at the center of one of the hottest storylines on “General Hospital.” Michael’s divorce from Willow Tait (played by Katelyn MacMullen) was granted, but more importantly, he was granted sole custody of their young children, Wiley and Amelia.

Rory Gibson spoke with Soap Opera Digest on those heated courtroom scenes, confirming that once Michael had secured custody, ”It was an overwhelming sense of relief. ‘I know my children are going to be with me and are going to be safe, and out from under the thumb of Drew, who has been manipulating the people that I care about.’”

Rory Gibson On Those Emotional Court Scenes

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Viewers of “General Hospital” were glued to the screen while those courtroom scenes between Michael and Willow played out, and Rory was just as sucked in. “I felt a weird relation to it as an actor,” he confides. “I didn’t take classes, really; I wasn’t formally taught or anything, so when it comes to acting, I honestly just try to delude myself to the point where I’m believing that what’s happening in the moment of a scene is really happening. And I feel like in those scenes in particular, I wanted Michael to do the same thing.”

The actor continued, telling Soap Opera Digest, “Even though the odds were kind of stacked against him, in his mind, Michael was like, ‘No, there’s no way [I won’t win].’ He’s nervous about it because anything could happen, but I think he had convinced himself so thoroughly that, ‘I have to win this. I’m gonna win this. I’m gonna get my kids. I have to have this situation go my way. There’s no other way it can go!’

Rory Gibson Says That Michael Still Loves Willow

While Michael may be thrilled to have his children with him, he is still struggling with his feelings for Willow. Explains Gibson, “I think that at his core, Michael still has so much love for Willow, this person that he was with for so long and cared so deeply for. So as happy as he is that the kids are going to be safe and be with him, he does have that knowledge of, ‘Life isn’t going to be simple or easy as it once was.’ And he knows that this is going to destroy Willow, and that makes him sad. But at the same time, he feels like, ‘She kind of got herself into this mess, and I have to be a little cold about this situation and keep trekking forward.’ But he does have an underlying feeling of pain and loss for Willow, because he can only imagine how it would feel if this were happening to him and he hadn’t won.”

When Michael was awarded sole custody, Willow’s full mental and emotional breakdown in court was exactly what soap fans wanted to see, and both Rory and his character were affected by it. “He feels the devastation. You know, it’s interesting, because I was curious about how I was going to play that, but it ended up not being terribly difficult to play because of how outstanding Katey [MacMullen] was in those scenes. She just knocked it out of the park. She did such an incredible job where all I had to do was just lock in on what she was doing, and it was impossible not to feel sympathy for the character, even though our characters are at odds.”

One of the biggest questions now is whether or not Willow will get any access at all to her children. The judge said that visitation will be decided after a psychiatrist interviews the children. “It’s not totally cut and dry or clear and concise,” Gibson says of the decision Michael has to make when it comes to visitation. “At the end of the day, in Michael’s opinion, she has to choose Drew or the kids. It has to be one or the other; it can’t be both. If Drew’s around, then Michael doesn’t feel like his kids are safe. If Drew isn’t around, then okay, we can have a conversation, we can have more of a dialogue. In Michael’s mind, as long as Drew is in the picture — someone who’s willing to manipulate children and spread these lies and manipulate the woman he once truly loved, no dice. It’s not gonna happen as long as he’s around.”